Discovering and Defining Our Ethics
What is the Source of Our Choices?
I am sure that you have pondered the questions, “What is life all about?” and “Why do people act the way they do?” I recall as a young man sitting around with fellow students after a few introductory college classes in psychology struggling to understand the great insights we had just received. Parsing the potent forces of nature and nurture could create many hours of stimulating conversation. The real meat and potatoes of the discussion would invariably involve the examination of why some people choose good conduct and others something less. And, what defines good conduct? What is bad conduct? Who made the rules? Are right and wrong universal truths? Do unique situations allow different standards of conduct? What are morals and values? What constitutes character? What is virtue and why should we care?
Reflecting back to those intense college days, I recall reading a book on Social Darwinism, a survival of the fittest approach to how human character and behavior have developed or evolved over time. Through conflict over the ages, those behaviors
and character traits best suited for social success prospered and became benchmarks for society as a whole. Certainly there is a lifetime’s worth of reading available on the subject and to me most of it makes perfect sense.
What is life all about? To me it is about constant choosing. The anchors and framework of my choice-making process comes from my belief that the Jesus of the New Testament lived, and that every second of his life serves as an example of what good means. I believe that we all reach an age of accountability where we understand what is right and what is wrong.
It’s About Choices
Baring infirmity, everyone has the ability to choose good conduct. There are established values, principles, laws and rules that have developed over many centuries of social evolution and I believe emanate from divine origins. The tools to discern the good choice from the bad choice are in most people’s intellectual capacity. The how-to is usually not the issue; it is the want-to that often comes up short.
What motivates people to do good? I have to believe that there is some risk-reward tradeoff thinking going on: self-respect versus guilt, liberation versus burden, happiness versus depression. What I have learned in
35 years of working in the credit union movement is that the more good we do, which in our case we define as “putting people’s needs before profit,” the better our cooperative performs. It is the “do good to do well” concept.
My closing thoughts on this issue come from a story I first heard in Sunday school many years ago. It is the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story I think reflects the essence of ethical behavior.
Who Is My Neighbor?
As it goes, a trail from Jerusalem to Jericho was quite treacherous. It was a major trade route and thieves were ever present seeking an opportunity to rob travelers anytime the possibility arose. A man described as a Samaritan was making his way along the trail when he came upon another man lying off to the side who had been severely beaten. Many others had seen the man but passed him by. The Samaritan stopped and assisted the beaten man, helped to bind his wounds and took him to a nearby inn. He continued to nurse the injured man and then gave the innkeeper some money to cover the costs of continuing to care for the victim, and even promised to come back by and pay the innkeeper more money if it was required.
While there are many theological concepts in this simple story, the ethical test is so very clear. While others passed the beaten man not wanting to get involved, their thinking was probably something like this…What will happen to me if I stop and help? The Good Samaritan was likely thinking…What will happen to him if I don’t stop and help? Ethical behavior comes from caring for others, and realizing that a society that cares about each other will provide greater opportunities for personal success.
At the macro level we all have much to gain by fair dealings and ethical behavior. Business as we know it grinds to a stop when we lose trust and doubt that others are choosing to do what is right and good. While rules are helpful and support the ability to make the “good choice,” caring enough about others to make the “good choice” is the critical and necessary motivating element.
David Brock is the president of Community Credit Union.
