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http://www.lincolndailynews.com/images/frontpage/killebrew2.jpgSliding morality


By Jim Killebrew

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[December 17, 2014]  "There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death." (Proverbs 14:12)

In the middle of the last century a fellow by the name of Joseph Fletcher wrote a book titled, Situation Ethics where he purports ethical considerations are defined from within the context of a particular behavior. Some of his work, along with others of the period, drew inspiration from the works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher, from whom others have taken his work on relativism to apply to the application of behaviors being "relative" to context and nature. From the works of Fletcher and Hegel the Western philosophical paradigm changed from Absolute moral values to that of relativity.
 


In short, relativity or situational ethics, allows for the shifting of standards of behavior to move from an unmovable, Absolute moral, ethical standard to one that shifts as it is defined within the context of what is happening at the moment of the behavior. Briefly, a few examples of the contrast between the values of Absolute versus Relative standards include the Absolute of it being wrong to steal from others. The relative view allows some to steal through looting from retail businesses if the offended party sincerely believes they have been unjustly treated by those they perceive as having gained their advantage economically through unfairly taking advantage of those who "need" to steal in order to survive.

This rationale can be seen in workers who are working in a factory where they believe they are entitled to take some of the product home with them simply because the rich person who owns the factory has likely "stolen" from the "rightful" owners to become enriched by the sweat of the workers. That division of class struggles is considered ethically moral because of the situation in which the workers find themselves; they are therefore justified to "steal" from the owner and still consider themselves moral. This process also works for almost every aspect of life and actions. It is actually taught each day in our public education process where every action is measured right or wrong between actions of individuals and the situation in which those actions are carried out.

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It is no surprise our country is in a debate now regarding our position in the world regarding the consequences of the release of the CIA report outlining "enhanced interrogations" as related to torture. Human nature is created with choices. Those choices create a continuum of actions with each person deciding morality and ethical conclusions based on the relativity and situations in which those actions are carried out. In the absence of an Absolute Standard designed by and delivered by an All-Righteous God, we are only left with making individual decisions regarding our behavior and are left to accept others' behaviors as their personal relative morality.
 
 As the Proverb suggests, we live with our leaders telling us, "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period." Eventually, having no moral compass but that of each individual making the decision for himself, we will reach our ruin in the end. Is it any wonder the masses of people in the world can be thought of as "stupid" by the elite?

[By JIM KILLEBREW]

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