NorthGate College 10th Anniversary Awards Ceremony Learning Resource Centre, UWI, St. Augustine

Saturday 25th April 2009
Feature Speaker: Dr. Terrence Farrell
Feature Address: Doing It Right

Introduction

In recent months we have witnessed some embarrassing moments in the ethical life of this country.  We saw the resignation en masse of the Integrity Commission following the judgment of a high court judge that the Commission had acted unfairly and was guilty of misfeasance in public office.  The action of these commissioners, who individually and personally had nothing to do with the incident which was the subject of judicial censure, was highly commendable and exemplary.  We also saw more recently the spectacle of the Minister of Finance refusing to budge in the face of allegations of conflict of interest.  These recent incidents are merely the latest episodes in the saga of a country where it seems that a disproportionate number of our leaders and supposed exemplars are found wanting in the face of ethical challenges.  Recall, if you will, that the current leader of the Opposition and a former prime minister is still facing charges relating to the Integrity in Public Life Act, that a former finance minister and top insurance company executive are still dealing with charges in connection with the Piarco Airport matter.  Two former ministers in the PNM administration of 2002 to 2007 were charged with corruption offences.  And the list goes on.  The Uff Commission of Inquiry into UDECOTT and the construction industrylooks set to reveal more of the same.

What is going on here?  We daily lament the high and rising murder toll because it is out of proportion to a society of our size.  Our corrupt and unethical behaviours, though not measured in the same discrete units as murders, would also seem to be out of proportion for a country of this size.  I want to be clear that I am not at all suggesting that corruption and unethical behaviour do not occur in other countries.  In India, the CEO of the IT outsourcing company Satyam, B. Ramalinga Raju, invented assets on the balance sheet of that listed company to deceive the auditors and investors alike.  In the USA recently, the Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, attempted to ‘sell’ the senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.  In true and quick American style, he was impeached and removed from the office of governor, and has recently been indicted.  Bernie Madoff, the author of a US$50 billion Ponzi scheme was arrested, indicted and is now in jail, all in a matter of months.  And Allen Stanford, the Antigua-based financier of West Indies cricket, is facing indictment in the USA for an alleged similar offence.  One thing that we should note is that in the USA, justice is swift and sure and does not respect ‘high office’.  Governors and millionaires alike will face jail.  Not so here, but that is another topic for another time. 

I would like to spend the time this evening exploring how it is that decent, intelligent people end up making poor ethical choices.  The topic is worthy of consideration because it is not improbable that some one of you here this evening could find himself or herself in an ethically compromised position, and you might then hear your friends say “But how she could do that?”  or “That is not the person who attended Northgate College with me.”
I would like to identify three approaches which can lead us astray in doing the right thing.

A.            Defining right and wrong by what everybody else is doing.

It is well known and understood that we are all influenced by peer pressure, from the clothes we wear, the things we eat, the entertainment we consume.  In his important book ‘Tipping Point’, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the ways in which innovations –social, cultural, technological – become part of the mainstream.  IPods and Blackberries, Facebook and Twitter, spread virally throughout society once the innovation passes the tipping point.   What is significant however, is that the spread of these innovations is bound up with social status or being ‘cool’.  The young person is not ‘cool’ if they are not on Facebook or using Twitter, or wearing three-quarter baggy pants below the hips.  The businessman is not ‘cool’ unless he has his Blackberry attached to his hip.  What happens with iPods and Blackberries, also happens with ideas and moral judgments.  It is easier to adopt a position on an issue if we feel that the majority holds that view or position.   Taking this approach is not just laziness.  It is economical of one’s time and effort to think through complex issues if we simply adopt the majority view, because we assume that someone has already thought it through and because everyone else thinks so, it must be the correct thing to think or do.

B.            Defining right and wrong by what a ‘powerful other’ says is right or wrong

When we are children, our interaction with the world and with the people we encounter in the world is shaped by what our parents tell us.  Parents are powerful forces in the lives of children, mostly for good but sometimes not.  As we grow older, other powerful influences begin to shape our thoughts and our actions – our teachers, our religious leaders, our bosses at the office, and even what we consume on television, radio and the newspapers.  As some of what we hear and see conflicts with what our parents told us, or challenges what our parents told us, we may either develop a healthy skepticism for all information and moral injunctions, or we may become susceptible to the influence of a significant person or institution. What that person says is right or wrong, we take to be correct without further examination or the application of critical independent thought, or without the application of certain principles.  We revert to being children as far as our ethical conduct is concerned.

This is not to be underestimated.  Progress through life requires us to become ‘child-like’ over and over again as we move through new experiences.  Just we when you come into secondary school, the status you had at primary level is immediately lost and you are the youngest, least experienced and smallest in the college.  When you leave secondary school and get to university, you are a freshman, once again the youngest and least experienced.  When you move into a new job, you are again like a child, the youngest and least experienced.  At each of these stages, you open yourself to be influenced in many ways in the course of learning, including influence on social behaviours and ethical conduct.  Binge drinking, smoking, taking drugs, sex are the kinds of behaviours to which the young university student or the young recruit to the business may be exposed.

C.            Defining right and wrong by what I think is right or wrong.

In both of the previous cases, we are influenced by someone else, either by the crowd, so that there is safety in the majority view, or by a powerful person in our lives.  In some cases however, some people may elect to be influenced by their own thinking.  These are sometimes the trendsetters, the ones who start the movement because they are unconcerned about what the rest of us think of them.  They have little of what is termed ‘human respect’.  They answer not to a higher power or to society, or to family and friends, but they answer only to themselves.
Given the dangers of following the crowd or following a powerful leader, this position might at first seem to be attractive.  But it is profoundly dangerous!  Moral or ethical conduct is defined in the context of our relationships with other members of a community. A hermit living alone in a cave has no ethical dilemmas or conflicts to resolve because nothing he does impacts anyone else.  The person who defines right and wrong solely by what he or she thinks is right or wrong is, by definition, not taking into account the position, feelings of others.  It is purely selfish, no matter how well intentioned or even apparently altruistic – “I am doing this for your own good”.

Principles of Morality

Is there an answer to this problem?  Many persons, religious thinkers and philosophers, have wrestled with this problem for centuries.  I am not going to provide any answer because some problems are not like problems in mathematics or physics which have a single specific answer.  What I think we can distil from the efforts of religious leaders,  philosophers and people who advise others on how to live their lives fruitfully are the following:-

1. Be Principled.  Our ethical conduct must be based on certain principles; these principles do not provide absolute certainty in addressing moral issues (so that we have an answer in the mathematical sense), but they do assist us in firstly recognizing that we have a moral problem or dilemma, and secondly, in framing how we might respond.  What is an example of such a principle?  One familiar principle of human action is ‘Honesty’.  Another easy and evident principle is ‘Avoiding Inflicting Harm or Injury’.  Another which is somewhat more complex is ‘Fairness’.  Some principles may be very hard to interpret and put into action.  Many of you will be familiar with the Star Trek TV series.  The Star Trek officers must always obey the Prime Directive which is that “There must be no interference with the internal affairs of any alien civilization which they encounter.”  That principle guides the action of the fictional Star Trek officers in their encounters with other civilizations.  But it is difficult to carry this out easily. Where do these principles come from?  I suspect they emerge from human experience with the bad consequences of doing the opposite of what these principles enjoin.  Some principles, like the ‘Non-Interference’ principle of Star Trek may have emerged from the experience of internecine warfare among tribes and nations over centuries.  Of all the persons we meet in life, the ones who are least likely to lead us astray are our parents.  We can also look to the principles as articulated within our particular religious tradition.  It is not that parents or religious leaders do not sometimes fail us.  They certainly do, but in a world where we need to have some anchors for our lives, parents and religious leaders are the best that are available. 
2. Be Sceptical.  Most of the ethical issues we encounter in life are fairly easy, but many are not.  They pose profound dilemmas which are difficult to resolve.  The apparently ‘easy’ answer may not be that easy.  The very fact that we are troubled or anguished about a decision we have to take tells us that the answer is not easy.  So that it is important to approach ethical issues with a sceptical mind because the principles we use to address the problem do not cover every specific case that we might encounter in life.  Indeed, as human society progresses, ethical issues are being thrown up which have never before been encountered.  Is it right to harm animals to progress scientific discoveries?  What about embryonic stem cell research which may cure now incurable diseases like Parkinson’s?
3. Be Humble.  It is difficult even with a clear mind and armed with sound principles to sort out the problems life throws at us.  Should a parent seek to put out of the home a drug addicted adult son who steals and sells the family’s possessions?  When the problem affects us personally, or when we ourselves are the problem (for someone else), then it becomes even more difficult to think clearly and avoid reacting entirely emotionally.  We must be humble enough to seek counsel and advice.  Here again a parent or religious leader is the best bet, but indeed a good friend who can be objective can assist in helping us sort through the dilemma we may be facing.

Conclusion

Doing right is not easy.  If it were, our societies would be perfect.  In fact doing right is very, very hard indeed.  Sometimes Life will throw you an ethical problem of immense proportions.  I commend to you the film Sophie’s Choice with my favorite actress Meryl Streep as a Polish Jew in World War II in which she is required by a Nazi officer to choose between her young son or her young daughter.   If you haven’t seen it, watch the film and think about what you would do in such a circumstance.

You are about to enter into another phase of your lives in which you will be the youngest and least experienced and therefore susceptible to the influence of the crowd and/or the influence of a powerful person.  You will be confronted with situations you have never faced before and you will need to figure out what is the right thing to do.  I know that your education at this college has prepared you very well to meet some of those challenges.  Indeed you are better prepared than most other students.  But I hope that I have helped you to appreciate that there will be occasions in the coming years where you will need to reinforce the principles of right action that you were taught here, when you will need to be sceptical about what others are telling you that you should or should not do, and when you will have to be humble and seek advice and counsel to deal with a personal conflict.
I wish you all the best in your future endeavours. God Bless.