The Ethical Issue

Seven big moral questions right now: where do you stand?

Ethics are boring. That’s the way ethical quandaries are often presented — as the tedious truths you’d rather not have to think about, the still small voice that ruins your fun. If anything, ethics demands that we not just be present to the moment, but rather look to consequences, supply chains, fair trade, behind-the-scenes exploitation, and other considerations that can cool our enthusiasm and weigh on our conscience. And even that presumes that in advanced global capitalism we can know enough the implications of our consumption habits to make sound ethical choices in the first place.

The U.S. sitcom The Good Place played around with this theme to great effect; in it, Chidi Anagonye — a nice guy and painstakingly conscientious Professor of Moral Philosophy who agonized over doing the right thing — wound up in hell anyway, in part because of his crippling indecisiveness (too worried about making the ethical choice to do much of anything, good or bad), but also because given the complex Afterlife points system that dictated who went to heaven and who was tortured for eternity, it was impossible to track the ultimate and varied ripple effects of any given action.

So in the absence of clear answers to many of today’s ethical dilemmas, what’s a person who aspires to do no harm supposed to do? It’s been suggested that the rise of conspiracy theories we’re seeing around the world are in part a result of ethics fatigue — for those who believe in them, they provide “exits from dilemmas,” an escape from feeling responsible for the state of the world (as all adults should) while also overwhelmed by the available choices.

But I wonder: Can we get beyond the tired framing of ethical choices as a kind of abstinence from something it would be more pleasurable or profitable to do? Can we see making the right ethical choice as an act that frees us up to be our best and highest selves, and helps others do the same?

As someone whose “Don’t tell me what to do!” reflex is easily triggered, I’m not eager to be lectured, and I don’t like feeling…