"The following book excerpt is from “Behaving Badly: The New Morality in Politics, Sex and Business,” by Eden Collinsworth, published by Doubleday/Nan A. Talese in 2017.
"Edie Weiner is acknowledged in the United States as one of the most influential practitioners of social, technological, and political trend spotting. I have flown from London to New York to ask her whether there are correlations between morality and ethics, and the law and justice.
"Ms. Weiner first wants to make sure I understand what I’ve managed to conclude on my own: that morality differs from ethics, but that neither is the same thing as justice. “And there’s no guarantee justice and the law are the same,” she warns.
"I ask Ms. Weiner if she thinks human nature—greed, in particular—instigates our attempts to outwit the law.
"“It’s many people’s human nature to do precisely that, and many people’s not to,” she says. “Selfishness cannot be kept in check without altruism, and humankind can’t progress without the two: selfishness and altruism. It’s only when the two are in balance that we get ahead.”
"“And morality?”
"“Morality is what you’re answerable to within yourself, whatever that higher order is . . . something exercised by an individual that says to him or her, ‘Even though this is not against the law, I shouldn’t do this.’ ”
"“What about ethics?”
"“Ethics exist in order to bind together people in a given society by providing behavioral consistency and solidarity. Ethics have penalties attached if you don’t abide by them. Ethics are situational. They’re opportunistic. They’re politically based and are dictated by people with power in a particular arena. It could be business. It could be the law. It could be the military.”
"I tell Ms. Weiner that from what I’ve seen in my travels, ethics are almost entirely relative to place. China performs executions on a regular basis; America does so now and again, depending on state-by-state legal variants. Most countries in Europe never do. The Middle East is a veritable execution bazaar. Are Europeans the most moral? I want to know, but instead ask Ms. Weiner if she thinks there’s validity in moral absolutes.
"“People have a societal take on moral absolutes,” she tells me. “I think that’s why people in America who can afford it are moving into communities that are like-minded. Unfortunately, those like-minded communities are breeding future generations of people who believe as they do, as opposed to a broader-thinking society of mixed races and religions. It’s what’s pulling us apart.”
"An idealist who grew up in the 1970s, at one time Ms. Weiner embraced the belief that separate cultures in a shared, diverse society should merit equal respect and an equal say. Now she wonders whether, in its rush to accommodate multiculturalism, America’s ideology has led to its institutional and political failure.
"To many, this might be construed as an un-American way of thinking; after all, the pursuit of happiness is a cornerstone of America’s Declaration of Independence. But while it’s true that no other country but America has evolved so many different ways for citizens to remain individuals, it’s also true that its conflicting values have created a polarized climate. I ask Ms. Weiner how, in a nation’s racial and cultural mishmash, she proposes we reframe moral issues.
"...Ms. Weiner tells me that people should not be forced to relinquish their cultural identity when they immigrate but that a more effective approach to cultural integration is required than currently exists. She tells me that there are two important things to understand about a culture: its rewards and its punishments. America—a nation whose founding principles recognized the individual—has not forsaken the individual, but it has become less concerned with that individual’s background, his or her beliefs, and what he or she learned at home or in church.
"“In effect, our country’s policies and laws are beginning to say that if you want to belong, these are the rules. We don’t care about your Confederate flag, your religious beliefs, your sexual beliefs—these are the rules of this cultural society. Get used to it.”
"Staring intensely at the floor, she looks up with an expression that tugs at sadness.
"“That won’t rid us of prejudice,” she tells me. “People will always need to create others.”
"Leaving Ms. Weiner’s office during Manhattan’s rush hour, I join a dense herd of humanity trying to get home. As I head toward the bus stop down the block, a shrill sound of angry horns is directed at a man holding up traffic by double-parking his truck. A cabdriver, stuck directly behind the truck, has gotten out of his cab, presumably to take his complaint directly to the source of the problem. The two men begin to shout at each other: not an unusual method of expression on New York City streets. As an on-and-off New Yorker, I, too, have, on occasion, handled my own skirmishes there with a variety of unattractive words, but what the truck driver yells at the dark-skinned cabdriver shocks me to the core.
"“Get out of my country!” is what I hear for the first time in a city where virtually everyone has come from some other place."
Comments
Post a Comment