Article: The Dilemmas of Trying to Live Ethically

Question: How does this article relate to your decisions and lifestyle?

I agree with the author that people can’t live ethically all the time; there will be moments in which people will choose to act against their own moral values or perhaps they live in a world where they can never act on their own values. And that goes for me too. Sometimes I’ll just act unethical. If the best people can do for now is to be just “good enough”, then let them be “good enough”. Maybe the “good enough” will become “good” or “better” or maybe it won’t. And I agree with that.

It relates to me because it talks about some of the issues I face with trying to live ethically and it tries to answer those dilemmas. And it’s nice to have some kind of basis on what I should do if I face an ethical decision in the future. And I also relate to the fact that whenever I’m not living ethically and other people are and then I feel the “silent judgment” even though I know that they aren’t judging me but I still feel it anyways. It’s nice to know that there are other people out there who feel the same discomforting feeling and guilt.

It’s also nice to know the seedy/ darker side of the story, even if you won’t be able to forget. At least you’ll know and not stay ignorant.

However, there are always things that you can change. If you find out a daily action of yours causes harm or goes against your moral values, you have the opportunity and choice to stop and find a better option. That is the only thing I disagree with. People can be “good enough” but within that “good enough” they can be a better brand of “good enough”. The author of the article didn’t try that hard. Small things to make yourself feel “morally good”.

If I find out that a website that I order from uses slaves, then I have a choice to stop using that website. And I probably will. Because my comfort and smaller usage of money on this site does not justify me using it. I am just one person, but if I stop using this site, the site will lose one customer and it’ll show to the other customers also have the choice to stop and it stops the excuse that they can’t stop using the site for whatever reason.

The author could’ve also done the same. Maybe embracing one’s limits is important in self-acceptance and the first step in being slightly ethical, but that doesn’t mean you can stop there. I feel like people should try to stretch those limits, find ways around them, break through them. If everyone just does “good enough” then the world will never become better. Maybe knowing how crappy we are as humans and people is indeed an important realisation to have, but we should always try to be better. It doesn’t have to be drastic.

However, sometimes it’s just really hard to do that and while people should try, if they fail, then that’s okay too.

It’s a really confusing thing to think about and to understand and to explain.