Do you feel safe?

I 'm a Rocket Man!

My morning ritual is to wake up in the morning, and sit up in bed, drink coffee, work on homework, pet my 14 year old dachshund Otto, and watch the morning news while I am waiting for my turn in the shower. This morning I was watching a news story reporting on the 34 missile officers from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana who were caught cheating on advancement exams. NBC News had reported that “the military has stripped the certification and security clearances of 34 officers at a Montana missile base after uncovering what it believes is the largest cheating scandal ever to hit the nuclear force”(Miklaszewski & Kube, 2013). These officers were accused of text messaging back and forth during the examination, sharing answers and discussing the text.  I do not know why in this day and age that this surprised me, but I just sat there and shook my head.  Bewildered. Confused. Disappointed. These were my feelings. I am just disappointed in the decisions that people make when trying to get ahead in life.  My first thought was that if a person has to cheat in order to get ahead, then they are probably not qualified for the job in the first place. This was a sad case of poor decision making, and unquestionably poor ethics.

Uh... I feel stupid now!

These personnel are entrusted with our safety as a country, and our lives as individuals.  As a nation, no, as an individual, do you feel safe knowing that those entrusted to keep us safe have questionable ethics? Svara (2007) discusses in Combating corruption, encouraging ethics: a practical guide to management ethics the principles that serve as an alternative in the ethical triangle within his principle-based approach. Examples of these western-culture principles include truth telling, promise keeping, the sanctity of the individual, the sanctity of life, and justice (p. 25). If I were to ponder the principles within this approach, I would have to come to the following conclusions: 

• Did these servicemen and women tell the truth… no, they did not;
• Did these servicemen and women keep their promise? no, they did not;
• Did these servicemen and women respect the sanctity of the individual? I do not believe they did;
• Did these servicemen and women respect the sanctity of life? I am not sure; 
• Finally, did these servicemen and women receive justice? I hope they do.

These servicemen and women decided to take a short cut in order to advance their careers. A cheat. A lie. A fallacy. Do you still feel safe

An alternative in contrast to the principle-based approach would be the utilitarianism. Utilitarianism suggests that “An action is right or wrong depending on its consequences” (Richter & Burke, p. 25). Unlike principle-based, utilitarianism can be taken with greater subjectivity, as in my mind, any action could be considered acceptable… if you do not get caught doing them. If these servicemen and women never were caught, utilitarianism may suggest that what they did was appropriate, or at least, acceptable. This alternative in the ethical triangle suggests that “when examining utilities for society as a whole, the preferred choice is that   which produces the greatest good for the greatest number” (p. 25). Reading this tells me that it is ok for these servicemen and women to cheat on their testing, if the result, which would be them being placed in a position of higher responsibility, is for the greater good. 

Do you still feel safe?

Let’s take a moment and apply the utilitarian approach to your own life. We’ll start slow, and ease into it. If you drive over the speed limit in order to get to work on time, would it be OK if you don’t get caught?  Let’s go a little further, here.  If you decided to have an affair, would it be OK as long as you do not get caught?  Hmm.  OK, let’s go completely over the line.  What if you were to commit murder? Would it be considered acceptable IF the person you murdered was really bad? I mean, like child molester bad? OK, I offer my apology if I offended anybody, but it seems like utilitarianism could be taken to that extreme. If you do not get caught, it must be OK, right?  Wrong!

My thought process is very similar to that of a principle-based approach: tell the truth, keep your promises, respect the sanctity of life and the individual, and fight for and respect justice.

That’s all for now.  Have a great week!

References

Miklaszewski, J., & Kube, C. (2013, January 15). 34 nuclear missile officers cheated on tests, Air Force says. Retrieved from NBC News: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/15/22317264-34-nuclear-missile-officers-cheated-on-tests-air-force-says?lite

Richter, W. L., & Burke, F. (2007). Combating corruption, encouraging ethics: a practical guide to management ethics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.