We probably wouldn’t be faulted for thinking that the concept of ”ethics“ has largely gone out of style — ethics being defined as rules of behavior based on ideas of what is morally-right or -wrong, codes of behavior that lead to just and harmonious relationships between individuals or among groups, behavior that does no harm.
Self-serving or unprincipled behavior remain so prevalent and evident that it seems that many are able to dispense with any notion at all of ethics.
That concern was surely part of the rationale for the lectures entitled Ethical Dilemmas in a Changing Nation, jointly organized by alumni of the Hubert Humphrey Program of the US State Department and the Silliman University College of Law.
The speakers talked about how ethical concerns intersect, or not, in a number of fields: the legal profession, the police force, on policies on historical monuments, and in the media.
Predictably and justifiably, comments and questions were particularly directed at the speaker from the Philippine National Police with regards to the “drug war,” but what was enlightening to me, as someone who doesn’t engage with social media, was the presentation on Ethics in the Time of Trolls by the speaker who was a producer of the TV network GMA 7.
As most probably know, and I didn’t, there are persons paid large amounts to enter or create online conversations with inflammatory, fake, offensive, and aggressive content aimed at harassing or disrupting normal online activities and communities.
Presumably much of this primarily has political motivation: to discredit certain parties or political positions, and to influence online populations towards the paymasters’ line of thinking.
The speaker mentioned seeing a huge rise in this type of online hate mail or trolling in this past year alone.
One amazing bit of information was that some of these invisible trolls (their identities are hard to track) may not even believe in what they post but do so for the pay – lying for a living!
The potential for harm of this form of social manipulation is considerable, it can even undermine democratic processes.
Of course, there have always been people who behave badly, alongside and in spite of the development of moral philosophy, the rule of law, and universally- agreed values.
And all of us may slip on occasion, fail to do the right thing, or even break the law, hopefully only in small ways — a saving grace being the awareness of not living up to our own values.
But when it is regimes or governments that behave badly, how, without a firm sense of ethics, are people to distinguish right from wrong, the acceptable from the unacceptable?
More such conversations are needed, and a reflection, inadequately-touched upon even as it was stated in the forum’s title, on the worrying ways that the nation is changing.
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Author’s email: h.cecilia7@gmail.com
