Saturday, March 23, 2013

This Band of Ethical Heroes (1/3) - Sleeper Agents

Imagine a movie set in a world where chaos and evil are everywhere, ethics are just about not getting caught, and one person is fighting for change. As our hero faces obstacle after obstacle, he comes across other rebels, and they form a rag-tag team that fights for justice and truth. Is this a trailer for a fantasy action thriller, or is it your reality and mine as we seek ethical behavior and social justice in our everyday world? 

Okay, our world still has ethical and moral standards, there are many sources of good left to be found, and we rarely have to act like action heroes to do the right thing. Still, "doing good" is under attack. 

Look at the business world. Despite a growing sense of corporate responsibility, companies face tremendous pressure to make continuously more money, and that pressure leads to behaviors that do not always meet ethical and moral standards. The large scale examples are obvious (e.g., Enron, BP and its suppliers, NECC), but even poor customer service and poor product quality are arguably failures to do what is right. Look at how workers and students treat peers - Bullying and cyber-bullying alienate people to the point where they consider suicide, school shootings, or workplace violence. (These last three links lead you news stories in the past few months alone). Even the most respected and virtuous of our organizations - the Catholic Church, Penn State University, the Boy Scouts of America - have difficulty policing their own members to ensure pedophiles do not abuse children (See Frank Bruni's Op Ed in the September 10, 2012 NY Times). 

Don't kid yourself. You and I are called to be ethical heroes everyday. We are likely to be surrounded by people who pretend to be unaware, or who decide it is not their problem, or who show passive complicity with a wrongdoing. Do we step up? Do we break the silence? Do we ask if anyone else feels uncomfortable? Do we say "No, I have a problem with this" without waiting for someone else to take action? We all like to see ourselves as the hero in the story, but being the hero requires more than fantasizing. We all want to believe that there is a hidden team for good out there, but they will not recognize us as part of that team unless they see that we are worthy. 

There are three phases in becoming an ethical hero. First, an ethical hero must be able to recognize what is good even when isolated from any support, like a sleeper agent. Second, an ethical hero must take action in supporting good, even when surrounded by reasons for not acting. Third, an ethical hero must transform from a lurking sleeper agent to a public beacon for other agents. This post describes the ethical hero as sleeper agent.

Ethical Sleeper Cells

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the terms "sleeper agents" and "sleeper cells" were frequently used in describing the mission of the terrorist group Al Qaeda. I detest their mission of violence, but I am fascinated by their organizational structure. Their vision was formed by centralized top leaders, but the vision was executed by many decentralized local leaders who often had limited communication opportunities to stay coordinated. Think about that. In an environment with an increasing number of changes and variables, a loose organization of poorly connected agents exceeded their lethal, unspeakable goals. Well, what we need is that kind of organization, but with a morally "good" cause. In order to create "ethical sleeper cells" who loosely connect to ensure that people do the right thing in their everyday lives, there needs to be the same unified alignment. With so much work done in isolation, it is easy to lose direction either consciously (e.g., giving up the fight for lack of visible progress) or unconsciously (e.g., thinking your actions are right when they are not). To be that hero, that lone wolf who builds a connection of other isolated agents of good, there needs to be a code that the agents identify with and align to. If you are living the code, then you are connected to other agents even if you don't know it.

There are many possible ethical codes from philosophy and religion, but I learned a process for making ethical decisions back in my high school. I have never seen it anywhere in books, and I have lost contact with Mr. Poissont, who taught me the concept. (If anyone recognizes this, please let me know!) Still, this process is one I would recommend for anyone who is uncertain about what is the right thing to do, and I believe this is the code that an isolated ethical sleeper agent needs to ensure alignment to good.

I.C.O.C. = Issue, Circumstances, Options, Consequences


There are four considerations in deciding how to act ethically in any given situation. One should consider the Issue in general, the Circumstances surrounding the decision, the Options that one has in choosing to act, and the Consequences of one's actions.

  1. Issue. We frequently debate the morality of issues, such as gun control, abortion, or capital punishment. Even the basic morals that we teach our children can be considered to be general issues: Don't take things that are not yours, Treat others the way you want to be treated, etc. There is not always a clear consensus on issues, but most of us tend to know when we could do something that other people may not agree with. Let's face it; Many moral issues tend to be polarizing, and the two sides often debate to the point of demonizing each other. Let's sidestep all the debating for the sake of explanation. Why not define the ethical stance on an issue so that if anyone considers a specific behavior to be ethically wrong, then that behavior cannot be a universal truth. So, murder is wrong, and we should generally avoid killing another person. Likewise, there are positive ways of expressing what is ethical. For example, we should generally respect the fact that life is precious and cannot be rekindled once it is gone. Ethical heroes keep an open mind and try to find common ground when judging an ethical issue.                                                                                                                
  2. Circumstances. Most people agree that even when a behavior is ethically wrong, there are situations where that same behavior can be considered as not wrong. If someone were to be attacking a child with intent to kill the child, few people would find us at fault if we killed the attacker. Even though murder is wrong, killing someone to save an innocent life is a circumstance that alters the evaluation of the issue. Again, the infinite list of circumstances that surround an ethical issue will not always produce a universally accepted "exception" to the rule. However, the possibility of circumstances affecting the decision is itself well accepted. When faced with an ethical dilemma, remember that our circumstances may open a door that we generally consider to be closed. (We are wise to remember this aspect before harshly judging other people's actions.) Ethical heroes examine the unique aspects of the situation and carefully weigh what should and what should not affect the ethical decision at hand.                                                                                                     
  3. OptionsThe number and type of options that we have available also affect the ethics of our actions. Choosing to do something when there are countless available alternatives is different from doing something because there is no alternative. Therefore, one of the best things we can do when facing an ethical dilemma is to generate as many options as possible. A creative solution, or "third way," can produce an ethical outcome when none had previously seemed available. Ethical heroes should be sure to review and create as many options as possible.                                                                                                                                                                                       
  4. Consequences. Breaking the rules in order to achieve good is a fourth consideration for an ethical decision. Stopping at every stop light is hardly the right thing to do if it keeps our dying passenger from reaching a doctor. The end can justify the means, and the end can condemn the means. Such was the case at Penn State University, when people who knew of the abuses allegedly met the minimum requirements of what they should have done (legally, for example) but failed to do more when no changes were made. It seems that we can very easily misjudge consequences. Murderers can believe that the world is better off with their victims being dead (e.g., the attacks of September 11, 2001), and the pious can believe that they tried to do something even when much more was needed of them (e.g., Catholic church officials failing to expose sexual predators). Ethical heroes think critically about the consequences of their action and their inaction, even when (especially when) it would be easier to look away and hope for the best.                                                                                               
When you recognize that you are facing an ethical issue, and you or the people around you are not sure what the right thing to do is, work through the issue, the circumstances, the options, and the consequences as if they were the script for the ethical hero. I am reminded of the David Crosby song "Hero" and the line that says "He never wondered what was right or wrong. He just knew. He just knew."  If we want to form a band of ethical heroes, we need to know, too. Life won't be as simple as a movie hero's decision, but at least we can work through this process and then make our stand. 

NEXT:  The difference between knowing what is right and doing what is right.


This post is not intended to represent any person or organization other than Paul M. Mastrangelo.