Snippets from the Cornelius Fudge School of Ethics
First things first - a philosophical quotes quiz
We have much to be confident about in America. Yet our economy and our country need one more kind of confidence -- confidence in the character and conduct of all of our business leaders.
All investment is an act of faith, and faith is earned by integrity. In the long run, there's no capitalism without conscience; there is no wealth without character.
At this moment, America's greatest economic need is higher ethical standards, enforced by strict laws and upheld by responsible business leaders,"
Izzie is having a wonderful time this semester with some extremely amusing subjects.
Apart from the fact that the two fearless group leaders are a pompous patronising pair who think that all students are by definition - insufferably STUPID - it is proving to be a most entertaining evening indeed on Thursdays.
Iz was hoping they would show us the Alan de Botton video about Epicurus. At least HE knows what he is talking about and is kind of cute in his own way even though he does look sort of yuppieyish. But they have saved it for next week instead.
So they started by asking who had come up with translations and explanations for last weeks Mysterious Phrase "Primum non nocere"
Four of the forty of us had. Izzie was one - not because she is a brown nose but she is curious and had worked out the first two words but was clueless about the last bit 'nocere' So they asked for a volunteer to explain it to the class. Iz did not get picked and was a bit annoyed with how they kept correcting the poor guy speaking because he could not pronounce 'Hippocrates' properly. A bunch of Latin grammar snobs by the sound of it.
They then asked each of the other three of us if we had anything to add to what had already been said.
Evil Izzie added that it would serve as a very useful decision making device when presented with a whole bunch of alternatives and being unable to choose which one was the most ethical and that there is a big difference between choosing what will cause the least harm or the most good -especially when the parties that benefit and those that suffer are often not the same group of people.
Turns out that evil Izzie had unwittingly indulged in a bit of a pre-emptive strike as that is exactly the point that they were going to make but probably take an hour or so to do it.
They then got on to discussing stuff in the news and asking if anyone had heard anything of particular relevance to the course lately.
Izzie can only conclude that folks in that class are either very shy or don't read the papers or listen to the radio as once again after a period of silence it was evil Izzie who tossed in another two silver sickles with her mention of James Hardie - who have been caught in the act with dodgy company dealings all based on the desire to avoid making payments to victims of asbestosis caused by people who used this company's products at a time when the company knew of the dangers but left the stuff on the market.
Another student added that surely if the company is morally obliged to pay for the mess they have made, the government too should also have had a role in not allowing such harmful substances to remain on the market after the dangers of its use became more widely known.
The Fearless Leaders gave her a totally pathetic and patronising answer about the different philosophy of the two major parties - ie that the Liberal Party is Laissez faire and likes to keep out of business as much as possible and that the Labour party is more interventionist and concerned with issues such as welfare. The fact that the so called "Free market and laissez faire' liberals aren't averse to a bit of corporate welfare did not seem a fact worthy of mentioning.
They then put up some silly overheads with bubbles and captions with lots of arty farty words such as ontology, metaphysics, axiology and epistimiology. Izzie and a few others had the bad manners to know what most of these meant which seemed rather unexpected. But they seemed to be working along the theory - if you can't baffle them with brilliance - bamboozle them with bullshit.
But following the philosophical thread, we got onto the predictable issue of the infamous Protestant work ethic. And yet again it was time for another quiz. They asked us to guess the identity of a group of hard working people whose society was based on the Protestant work ethic who became very rich and successful.
There was the usual guesses of Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. At that point they told us we were getting close. Since none of our guesses were correct they told us that the people they had in mind were the Boers of South Africa.
This was too much for the Iz who commented in a rather contemptuous tone. "Yesss. But they CHEATED!"
And what was their reply? Something along the lines - yess they did have some problems with the locals but that is another issue and is not relevant to this discussion.
Reminds Iz so much of the lecturer who she dubbed The Herald of Free Enterprise who claimed that there was nothing unethical in the behaviour of the tobacco companies as there is still no scientifically proven link between smoking and cancer!
Well - back to those quotes which Izzie is sure you have all guessed by now. That too was most entertaining. When they put them up Iz suggested Warren Buffet or Alan Greenspan. Some one said Kennedy and another jokingly added George W Bush to which most of us laughed ourselves silly and Iz added. For Gods' sake - he couldn't even pronounce those words and others said that he didn't need to be able to spell them as he had speech writers anyway.
So for the curiousss. Here is the original in all its glory and an added commentary
The pair of them seemed to think that the content of these speeches was proof of the high ethical standards of King George. Iz wondered what exactly was entailed by the responsibility of business leader - responsible for maximizing shareholder value most likely and was also rather curious about what they thought of the implications of his close associations with such paragons of virtue and impeccable business ethics like Kenneth Lay and Dick Cheney.
The other thing that shocked the Iz was their assumption which they posed as a question - asking if we were studying business because we all wanted to become rich and make lots and lots of money. Two of us actually said we weren't interested in making loads of money. Sorry - Iz just cannot help being an iconoclast. The other student who was the same one who asked about the role of the government concerning the asbestos story said that she wanted to work for the World Bank to help developing countries. The pair of them were cynical and realistic enough to say that the World Bank probably does more harm than good. Iz was not sure if they said that because they actually believe it (They do not seem the sort) or because they wanted to rain on her parade. (When Izzie finally goes over to the Dark Side - the World Bank would be just the place to start on the path of world dominion. The place is too miserable even for happy sorts like the Dementors)
They concluded with giving us more information about one of our assignments. What in the unit outline is supposed to be critical evaluations of 12 -15 articles from the press about business ethics, they are now telling us it is suppposed to be some sort of journal and can be based on events in on the news, movies, cartoons, or even personal experience and does not have to be written in academic third person style but rather as personal observations.
Izzie thinks she will stick to the assignment as explained in the unit outline and not their airy fairy wishy washy interpretation. But Iz is such a dedicated student that she has decided to do both. Little do they knew that Iz is keeping a journal on this very topic but using their moronic mumblings as source material. And most educational and thought provoking it is indeed.
Oh and must not neglect to mention when they handed out samples of suitable sorts of articles just to give us an idea - after Iz had accumulated five A4 sheets of such articles and there still seemed to be no end in sight - Iz remarked while passing on the stack of next instalments to the students beside her "Some poor tree had to die for this" And Iz was most amused and surprised that they had overheard this remark and made some comment about it later.
Yessss. Iz is smart assed and opinionated and proud of it!
More tasty tidbits about that speech
If only
That energy company - playing at a theater near you
And something old from 2002 that Iz has to keep here because she doesnt't have bookmarks
More sneaking and thievery
We have much to be confident about in America. Yet our economy and our country need one more kind of confidence -- confidence in the character and conduct of all of our business leaders.
All investment is an act of faith, and faith is earned by integrity. In the long run, there's no capitalism without conscience; there is no wealth without character.
At this moment, America's greatest economic need is higher ethical standards, enforced by strict laws and upheld by responsible business leaders,"
Izzie is having a wonderful time this semester with some extremely amusing subjects.
Apart from the fact that the two fearless group leaders are a pompous patronising pair who think that all students are by definition - insufferably STUPID - it is proving to be a most entertaining evening indeed on Thursdays.
Iz was hoping they would show us the Alan de Botton video about Epicurus. At least HE knows what he is talking about and is kind of cute in his own way even though he does look sort of yuppieyish. But they have saved it for next week instead.
So they started by asking who had come up with translations and explanations for last weeks Mysterious Phrase "Primum non nocere"
Four of the forty of us had. Izzie was one - not because she is a brown nose but she is curious and had worked out the first two words but was clueless about the last bit 'nocere' So they asked for a volunteer to explain it to the class. Iz did not get picked and was a bit annoyed with how they kept correcting the poor guy speaking because he could not pronounce 'Hippocrates' properly. A bunch of Latin grammar snobs by the sound of it.
They then asked each of the other three of us if we had anything to add to what had already been said.
Evil Izzie added that it would serve as a very useful decision making device when presented with a whole bunch of alternatives and being unable to choose which one was the most ethical and that there is a big difference between choosing what will cause the least harm or the most good -especially when the parties that benefit and those that suffer are often not the same group of people.
Turns out that evil Izzie had unwittingly indulged in a bit of a pre-emptive strike as that is exactly the point that they were going to make but probably take an hour or so to do it.
They then got on to discussing stuff in the news and asking if anyone had heard anything of particular relevance to the course lately.
Izzie can only conclude that folks in that class are either very shy or don't read the papers or listen to the radio as once again after a period of silence it was evil Izzie who tossed in another two silver sickles with her mention of James Hardie - who have been caught in the act with dodgy company dealings all based on the desire to avoid making payments to victims of asbestosis caused by people who used this company's products at a time when the company knew of the dangers but left the stuff on the market.
Another student added that surely if the company is morally obliged to pay for the mess they have made, the government too should also have had a role in not allowing such harmful substances to remain on the market after the dangers of its use became more widely known.
The Fearless Leaders gave her a totally pathetic and patronising answer about the different philosophy of the two major parties - ie that the Liberal Party is Laissez faire and likes to keep out of business as much as possible and that the Labour party is more interventionist and concerned with issues such as welfare. The fact that the so called "Free market and laissez faire' liberals aren't averse to a bit of corporate welfare did not seem a fact worthy of mentioning.
They then put up some silly overheads with bubbles and captions with lots of arty farty words such as ontology, metaphysics, axiology and epistimiology. Izzie and a few others had the bad manners to know what most of these meant which seemed rather unexpected. But they seemed to be working along the theory - if you can't baffle them with brilliance - bamboozle them with bullshit.
But following the philosophical thread, we got onto the predictable issue of the infamous Protestant work ethic. And yet again it was time for another quiz. They asked us to guess the identity of a group of hard working people whose society was based on the Protestant work ethic who became very rich and successful.
There was the usual guesses of Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. At that point they told us we were getting close. Since none of our guesses were correct they told us that the people they had in mind were the Boers of South Africa.
This was too much for the Iz who commented in a rather contemptuous tone. "Yesss. But they CHEATED!"
And what was their reply? Something along the lines - yess they did have some problems with the locals but that is another issue and is not relevant to this discussion.
Reminds Iz so much of the lecturer who she dubbed The Herald of Free Enterprise who claimed that there was nothing unethical in the behaviour of the tobacco companies as there is still no scientifically proven link between smoking and cancer!
Well - back to those quotes which Izzie is sure you have all guessed by now. That too was most entertaining. When they put them up Iz suggested Warren Buffet or Alan Greenspan. Some one said Kennedy and another jokingly added George W Bush to which most of us laughed ourselves silly and Iz added. For Gods' sake - he couldn't even pronounce those words and others said that he didn't need to be able to spell them as he had speech writers anyway.
So for the curiousss. Here is the original in all its glory and an added commentary
The pair of them seemed to think that the content of these speeches was proof of the high ethical standards of King George. Iz wondered what exactly was entailed by the responsibility of business leader - responsible for maximizing shareholder value most likely and was also rather curious about what they thought of the implications of his close associations with such paragons of virtue and impeccable business ethics like Kenneth Lay and Dick Cheney.
The other thing that shocked the Iz was their assumption which they posed as a question - asking if we were studying business because we all wanted to become rich and make lots and lots of money. Two of us actually said we weren't interested in making loads of money. Sorry - Iz just cannot help being an iconoclast. The other student who was the same one who asked about the role of the government concerning the asbestos story said that she wanted to work for the World Bank to help developing countries. The pair of them were cynical and realistic enough to say that the World Bank probably does more harm than good. Iz was not sure if they said that because they actually believe it (They do not seem the sort) or because they wanted to rain on her parade. (When Izzie finally goes over to the Dark Side - the World Bank would be just the place to start on the path of world dominion. The place is too miserable even for happy sorts like the Dementors)
They concluded with giving us more information about one of our assignments. What in the unit outline is supposed to be critical evaluations of 12 -15 articles from the press about business ethics, they are now telling us it is suppposed to be some sort of journal and can be based on events in on the news, movies, cartoons, or even personal experience and does not have to be written in academic third person style but rather as personal observations.
Izzie thinks she will stick to the assignment as explained in the unit outline and not their airy fairy wishy washy interpretation. But Iz is such a dedicated student that she has decided to do both. Little do they knew that Iz is keeping a journal on this very topic but using their moronic mumblings as source material. And most educational and thought provoking it is indeed.
Oh and must not neglect to mention when they handed out samples of suitable sorts of articles just to give us an idea - after Iz had accumulated five A4 sheets of such articles and there still seemed to be no end in sight - Iz remarked while passing on the stack of next instalments to the students beside her "Some poor tree had to die for this" And Iz was most amused and surprised that they had overheard this remark and made some comment about it later.
Yessss. Iz is smart assed and opinionated and proud of it!
More tasty tidbits about that speech
If only
That energy company - playing at a theater near you
And something old from 2002 that Iz has to keep here because she doesnt't have bookmarks
More sneaking and thievery