Crime rates keep increasing day in and day out and it looks like there
is nothing one can do apart from government’s efforts made to curb the
situation at hand but pause, take a deep breath and open your eyes to
reality. Before a person does wrong, he or she might have been triggered
by something or has a problem recognizing wrongdoings from the right
ones. With the reasonable amount of attention given, this could be put
to a drastic reduction.
That’s where the question
‘HOW’ comes in. Well, as subtle as it sounds,
‘ETHICS’ can play an important role in this effect. Ethics brings about a
lot of controversies in our societies daily. Whether or not one’s
actions are right or wrong, we all find different viewpoints in certain
situations and occurrences. Ethics is the branch of knowledge that deals
with moral principles; whether or not an action was right or wrong.
Others put it as the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior.
In other aspects of life, it is labelled ‘MORAL PHILOSOPHY’. To be
ethical, one will first have to look at the BIG PICTURE, WHAT IS RIGHT
OR WRONG? Right in one’s view may be wrong and wrong as right. In view
of this, there must be an accepted criterion for the words RIGHT OR
WRONG. Right is anything morally good, justified or accepted and Wrong
is a thing not correct or true, accepted, unjust or dishonest. From
this, any action made is either wrong or right but can be justified to
one’s point of view.
It has become a norm and a conscious effort in developed countries that
murderers, psychopaths, thieves and other criminals are taken through
therapy to investigate and look into the matter as to why the person
should resort to such activists or not.
From research, it happens that judgement becomes really difficult after
hearing the points of view of such criminals. Taking the world’s popular
fiction Robin Hood, a wretch who used to steal from the rich to help
the poor, into the analysis, his reasons seem ethical but still
criminal. Having said this, you will realize that these are not directly
proportional in any way because an action may be ethical but still
criminal. Laws are set of instructions that govern a group of people to
curb certain circumstances but to extremes one may have to break such
laws but not for negative reasons but rather for the good of all or a
greater good.
For undeveloped countries, such factors are barely considered and
judgement is made right from the top just from the outlook of the
situation and that’s very bad. There must be ethical activists as well
as human activists to support such culprits.
For example, there was a case of a 96-year-old man caught over-speeding
and jumping a traffic light at a school range area but as he was sent to
court and questioned if it was true that he did jump the traffic, of
which he answered “yes I did that only because I had to save my
63-year-old son who has been bedridden for a number of years due to his
medical condition” That is, he has cancer and had to take his son on a
weekly checkup but unfortunately he had a seizure whilst in the car and
was at the brink of his death and that is the reason he needed to rush
that urgently.
After this everyone was shocked with the judge’s verdict where he closed
the case and said a word of prayer for the old man to be blessed with
long life and strength as he acts inconsiderate at his age to help a
fellow human in this case his own son putting himself through stress and
all, taking that responsibility and was really touched by his story.
This is yet another story of an action that is criminal but ethical.
Many people act on difficult impulses some known as universalists who
act only for the good of all or a greater good and the other being the
egocentric who act only to their personal benefits. For these set of
individuals, they believe an action if it is going to be of really good
or benefit them personally and not others.
But looking into this, this form of belief or principle can lead to
serious catastrophe as greediness, selfishness and what have you which
at the end of the day can promote or increase crime rates worldwide or
in a given area. Thereby, it is quite evident that the universalists do
have a broader view of what ‘RIGHT’ is to stand for: standing in for
others and making sacrifices (total selflessness) just for the good of
all. In this view, crime rates will reduce drastically as before a
person acts he will not only take himself or himself into consideration
but others too in concern and wouldn’t want to have anyone hurt being
spiritually, socially, psychologically, sexually or financially,
therefore, everyone thinking about a means where all can progress
together.
This is best summarized by the popular saying ‘TOGETHER WE STAND;
DIVIDED WE FALL’. Majority do think a person’s ethical stand and mainly
influenced by his or her religious beliefs but in actual fact, it is not
so.
Though religiously our mind and heart in a way is trained to do greater
good and to know the difference between right and wrong equally, one’s
culture or socialization ensures that.
In a community of only atheists, it would not be abnormal to see them
live peacefully and in harmony without much chaos or negativity just by
thinking basically as humans and just doing the right thing.
For instance, dumping refuse appropriately in litter cans and bins
though they totally lack religious stand and equally, you can find a
community of highly religious or populated by a dominant religious group
but live in total disperse, agony and disorder.
This is so due to each and everyone’s socialization as he or she is
brought up. With information, no individual has the right or audacity to
say he or she isn’t religiously inclined and that’s what ended the
person acting unethically or committing any criminal offense much more,
growing up, everyone is abreast with the norms and vices of the society
he or she finds himself or herself and has no reason to use ignorance as
bait to injustice.
In a nutshell, the implementation of ethics in our basic and fundamental
upbringing is the fastest remedy in addressing the issues of crime in
our societies today. It is from this that families and society play an
important role to ensure that one has a fair share of moral standing or
background.
From our very own educational system where students from fourth grade
(primary four) through to grade 12 (s.h.s three) are taught Religious
and Moral Education: which teaches all about norms, taboos and social
vices as well as ways to defray from going contrary to the accepted
conducts in the society in which one finds himself.
Also, our families correct us in many ways and let us know every time we
do something wrong by punishing, scolding or depriving us of some
benefits.
That is, they direct us to the right thing at every given time no matter
where we find ourselves and by so doing, everyone gets to know or have a
general idea of what is right or wrong and in turn, help crime to a
degree as informed earlier.
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