TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
--- Michael Davidson <Michael -dot- Davidson -at- vcint -dot- com> wrote:
> Tom said 'And for those of you who think it's okay what your company does or
> who they deal with so long as YOU don't have to dirty your hands, I ask this
> question: "If your family was hungry, and
> it was take the job or watch them starve, what would you do?"
>
> Now you find out what kind of principles you have. Everything else is a
> matter of taste.
>
> I find this quite insulting. There are many people in the world who would
> either starve or lay down there lives for what they believe in. they come
> from all walks of life and from all parts of the world. To say that you'd do
> something just for the money (ie the price is right) is a load of old cack.
> I think what you say shows more about your own beliefs.
I wouldn't disagree with you at all. I never claimed to be a man of high
principle.
> For those who have faced such moral dilemmas it is up to them how they
> resolve them and you can't blame people for taking the money. It is also
> very difficult to know where to draw the line: after I was made redundant a
> couple of years back I had a number of approaches from people who make guns
> and bombs. It turned them down because I don't support such activities. Do
Good for you. I can't help wondering how you would feel if your country was
attacked and the only thing to protect you and your loved ones were those same
guns and bombs. If you would make the same choices you made above, I would
applaud your principles (whether I agreed with them or not). Same with your
land mines, below. If you saw them as the only things keeping out those who
would kill you and yours, would you feel the same way about them?
These are questions we each get to answer, and they are important questions.
But can one really claim some sort of moral superiority when the choice is not
a difficult one? I taught college level English composition some years back.
Did it for two years. During that time not one person ever came to me as asked
if there was "anything" they could do to improve their grade. (I'll leave it as
an exercise to the reader to determine what "anything" might include.) Was I an
ethical instructor for not having succumbed to a temptation with which I wasn't
presented? (Perhaps a silly example, but I know of others who have faced it.)
Maybe this is a better example. I swore an oath to "preserve, protect, and
defend" my country and follow all lawful orders of the civilian government.
Later that government sent me to fight in a patently unjust (not to say stupid)
war. Some people said that if I participated I was no better than a whore.
Others said that if I didn't I was no better than a whore. Who was right? My
country's laws required me to support the lawful orders of the duly elected
civilian authorities. Failure to do so could cost me my life. Doing so could
also have cost me my life.
Now THAT's an ethical/moral dilemna. Doing "something else" was not an option.
I'm not interested in judging other people's decisions when it comes to moral
dilemnas. I do think it's easy to make decisions when their ramifications are
at a distance and can be denied. And I do think a lot of people make judgments
on what others decide without really understanding what the dilemna is. If it
weren't further "insulting" I would suggest that if nobody dies, it's not a
hard decision.
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001 Conference East,
June 4-6, Baltimore, MD. Now covering Acrobat 5. Early registration deadline
April 27. http://www.pdfconference.com.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
