Question At 57, I have spent much of my life feeling a little superior to others. I have never stolen anything. I am pained whenever I say something that is even close to a lie. I am dedicated to fairness. And so on. I have long considered myself to be a highly ethical person. In recent years, though, not so much. I no longer feel compelled to tell the truth on my tax return if I think I won't get caught. I am less likely to stop for a stop sign in the middle of the night. I am willing to turn a deaf ear to a bill collector when I can't pay or even when competing priorities make me feel overburdened by the prospect. What's happened is that I have come to realize that I am embedded in a culture that is so pervasively unfair, among powerful entities devoted to ripping me off, subject to laws that I not only disagree with but find counterproductive and stupid, often evil. Despite a cheerful attitude, reasonable skill and good work ethic, this society has not allowed me even minimal prosperity. And so, I find myself increasingly set loose from the social contract. I consider the rules to be guidelines at best and only follow those that I, personally, agree with. Viewing the dysfunction of every system, I feel increasingly ruthless in my consideration of those in positions of power and how one should consider acting to improve society and ones own life. Have I come completely unhinged ethically? Have I, despite generally doing good things, become a bad person? Is there a way to see oneself as a contributing member of a society that is largely despicable?

Accepted:
June 30, 2010

Comments

Wow. I am also 57 and I admire your candor and your question(s), but I am troubled by your situation. Your mention of the social contract brings to mind one of the problems with political and ethical contractarian theories. They are usually based on some form of psychological or ethical egoism or at least self-interest (Hobbes assumes we all wish to avoid premature violent death and the best way to avoid this is to form a community of mutual restraint). But once the culture or community ceases to serve our self-interest or, worse, it actively undermines our welfare, the motivation for conforming to laws, etc, seems to vanish. From the standpoint of Hobbesian contract theory, you are not being a bad person, but acting in accord with rational self-interest. Some forms of natural law might also cut you some slack: unjust contracts are not inforceable. If you are currently being preyed upon by unjust institutions, they may have waived some of their rights --just as if you are held up by a thief and you promise the thief you will get them more money, most natural lawyers would say you are not obligated to keep that promise. But I would urge you to re-think the foundation of ethics and the importance of integrity. From the standpoint of natural law (and some other ethical frameworks) the foundation of virtue and duties does not rest on the shared consent of others, but it is much deeper. You, as a human being, are good (worthy of respect and consideration, fairness...) and so are others. Just because others are not fulfilling some kind of bargain, does not (unless, as noted earlier, you are in a society of profound injustice) permit you to lie, cheat, break promises, and so on. It sounds as though you think you are in profoundly evil society. I don't know which country you are in, but if you are in the USA or UK or many, many other nations in which there is law, one is not subject to death squads, etc, I think you not yet in the kind of profoundly unjust society that would relieve you of the duties of ordinary morality (keeping promises and the like). I don't think a truly bad person would write the email you did, so I appeal to your best side to at least stop for stop signs and maybe consider an ethical framework other than a social contract theory.