(Bank Of America Next WikiLeaks Target – Bank Digging For Dirt
by James Pilant on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 10:39am)
The title above is the Facebook subject that began the discussion. I include it for perspective.

Ed Deep What Bofa is doing is pretty much PR 101, trying to state that the misconduct or “problem” is a person thing, not a corporate policy.
There are several problems, though. The executives from the bank are not recruited in Mars. They are recruited amongst ourselves. Their actions are reflexes from the acceptable conducts amongst ourselves. Our culture, the way we live in society. My take on this is: We must make clear that there are moral values, ethical conduct and moreover, there is the regulation from the market authorities and there is the Law. And there is punishment. There should be no witch hunt, but we can not forfeit fixes, malfeasance, unorthodox solutions or other euphemisms for crimes that are listed. For the crimes not listed, there is our values. A clear message from society that these practices are not condoned will change the attitude. We must educate our children to have moral values and ethical behaviour. Can not allow anyone else to do it. Much less the “media”.
Wednesday at 6:31am

Steven Mintz Ed: Well said. I fear, however, it’s almost too late too teach our children moral and ethical values because of the unethical, irresponsible culture in our society that permeates throughout. Also, who is to teach it? As a university professor I’ve seen instructors shy away from the topic and even have a counter-productive slant on what is ethics.
Wednesday at 6:41am

Ed Deep It is never too late.I would not give up. Humankind have gone a long way since slavery and serfdom as an example. Even Aristotle though slavery to be moral, so there is always a future. There will be a new Renaissance, a revolution of the mind. Never dispair. The task of inculcating values is with the parents. There is an author in Brazil, who wrote: “unfortunately we use the word educate meaning teaching how to live in society and the same word educate to accrue knowledge about this society.” This double meaning allow the lazy parents to leave their children to learn at school the values and ethics. Afterwards, their conduct are base not on values, but on the zeitgeist. We can not allow our descendants to have some other people values.

For the grown ups, there is the chance of turning on their brains at some point. I have seen this happen many times. I have seen people die without enlightement too. It does not matter much, what we can do is use the force of the Law, to enforce contracts and to tame their public behaviour.

It is a sisyiphean task? Yes!

And my pleasure to engage into it.

Wednesday at 7:00am

Andrew Gates I couldn’t agree more Ed.

Although, I think many people see morality as an absolute standard that progresses and regresses in time and space. I don’t believe this to be the case. Much like evolution, it changes to suit the needs of a society at a given time. So I think its a misrepresentation to say that we have progressed from slavery. We see it that way because our current system of values emphasizes human rights more than at any other time in history.

But I do agree with you. Whatever values are necessary for our society needs to be instilled into the children, preferably by the parents. Our society, in particular, relies on many different ideas coming together and compromising to lead to the best overall solution for the population. This cannot happen if every child is taught to emphasize the same values by a public education system.

Wednesday at 3:27pm

Ed Deep I stand by my understanding that not having slavery is a progress. The very notion of live, which is the root of my epistemology makes the appropriation of life by someone else an absolute. There is no rational that can sustain slavery, unless you dehumanize the slave, which is the very argument that was used by the perpetrators of slavery. Although we may or may not identificate ourselves with those so far from our own, we must keep a honest evaluation of who are the humans and how we behave toward the beasts.

A humane treatment reveals much more about the perpetrator than the subject. If you treat the beast (livestock, pets, wild animals, insects and the bunch), with a humanely treatment, this treatment reveals YOU, not the beast.

Returning to the ethics of slavery, we will find that we are not eating the flesh of the beast, we are not protecting the crops, we are not subjecting the animal (slave) to the behaviour we intend as we do to pets. Thus, slaves are not like the livestock we feed upon. The literature on slavery – Roman, Arabian, American, Brazilian, African – reveals a code of conduct to the propietor of slaves. Slaves did receive salary, could save money towards their self-purchase, had several rights, that tell us that they were not as INhumane as those philosophers of slavery sustained. Thus, enslaving your brother is not honest by the construct of my epistemology.
Thursday at 7:00am