I'm not disagreeing with J L Graham, I'm just going to be a little more specific.
Practicing wisdom is what we call the way we resolve the inevitable dilemmas that emerge in a large and complex social system. Business is one of those practices until it isn't. More specifically, business is one of those practices when it adheres to what Ad…
I'm not disagreeing with J L Graham, I'm just going to be a little more specific.
Practicing wisdom is what we call the way we resolve the inevitable dilemmas that emerge in a large and complex social system. Business is one of those practices until it isn't. More specifically, business is one of those practices when it adheres to what Adam Smith referred to as The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), aka treat others as you would want them to treat you. If a business is wise, then it is not cheating because it is only hurting itself in the long term by damaging trust, which is the glue, and the only glue, holding civilization together.
As it is for business, so it is for journalism. If there are actual journalists in the Whitehouse press corps, and I'm sure there are, they must be a very small minority within that group.
From a strictly sociopathic perspective, cheat all you like, because you are all that matters; but such thinking in inimical to a just and satisfying society. From a social perspective. we cannot successfully live together without accepting certain responsibilities, and there both an individual and a social aspect to human personalities. Mutualistic integration of both needs seems to me to be the wisest choice, in pursuit of "enlightened self-interest" happiness.
The way I put it is to say that it's "me first" until I discover that my behavior is harmful to someone, probably because they told me, and then its "us first" until we discover that our behavior is harmful to others, and so on. If we all do that, we're all winners in a healthy social system. Those that don't are taking advantage of those that do in the same way that a cancer cell takes advantage of its neighbors, but it's a short lived advantage (pun intended).
I'm not disagreeing with J L Graham, I'm just going to be a little more specific.
Practicing wisdom is what we call the way we resolve the inevitable dilemmas that emerge in a large and complex social system. Business is one of those practices until it isn't. More specifically, business is one of those practices when it adheres to what Adam Smith referred to as The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), aka treat others as you would want them to treat you. If a business is wise, then it is not cheating because it is only hurting itself in the long term by damaging trust, which is the glue, and the only glue, holding civilization together.
As it is for business, so it is for journalism. If there are actual journalists in the Whitehouse press corps, and I'm sure there are, they must be a very small minority within that group.
From a strictly sociopathic perspective, cheat all you like, because you are all that matters; but such thinking in inimical to a just and satisfying society. From a social perspective. we cannot successfully live together without accepting certain responsibilities, and there both an individual and a social aspect to human personalities. Mutualistic integration of both needs seems to me to be the wisest choice, in pursuit of "enlightened self-interest" happiness.
I agree.
The way I put it is to say that it's "me first" until I discover that my behavior is harmful to someone, probably because they told me, and then its "us first" until we discover that our behavior is harmful to others, and so on. If we all do that, we're all winners in a healthy social system. Those that don't are taking advantage of those that do in the same way that a cancer cell takes advantage of its neighbors, but it's a short lived advantage (pun intended).