Ethics 102 or Learning How to Say NO!

               The adage for ethics was “Doing the right thing when no one was looking”. A question arises in that, if you believe in a higher deity or have a conscience then someone is always looking. You had to just look in a mirror and only be accountable to yourself or to your chosen deity to justify your actions as ethical. 

Their-in lies a problem in that every religion, business or government entity has its own set of rules and definitions as to what is presumed to be ethical.

A thought comes to mind as in the late Nancy Reagan’s campaign of “Just Say No.”  This one little word, containing just two letters is one of the hardest words or actions to complete in any language. As a grandparent have you ever tried to say “no” to a grandchild wanting a piece of candy just prior to dinner?  Where is the “harm” in that?

Wait, there’s the other adage for ethics is “Do no harm”.  But again, whose definition of “harm” do we adhere. Prisons are full of individuals who just couldn’t say no and did harm. Others build their own mental prisons because they can’t look in the mirror or inner soul. They have no or have lost their conscience; their soul.

Not a day goes by for a private investigator that they are not asked by a client to do something that would be considered unethical by someone’s standards. They must ponder, as any business person, the thought of do I make a monetary gain or “just say no”.  One of man’s many weaknesses is the inability to distinguish his needs from his greed and at what cost do you lose your conscience sell your soul.

The answer to that question is learning how to say no; no matter the cost. Nothing is worth the loss of self-respect.  One must justify to his or self what the right thing is and sometimes the right thing is just saying NO!.