Daily Times

No matter where we looks today, the erosion of social ethics and basic moral principles have taken us to the point where confidence in our institutions and the very systems that make our society work are in imminent danger of oblivion. Our society is on the verge of ethical crises. The exploitation of consumers by selling at a much higher price during the coronavirus pandemic is a striking example of our conduct.

Qualitatively deteriorating ethical standards at educational institutions, workplaces and businesses are eminent. Over exploitation of human resources, credit hogging, nepotism, corruption, scapegoating, delivery of low-quality products, and environmental externalities are evident consequences in the form of absence of social responsibility.

A culture of treating human as a means and not an as ends prevails. The personal success of any person is being measured by materialistic gains rather than by the virtues one possess.

Doctors not only mistreat patients but also hand over them a big list of medicine doses for running their pharmaceutical business. School business mafias have jeopardized educational quality; only quantity is valued for maintaining their continuous wherewithal. Ignoring the greater social cost of their decision, contractors compromise over the quality of construction material.

How gloomy the situation is when highly qualified members of society are involved in carrying out fake surveys, unethical data manipulations, and plagiarized ideas. What to do of an education system where “fudging” data to support research results is not considered a crime. The issues associated with whether one can trust the validation of financial data are severe, and in fact, are likely to get worse.

What about the setting of educated ones, where shouting and humiliating junior is considered normal and is common practice at workplaces? Ironically these unethical patterns aren’t for time being rather they are part of a bigger chain that forms culture. Unethical behaviors manifested by upper-level management permeate to all levels of organizations resulting in lower productivity. Ultimately, results are in the form of under-delivering on promises, turf-guarding, goal-lowering, budget-twisting, and fact-hiding.

Ethical degeneration in the education system is encouraging corruption. Corruption is in fact the most dangerous child of unethical practices, where an individual prefers their self-interest over the interest of communities. Not only this, but the lack of ethics is also giving tilt to egoistic tendencies causing intense conflicts thus resulting in increased turmoil and turbulence such as higher divorce rate, a greater rate of crimes and conflicts on an individual level.

School business mafias have jeopardized educational quality; only quantity is valued for maintaining their continuous wherewithal

Businesses are lacking egalitarianism. The exploitation of workers, underpaying, illegally curbing leaves of employees and taking over work from the employee for private benefits is common practice, specifically in corporate culture. A person is paid less due to compulsion and not paid for his true worth and contribution.

Education metamorphoses human’s uncivilized behavioral patterns into civic ones. What to do of education that fails to impart the qualities of self-control and self-disciple in a way that works in the welfare of self as well as society. Ironically, our education system is totally blind to delivering ethical values. Success is always praised louder and failure criticized even more loudly, but the ethical values that failed person possess are never appreciated. Securing good marks is important though attained through cheating.

Education is a zone from where future leaders and workforce emerge and training them about ethical values is imperative for building an ethically sound society. If ethics need to be practiced at every stage of age, why not to teach so. As Socrates once said, “If knowledge can be learned, so can virtue”. Since ethics are absolute, they can be reasoned, and they can be taught. Ergo, the course of ethics needs to be introduced in every academic degree.

Employers and employees have to be well aware of the cost of unethical and benefit of ethical practices. Civilization depends on competency, skill, and talent as much as it depends on practical ethics. Further, a check and balance should be kept on an amalgamation of dangerous elements into our society such as through social media.

The government should design and implement a code of social ethics in true letter and spirit with a sharp focus upon resolving the tension between individual interests and community interests. Through propagation of social ethics such as social responsibility, solidarity, and social utility, the prevailed ethical principles of non-male?cence, bene?cence, autonomy, and justice could lead to a truly democratic society fostered with the idea of public reason. As a test of humanity, Corona outbreak has significantly shown as well as enlightened us about the value of social ethics, for survival of ourselves and for safety of others.

The writer can be reached sumrarubab@gmail.com