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I wouldn't say ethical, Bruce, but rather your own ethics.
For example, I used to wonder about the poor sap who had to write Nike's
responses to the factory/labor practices of its manufacturers in SE Asia.
One minute you've got it made at the cool sneaker company, the next you're
playing Goebbels.
Or how about working for Monsanto, spinning their GM food products and
playing down negative, inconveniently accurate research or data?
Do your concerns about exploitation extend to foreign child laborers or the
farmers who are subject to litigation because GM corn has migrated to their
fields against their wishes, let alone the unsuspecting consumer whom no one
told is playing guinea pig?
No need to answer. My ethics doubtlessly differ from yours. That's the
difference between the ethical and the legal. You can pin down, or at least
agree upon, the latter. But the former keeps squiggling around.
To some extent, I agree with John Posada says "If it is legal, I'd write
about/for it..." but would add "to the limits of my own taste and dignity."
In my mind John is tempting fate to immediately send his way an assignment
designed especially to turn his stomach. User's Guide to Planting a Mine
Field? Depleted Uranium: Your Battlefield Friend?
Maybe he'll let us Techwhirlers know when he finds out...
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Byfield [mailto:bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 1:47 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Ethics and Job-Hunting
John Posada wrote:
>If it is legal, I'd write about/for it...
>
Most of the areas I'd avoid are legal, at least to some extent. But that
doesn't affect their ethical status one way or the other, so far as I'm
concerned. "Legal" and "ethical" are two areas that sometimes overlap, but
the match isn't perfect (to say the least).
Just as importantly, if I relied on legality as the criterion for
determining ethics, I'd be abdicating my right and my obligation to decide
these matters for myself. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I can't do that.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"Humpty Dumpty was pushed: head over heels all over the wall,
Humpty Dumpty was pushed: nobody noticed at all,
And all the king's horses and all the king's men
Gathered round Humpty and kicked him again;
And they called for a priest and a couple of friends,
And they all stood around and chanted, Amen."
-Tommy Sands, "Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed
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