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Public discourse is ailing. Instead of yielding mutual understanding and respect, our debates are often infected with suspicions, accusations, belief polarization, and ideological entrenchment. One malady is what Richard
Lipsky calls the athleticization of politics, “the transposition of sports values into political discourse”.
- Robert Garcia and Nate King
I had just finished teaching on consequentialism in my ethics class.
If you’re not familiar with consequentialism, it’s the ethical theory that says (roughly) an act should be evaluated morally by whether it brings about the greatest amount of good for all involved, out of all the possible outcomes.
Back in December, it dawned on me that we’re seeing the rise of a social contagion I called unreflective consequentialism, driven by the pervasive hyper-politicization of every facet of culture. People often naturally and unreflectively justify a “seemingly” bad or even horrendous act because it brings about more good than bad.
Across social media platforms, we're seeing some celebrate the murder of a public figure as a good thing, because he can no longer talk about what he believes.
It’s the kind of justification used by evil villains in movies, now unreflectively used by many as a strategy to win against their political opponents.
Here’s what I wrote at the end of last year as I witnessed the justification of horrendous acts:
You should threaten someone’s life if it brings about better consequences than otherwise.
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You should kill the head of a company if it brings about better consequences than otherwise.
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You should harass and threaten students if it brings about better consequences than otherwise.
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The moral social contagion happening at this cultural moment is, I think, explained through the lens of unreflective consequentialism: morally justifying any act by prioritizing that act's outcomes and consequences.
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Most people have some idea of how the world should be.
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And now, many people will justify all kinds of acts to get the world to conform to that idea.
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If you don’t like what someone says or does, blot them out from their job, their career, from society, from your preferred world.
Unreflective consequentialism gives people an excuse to do whatever they want, as long as they adjust the value of the outcomes to greater good. Lie, cheat, steal, kill…if the good consequences outweigh the bad, you’re in the moral clear.
Primarily for these reasons, I think consequentialism is a loathsome moral theory.
Imagine instead a society that sought to cultivate virtue and good character. People who believed in duties and principles and whole-person formation regardless of, and sometimes even in spite of, outcomes and consequences.
We’re currently looking at the highest levels of moral outrage with the lowest levels of moral wisdom.
Something has to change.
Until next time.
Jared
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This Week's Free Philosophy Resource:
Title: Toward Intellectually Virtuous Discourse: Two Vicious Fallacies and the Virtues that Inhibit Them​
Author: Robert K. Garcia and Nathan L. King
Reading Level: Undergraduate
I require this paper in my class.
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