Ethics Blog Roundup 7/21/10

Shel Horowitz is back from vacation with a posting on confronting racism, a topic much in the news.

The Engineering Ethics Blog discusses education and the importance of experience, ability and education in different ways in different times. He is particularly upset with President Obama for his over emphasis on college as opposed to other kinds of learning. There is a lot of societal comment here. I quote:

The natural tendency of our society, unfortunately, is to look up to people who (1) have lots of money, (2) have lots of people working for them, or (3) manipulate symbols instead of real things.

I agree with him pretty much across the board but I am an advocate for education other than just credential education, that is, an education that enriches the many aspects of a person’s life as opposed to simply a note on the wall, a permission slip for employment often with no more intellectual importance than a postage stamp.

Gael O’Brien takes on the ethics of brand identity in the aftermath of so much corporate wrong doing. She points out much more kindly than me that their brand identities of quality and concern for clients were less than real. The article asks more questions than it answers but we as a people and a society will have to answer those questions. As corporations dominate every aspect of our lives, whether or not we have made a deal with concerned people or the devils’s acolytes is one that has to be dealt with.

Chris MacDonald is cruising into philosophical territory with an interview with Andrew Potter about his new book, The Authenticity Hoax. The book’s thesis is that authenticity, the seeking of an identity through consumer purchasing, is based on dubious claims and is inherently self defeating for too often the goal of the authentic is a societal story with little relation to the self but everything to do with the preoccupations of the society around us. The book sounds fascinating.

The Leading In Context Blog discusses green office supplies (something I didn’t know existed).

These gentlemen discuss green office supplies:

James Pilant