Is it ethical for a woman to flirt with a cop in order to get out of a speeding ticket? This is a question recently discussed amongst some of my coworkers. One of them had the question posed by an ethics professor at school. My coworker claims that it is perfectly ethical and that the ethics falls on the police officer in whether or not he issues her a ticket.
Unfortunately, this is an all too frequent display of an individual saying something is not their responsibility. One can argue that yes, the officer ultimately makes the decision on whether to issue you a ticket. However, would have been pulled over if you hadn’t been speeding? Ultimately an individual is responsible and should accept responsibility for their actions. If you got caught, own up to it.
I was not surprised to hear this kind of answer from my coworker. I am not saying she is some completely irresponsible, blame everyone else type of individual. Interestingly enough, in other areas of conversation she chants that people need to take responsibility for their own actions. In a world where we constantly hear the drumming of, it’s not my fault because ……. it doesn’t surprise me that someone can see not accepting personal responsibility for some things is ok but not for others. The question is, where does that end? Where does one draw the line?
I believe an individual is responsible for all of their actions. If you made a decision, own up to it. It does not matter if the results were good or bad. This is true for somebody seeing their business fail to somebody that gets picked up for shoplifting. Our personal decisions have an effect on the environments and social situations we find ourselves in. In the case of a business failing or somebody falling short of achieving some goal, the first step to recovering is taking ownership for your decisions. It is at that point that somebody can evaluate those decisions, learn from them, and figure out how to do it better the next time. In the case of somebody shoplifting, they decided to break the rules that society has set to protect private property and maintain civilization.
This seems to me to be an opportune time to discuss personal responsibility. US Congressman Weiner has finally admitted to sending lude Twitter messages, including pics of his boy parts. When the story was first about to break last week he came out and claimed someone had hacked into his account and sent the photos. When the world found out his account wasn’t hacked, he denied having sent them out at all. Now when he is being confronted by mistresses on the receiving end of his messages he is finally admitting to sending them and he feels so bad about it.
Although I personally disagree with the activity, if two adults want to swap racy messages and lude photos of themselves with each other it is their decision to do so. However, as a representative of the people I expect a much higher ethical and moral standard. If he had come out from the get go and admitted to it, he might have gotten off with a slap of the hand from his fellow representatives. Now that he has dragged everybody through such an ordeal distracting everyone from more pressing matters, it may eventually lead to his expulsion from Congress. Only time will tell.
A word of advice, whether you are a driver caught speeding or a government official caught in a compromising position, it is best to own up to your decision, accept whatever the consequences may be, and move on with your life. Personal responsibility begins at the same time your actions begin.
individualbility 