Wednesday January 26, 2005
If you can, why not?
As I came through the door of the plane, the flight attendant gave my ID the kind of perfunctory glance that most people get. Then she did a double take. “James Taylor?” she said. “Really?”
It\’s nice to be famous. But she thought she might be meeting seeing Sweet Baby James, the guitarist/singer/songwriter who wrote Fire and Rain, You\’ve Got a Friend, and dozens of other songs.
I\’m not sure I\’d want to be him, though. He\’s had two broken marriages, drug and alcohol addiction problems, and at least one sojourn in a psychiatric institution. I\’ve been spared all of those.
But if I had his income, his fans, his popularity, would I have fared any better?
I never had the money to get into any of those situations. I couldn\’t have afforded the booze, let along the drugs. I didn\’t have nubile groupies offering an eager alternative to the woman I promised to be faithful to. He did.
Once upon a time, perhaps, honor or a sense of morality was enough to keep famous people out of trouble. Or maybe it never was. When I studied the history of Britain, in my school days, we skipped lightly over the sexual indiscretions of British monarchs. Not until I took up some of the early English novels, in university classes, was I exposed to the amount of scurrying around corridors that took place during weekend parties in the English country houses of the aristocracy.
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For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to ralphmilton@woodlake.com.
It\’s also worth pursuing Richard Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
Perhaps the fundamental question of ethics, then and now, is just this: “If you can do it, why not?”
For most people, three answers provide the “why not?” They can\’t afford it. They don\’t dare risk the consequences. Or they don\’t have the opportunity.
But none of those are ethical answers. If they could afford it, if they didn\’t care about consequences, if they had the opportunity, would they have acted as the aristocracy did in past centuries? As the film stars of the last century did, and still do? As pop idols like my namesake apparently do?
The “not” happens only when someone has a strong set of beliefs of some kind – whether internally generated or externally imposed – that define what\’s acceptable and what isn\’t.
I\’ve seen ethics defined as the greatest good for the greatest number. But what if the number is just one? If it feels good for a solitary individual, if he or she can afford it, if it doesn\’t hurt anyone else, does that make it okay?
I don\’t think so. Every action has consequences. Even if individuals apparently affect no one else by specific actions, they can\’t help affecting themselves. Their bodies. Their thoughts. Their attitudes. And those will, inevitably, end up affecting others later.
I\’m no longer sure that there is a universal system of ethics. But I am increasingly sure that everyone needs a system of ethics. Otherwise, they will almost inevitably slide into some kind of destructive behavior – just because they can.
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Copyright © 2002 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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