Which is more important, preserving morality or success?

[CTLawGuy]

Some may find this a hard question to understand.

Think of it this way:

Would you rather cheat at a game than lose that game?

Would you rather lose your next election or vote in favor of an immoral piece of legislation?

If you had an unfair competitive advantage, would you use it rather than be mediocre?

Would you sleep with your boss in order to get a promotion?

[XemaSab]

1. Would you rather be in slytherin or gryffindor?

n/t

[CTLawGuy]

3. obviously slytherin

but I think someone is going to be in the bathroom with a major headache tomorrow morning.

[XemaSab]

5. really?

that someone meaning you or....?

[CTLawGuy]

6. thats ok

go ahead and finish your thought.

[XemaSab]

8. I think the thought was finished

I was just interested in why you foresaw someone sitting in the can with a headache...

sounded intriguing.......

[CTLawGuy]

9. it is interesting

considered you posted a non-sensical reply to my thread.

I figured you may have been hitting the pubs tonight.

your mockery of my question is duly noted. Thank you for your opinion.

[XemaSab]

10. na

sober as a judge.

I was toying with the thought of making every response a Harry Potter reference, but I don't think I can pull it off.

Slytherins are the group who would go for getting ahead, Gryffindors would go for morality and DOING THE RIGHT THING.

[CTLawGuy]

12. oooh

I'm sorry :blush:

I'm not familiar with Harry Potter

I didn't mean to be snippy

:pals:

[XemaSab]

13. Oh, no worries

No offense taken at all...

If I got irked every time someone didn't understand a cryptic remark on my part, well, I wouldn't much done.

[CTLawGuy]

16. yeah, but I don't need to make assumptions

assumptions account for 90% of the conflict in the world.

[XemaSab]

17. it's a fact

but it's part of being human.

it's like prejudice, probably at one point it made a lot of sense to make snap judgements about people, but now it's usually needless baggage.

[CTLawGuy]

18. our brains like to think they have 100% information

if they don't, they fill in the gap with assumptions.

One time I told somebody they shouldnt make 100% judgements based on 10% evidence.

[XemaSab]

21. exactly

n/t

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

23. eh, slytherin or hufflepuff, more like

gryffindors are all for breaking the rules in the name of detective work. :)

[Heidi]

2. Isn't cheating

more a matter of ethics than morality? :shrug:

[CTLawGuy]

4. perhaps

let me find some more nits for you


;)

[Heidi]

7. I'm not being nit-picky, I promise.

I just see morality as a concept that shifts from religion to religion, generation to generation. Ethics seem to me to be more universal. :shrug:

[ForrestGump]

11. I'm both an idealist and a realist

All things being equal, I'll always take the high road. But if breaking all the rules -- lying, cheating, stealing, or whatever -- is what is going to make the difference between a just outcome and an unjust one, when the cause (to my mind, obviously) warrants it, I'll break all the rules with pause just enough to confirm that I am doing the right thing. As it turns out, most of the time in my life (thus far) sticking to the moral/ethical high ground has been the appropriate action, which is just as well.

The 'unfair competitive advantage' part doesn't quite fit with the thrust of the other choices, given that the alternative is to remain 'mediocre.' I've always been one to avoid the median and the mean -- certainly the mode -- so mediocrity has never been a choice and, if it was an option, I'd refuse to settle for it and demand clarification of the point at which certain advantages become 'unfair' and a definition of what mediocrity is considered to be. 'Success,' for example, to my mind means many things, whereas to many (certainly in the US) it means only the accumulation of money and the material goods and services that money can bring.

[AlienGirl]

14. If I were unethical, I could be rich by now

But I don't think *any* measure of success is worth violating my ethics. There are times I'd violate a less-important rule to obey a more-important one--for instance, I would steal to save a life because the right to property is less important than the right to life. Those would be extreme situations, though.

Tucker

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. I prefer the term "ethics" to "morality".

And if you have to cheat to win, it's not worth playing...better to lose honestly than win dishonestly.

[CTLawGuy]

19. ok, you can use that if you like

and I agree with your sentiment.

[WCGreen]

20. Of course we wil all say perserving morality

until we get into the game and we an smell victory....

That, my friend, is when the question should be asked....

[NNadir]

22. I am an atheist but I respect the alleged saying of Jesus that reads...

..."What profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul."

One should live honestly if one wants to live in an honest world. I want to live in an honest world.