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JobsAsComplicity 12 - 06 Feb 2010 - Main.RonMazor
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| | One reason Eben gave for not working at a firm was that firms do morally undesirable work, and that in working for a firm, one's work would actively be contributing to that overall morally undesirable work product. For example, if one was a big-firm lawyer over the past five years or so, one most likely actively contributed to the financial crisis by providing the legal work for allowing grossly unchecked mortgage-backed securities to be created and flipped for fast profit.
My question: Is it true in every job, you are always morally complicit in the work of the company? Note than an answer of yes would mean that when you work for an organization that actively does good, you are also actively doing good. Is there ever any way to dissociate oneself morally from the work of the company in which one participates? | | | -- JeffKao - 05 Feb 2010 | |
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< | I'll bite, and put forward the proposition that the morality of pawning one's license or working for a firm is somewhat besides the point. If law is transcendental nonsense, so too is morality. Both are post-facto ways to rationalize reality. | >
> | I'll bite, and put forward the proposition that the morality of pawning one's license or working for a firm is somewhat besides the point. If law is transcendental nonsense, morality is no different. Both are post-facto ways to rationalize reality. | | | To paraphrase Sartre, people use morality to justify their choices, but clothing one's choices in morality doesn't remove personal responsibility. Whether or not working for a firm confers 100% of bad karma, or 80%, or just 20% if you leave within three years, isn't really resolvable. Ultimately, what matters is that you are able to live with the choices you make. | |
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< | As I understand it, Eben's point is not so much that one should avoid a firm because of the danger of moral corruption, but because it's a lazy and wasteful choice that squanders your potential and freedom. It doesn't serve your own interests. There are things that we'd all like to do and achieve before we die, and sitting in an office for decades as a well-paid servant isn't high on most lists. While many people, myself included, find the proposition of doing unsavory things for money unpalatable, I don't think the major issue that's motivating Eben is how to help us keep our souls clean. It's the tendency for the majority of promising lawyers to grow complicit in a job that restricts individual agency and sharply curtails potential, thereby eliminating the very people who could create change and institute meaningful reforms on a multitude of issues. | >
> | As I understand it, Eben's point is not so much that one should avoid a firm because of the danger of moral corruption, but because it's a lazy and wasteful choice that squanders your potential and freedom. It doesn't serve your own interests. There are things that we'd all like to do and achieve before we die, and sitting in an office for decades as a well-paid servant isn't high on most lists. While many people, myself included, find the proposition of doing unsavory things for money unpalatable, I don't think the major issue that's motivating Eben is how to help us keep our souls clean. It's the tendency for the majority of promising lawyers to grow complacent in a job that restricts individual agency and sharply curtails potential, thereby eliminating the very people who could create change and institute meaningful reforms on a multitude of issues. | | | For the record, I could be very wrong regarding Eben's motives. As the class progresses, I'm finding that I'm fairly bad at figuring out what he's thinking. |
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| Revision 12 | r12 - 06 Feb 2010 - 09:17:07 - RonMazor |
| Revision 11 | r11 - 06 Feb 2010 - 07:24:26 - RonMazor |
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