Perhaps television's most prominent government agent of the past decade, Jack Bauer, protects America from terrorist after terrorist in the popular Fox TV show, 24. In show, Bauer has to make multiple moral decisions within short periods of time, a majority of which have drastic implications towards both him and the American public. In every season Bauer is faced with the question, "To or for whom am I responsible?" At times, this question becomes very personal, involving close friends as well as his wife and daughter. Often he must choose between personal relationships or the protection of the people of the country he fights for. These decisions always prove to be difficult, and Bauer never arrives at the end of a conflict without having sacrificed large amounts of either personal or public protection. Through the eyes of Ayn Rand and Ai Weiwei, Bauer's moral responsibility, "to whom he is responsible", can be analyzed and understood in light of the actions he takes in unimaginably difficult situations in which his responsibilities clash.
Ayn Rand and her ideas about value and the significance of what is valuable creates a way of analyzing Jack Bauer's motives and actions in regards to his moral responsibility. Rand declares that a value is "that which one acts to gain and/or keep." By this definition, Jack Bauer's values include the security of the country, lives of his family members, his job, etc. While these are values that he has, the ultimate value, as described by Rand to be the final goal or end, is not as easy to identify with this character. However, there are clear instances that suggest a certain ultimate value towards which Bauer is most responsible. For example, one of Bauer's friends and coworkers, Agen...
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... the people but not the government, Bauer and Ai Weiwei share the understanding that one is morally responsible to the society, even when the government of that society declares your actions unlawful.
The question of moral responsibility and to whom one is responsible is one that people have struggled to answer. Ayn Rand's idea that one's values define one's moral responsibility in addition to Ai Weiwei's display of moral responsibility to the people of China shed light on exactly who Jack Bauer has determined he is responsible for. While it is clear that he desires only the best for his friends and family, he decides to be take moral responsibility for the entire civilian population of the United States. At the end of the series, this decision to protect Americans at all costs leaves him alone, on the run, and rejected by the very nation he swore to protect.
...ahlquist’s sacrifice highlights Heinlein’s belief, that the same self-sacrificing impulse that Winston had, might facilitate positive social change. Contrastingly, Le Guin highlights the continued anomalies in human morality where society willingly sacrifices its morals to meet selfish needs. Overall, people’s capacity to effect social change is relative to the prevailing social conditions, their ability to impact critical aspects of the prevailing conflict and their capacity to accept self-sacrifice as morally justifiable. Consequently, moral ambiguity prevails.
...en when tough situations are presented to a person. Motivation from peers, educational leaders, or other members of society may help those that should learn to behave ethically, but the bottom line is following one’s inner code of ethics, which constitutes character.
A code of ethics is essential in today business world, and customers honestly base a company’s reputation on these bases. Simply defined a code of ethics is a set of core values designed to help professionals manage a business that is honest and possess integrity. For example, a code of ethics document should highlight the mission and the values of a business. As well as, illustrate how professionals should approach issues, the ethical principles based on the company’s core values, and caliber to which the professionals are held. It is highly critical that a company like the Cheesecake Factory withholds an ethical and socially responsive code of conduct.
Fraud, murder, courage, and strong will are all words that can be linked to humanity. These words will often raise questions like, who did it, how they did it, or why. Can it be that the true answer to these questions lies in getting a better understanding of our human nature? Does man act according to his divine plan, or is he taught how to act? In analyzing the works of Hsün Tzu and Jean-Paul Sartre, I will determine which of these two philosophers offers the strongest foundation for living an ethical life in the modern era.
Self identity is a path whose road is paved by past experience, leading each person to a destination specific to their own knowledges and beliefs. This notion, as depicted in Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood and Peter Weir's The Truman Show, is a key feature in the development of morals in an individual. A person’s up-bringing, their environment, and the ideology of those close to them, all play a major role in the creation of their characters and what they may depict as right or wrong.
Values -Everyone has them. Where do those values come from? In literature, one can find the answer to that question by taking a close look at characters and their values. They can be compatible to real life experiences. Look at the two stories, "Abuela Invents the Zero" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The main characters in the stories are Constancia from "Abuela Invents the Zero" and the Four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth from Little Women. These two stories demonstrate how Experiences can shape, and change values.
Ethical dilemmas create a challenge between two or more equally alternative problems requiring moral judgment. This creates both an obligation and dilemma for those involved. Living in such a globalized world with cross-cultural borders, races, and ideas; negotiating what is considered morally “right” can sometimes be very difficult. Both religion and laws have a major impact in ethical duties. What an individual may presume as right cannot be guaranteed by the government or political party. The Overcrowded Lifeboat is just one example in which all the ideas above come to play in ethical decisions.
Between all of the criminal shows on television these days, it is hard to get an accurate idea of what it truly means to be a police officer or a detective. Sure, it is simple to listen to all of their analysis and listen to the way they find the bad guys, but is that truly how it works? Criminal Minds is one of the most popular shows on television today because of the way it portrays the FBI in their endless search of new bad guys and the way it shows the criminals’ plot and true evil. Law and Order carefully portrays the entire process behind putting the criminals away. 24 goes through the entire day in one, twenty-four, episode season just to show the viewer every moment of a story. Shows like Psych make fun of the police officers and the
In the book, Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, a mentally unstable character, named Lennie, commits a crime out of fear. This situation presents his closest friend, George, with a moral dilemma as to whether or not he should put his mentally disturbed friend out of his misery while making us think what we would do in a similar situation. Steinbeck presents the moral dilemma and its resolution mainly through characterization, conflict, and foreshadowing. This text deals with the value of life and the moral issue of whether or not a human should be able to take life away from another human due to their suffering.
...m in the hotel and one of the cops hit Ai Weiwei on his head for no reason, this resulted in a swallowing in his head so Ai Weiwei had to go through an operation and it prevented him from testifying in the case of the earthquake activist Tan Zuoren, this last one was found guilty. Afterwards Ai Weiwei was very upset of this whole situation so he filed a lawsuit against the cop that hit him on the head. He knew that the government won’t do anything about it and will not actually listen to his complains but he didn't give up and take a step backward it was actually the opposite he kept filing several lawsuits against the cop as well as attending governmental premises hoping to be able to talk or complain to somebody. Later in January 2011, the government demolished Ai Weiwei's studio in Shangai and then in April 2011 he disappeared, everybody knew that he was arrested.
For example, Snowden broke the law by leaking info about PRISM because he believed they were violating citizen’s privacy rights. Citizens react by saying, “He uncovered questionable activities that those in power would rather have kept secret.” This supports Kathy’s claim because it shows that Snowden benefitted a lot of people by following his own morals. This also signifies the importance of following your morals instead of being the agent to injustice. In addition, Kathy explains, “ Americans were disturbed by the idea of the U.S government compiling information from their emails, facebook pages and google searches.” This proves that the government commits acts that they do not tell the people. They created an unjust law that no one could spread the information. In order for fairness for the population, the law had to be broken.
When reading William Craigs article on Meta-ethical foundations, he discussed a lot about his three basic ideas of what is needed to live a morally acceptable life. He highlights the three foundations of a persons moral source, obligation and accountability. For this paper i decided to take on the task of defining moral accountability and relating it to a real world business perspective. To begin, accountability according to the merriam webster dictionary is, “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.” Craig applies this definition to his metha-ethical paper by asking us when we are held moral accountable for our actions, if at all. From a theistic point of view it is very clear that we are morally
Values remind me of ethics and morals, necessary in any walk of life and imperative in the work place. These concepts are guidelines in which employees need to follow to be successful. “Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.” (Robbins, 136) Integrity, courage, service, wisdom, respect and goal setting are a few of the values that are most crucial to me and what I hope to achieve within any work place setting. Values should be lived every day in the work place and should exemplify the
“True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.” Robert Mckee
Values can be defined as “the context within an organisation or a society’s norms are established and justified”. . Ethics and values work interdependently and as a result, employees are more attracted to an organisation that has a good set of ethics and values.