Good Intentions? » 2/2 » Team Kenan at the Kenan Institute for Ethics

Reasons for a Rapture

May 312011

May 31, 2011 Posted by Lauren Tagged with: Armageddon, Good Intentions?

A couple weeks ago, I saw a series of billboards a near my house so strange that they warranted a Google search. In almost no time, I found that these fiery displays, threatening the end of days, belonged to Harold Camping, the almost 90-year-old Family Radio preacher who was certain that God would make his final judgments last Saturday.

Judgement Day Bus (Photo Credit: Jonathan Lidbeck via Flickr)

With the exception of his few loyal followers, Camping was probably the only one of us who was disappointed when he opened his front door Saturday morning and realized the world wasn’t enduring any sort of rapture. After a weekend of silence, Camping emerged from his California home Monday to concede that the 21^st was simply a “spiritual rapture” and that the world will really come to an end this October.

Now, I like to think I am fairly well-versed in Christianity, and though I may disagree with much of what many prominent Christians preach, I can usually understand how they came to have these beliefs. Camping’s date setting, however, raises a lot of questions for me.

The Man Who Cried Radiation

Apr 252011

April 25, 2011 Posted by Grace Tagged with: Computer and Information Ethics, Good Intentions?

The boy who cried “wolf!” met an unfortunate end. Last week, the man who cried “radiation!” did too.

According to a recent Reuter’s article, a Chinese man in the Zhejiang province, Chen, was jailed for 10 days and fined 500 yuan for spreading online rumors that Japanese radiation had contaminated Chinese waters. Chen posted a note via an online-message board to urge his family members and friends to stockpile salt, to avoid seafood, and to spread the message.

Censorship and individual liberties are clearly the defining issues in this case; however, the more interesting question is whether is posting “RADIATION” on the internet is the same as screaming “FIRE” in a crowded theatre. Is one more morally “okay” than the other?

Botox Mom

Apr 052011

April 5, 2011 Posted by Chad Tagged with: Good Intentions?, Questionable Beauty Standards, Tacky but not wrong

Photo Credit: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/

A caring single mother in San Francisco is one upping the neighborhood soccer moms by injecting Botox into her 8-year-old-daughter to reduce her wrinkles (apparently, 8-year-olds get wrinkles). She is a trained beautician and from what I can tell, really wants her daughter to be a superstar.

Oh, she also waxes her daughter too to get rid of her body hair.

Personally, I was shocked at the mother’s action in the most negative way possible: What kind of values is she teaching her daughter? Everything she is doing just seems so…wrong.

But wait, nothing she is doing is technically against the law nor is it really “wrong.” The mother sincerely believes what she is doing is the best for her daughter, and judging from the article, the daughter seems to be perfectly okay with it too. Parents send children to learn instruments from the best of the best hoping that their kids can develop into world-class players, and what makes preparing her daughter well for a beauty pageant so different from that?

Rules are Made to be…Flexible?

Mar 182011

March 18, 2011 Posted by Bethany Tagged with: Deontology, Good Intentions?, Justice

We are all told from a young age that we need to follow certain rules to be successful, or to keep order. Certainly, everyone but perhaps the most die-hard of anarchists among us agrees that rules are an important part of our society. What exactly these rules should do or regulate, is a topic of considerable more controversy, but not one I want to discuss today.

Instead, I want to talk about the unnecessary rigidity with which we enforce rules today. Instead of making rules a flexible code by which to properly keep order and respect in society, we have, in many cases, allowed rules to become elevated to sacrosanct status. Instead of looking at the pros and cons of enforcing a rule in any given situation, we repeat the mantra that “rules are rules” and the punishment must be enforced no matter the situation.

One of the best speakers I have seen on this subject is Barry Schwartz, who within this excellent TED talk (it’s long, but worth it) tells the story of a professor who accidentally gave his young son a “Mike’s Hard Lemonade” and nearly ended up losing custody of him.

Would You Steal to Educate Your Kids?

Mar 102011

March 10, 2011 Posted by Sadhna Tagged with: Deontology, Education Ethics, Good Intentions?, Justice, Things that suck

It’s the classic question: is it still wrong to steal food if you do it to feed your starving children?
Kelley Williams-Bolar, a poor black woman from Ohio, faced the same problem in her own life but slightly modified: is it wrong to commit fraud if it is the only way you can give your kids access to a good education?

Williams-Bolar was arrested and found guilty of tampering with records and falsifying enrollment papers for her two daughters so they could attend a prominently “rich, white” school for two years. The school has closed enrollment policies and it costs $800 per month to enroll students who do not live in the district.

Williams-Bolar was sentenced to 10 days in jail, two years probation, and 80 hours of community service. There is also a possibility that Williams-Bolar will no longer be able to obtain the teaching degree she was close to obtaining at the University of Akron in Ohio.

Most would agree that committing fraud, as a general principle, is unacceptable and must therefore be punished. As a single act, there may not be a hugely significant cost to Williams-Bolar sneaking her daughters into the school, but the entire system would unravel if every poor mother followed in her footsteps.

But it is important to look at Williams-Bolar’s intentions and the situation she lives in.
Is it possible that her only real chance to provide her daughters with a real life opportunity to succeed required her to break the law?

Baby, Baby, Baby…Whoa?!

Feb 252011

February 25, 2011 Posted by Grace Tagged with: Good Intentions?, Privacy, Short Term vs Long Term

How many of you are embarrassed by your baby pictures? (Yes, I mean the one where you are picking your nose). How many of you would be upset if your parents showed them random strangers? How about the World Wide Web?

While our generation can still reclaim some dignity by stowing embarrassing childhood photographs and home videos in cardboard boxes buried deep in the basement, babies today are not afforded this luxury. According to a February 18^th New York Times article, 92% of children have “online presence” by the time they are two!

With the advent of Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and ShutterFly, zealous parents and grandparents load anything and everything onto the internet.

Check out some of my personal favorites:

Baby Corey: Dancer Extraordinaire

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q]

Kittens Girl: Shrieking Storyteller Savant

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtX8nswnUKU]

David: Future Dentist?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs]

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