The final week of Q's

1) Woodward and Denton’s 2004 text states, “For more than a decade, there have been increasing numbers of studies, polls, and news articles lamenting the decline of ethical behavior in America” (Woodward & Denton 338). Some of these articles, studies, and polls have shown that lying and cheating has become customary among both children and adults; the absence of shame is a norm in our culture; half of the 80 percent of high school students who admitted to cheating at least once didn’t believe it was necessarily wrong (Woodward and Denton 338). Considering that most of this information was released in the early and mid nineties, our nation, in my opinion, has surely declined further in terms of ethical behavior. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Also, in 1983, Philosopher S. Jack Odell argued that “[a] society without ethics is a society doomed to extinction” (Larsen 25). Do you think that, if our society’s decline of ethical behavior continues, we are at risk of extinction? Or, do you think our society thrives off of a lack of ethics?

2) When it comes to behaving ethically, it’s important to recognize that we clearly live in an individualistic culture; according to Woodward and Denton, “[w]e are concerned with self-actualization, success, comfort, convenience, property, and the pursuit of happiness” while growing less and less concerned with ethics (Woodward and Denton 338). Early philosophers who expressed a concern for ethics (Plato, Aristotle, etc.), as well as later philosophers, were also studying human happiness. I would argue that they saw a link between maintaining one’s self-imposed ethical standards and happiness. The United States is a wealthy, powerful, and technologically advanced nation. Those living in the U.S., as discussed above, are lacking certain ethical behaviors, as they are declining quickly in our nation overall. Our Declaration of Independence discusses our pursuit of happiness, but lifestyle statistics regarding happiness levels show that we are the 30th happiest nation (nationmaster.com). Larsen states that it’s a persuaders’ responsibility to be “[…] accountable to one’s own conscience” (Larsen 24). Do you think that lacking accountability to one’s own conscience has an effect on one’s happiness level? Do you think that either our increasingly individualistic attitudes, or our declining ethical standards are directly related to Americans’ low levels of happiness?

3) In Larsen’s piece on persuasion-related reception and responsibility, one section, entitled “Responsibilities of Receivers,” reminds readers that “[…] persuasion can be viewed as a transaction in which both persuaders and persuadees bear mutual responsibility to participate actively in the process.” Our responsibilities, according to Larsen, can be encapsulated by two phrases: reasoned skepticism and appropriate feedback (Larsen 26). This section was of particular importance to me, as it can be too easy to forget that our cultural, familial, and relational baggage and biases, which we constantly carry with us, can hinder one’s ability to be an ethical receiver of persuasive messages. Reasoned skepticism involves maintaining a balanced position, and realizing “[…] that accurate understanding of a persuader’s message may be hindered by attempting to impose your own ethical standards on that persuader [as] [y]our immediate ‘gut-level’ ethical judgments may cause you to distort the intended meaning” (Larsen 26). Larsen goes on to say that, due to the amount of distrust and lack of truthfulness, we are living in an especially skeptical era, and reasoned skepticism demands that we do not assume that most public communication is untrustworthy.
Do you tend to automatically assume that most public communication is untrustworthy? If so, what would it take for you to adopt a less assuming perspective, and/or how do you combat those assumptions to remain ethical?