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Do you have a personal code of ethics?

Yes.

If so, what is it?

Leave me the f alone.

How did you arrive at it?

Disillusionment with Power, Money and P, er, kitty kats

Is it fluid or fixed?

Fixed.

Is it absolutist or relativistic?

Absolutist.

Do you consciously apply it day-to-day?

Yes.

Does expediency ever factor in whether you utilize it or not?

Oh Yes.

Do you think that it is applicable to all cultures?

No.

Do you feel that you are doing the best that you can in living up to it?

Yes.

Next, I am making an assumption that if you have a personal code of ethics that you have incorporated some of the following tenets into it:

From Richard Dawkins, a well-known British atheist, his own TEN COMMANDMENTS:

1) Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.

Which follows irrefutable universal law – what you sow, you shall reap.

(2) In all things, strive to cause no harm.

Strive being the key word here – in day to day life, just by breathing we’ll cause some harm somewhere.

(3) Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.

Then, the less evolved use you, abuse you and spit you out.

(4) Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.

Well, that’s what courts are for – The Boston Bomber showed no regret.

(5) Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.

That’s cool, as long as someone doesn’t want to take that away from you.

(6) Always seek to be learning something new.

Yeah, that’s fun !!!

(7) Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.

Depends who’s facts they are – currently we worship the rational scientific mind and quantum physics is really spooking us out by showing that the mutations and permutations are pliable to the observer and one who has garnered the will and the belief that he or she is a god, and that he or she can alter matter at will -- once higher vibratory laws are initiated into, obtained and mastered.

(8) Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.

Too late for me, too much of a fragile ego.

(9) Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.

Um, we kind of do this en masse because of money or the lack of it which equals time.
No Time ?
Then, we’re blindly led by others who can threaten our financial survival.

(10) Question everything.

I did, and ended up insane.

From the Bible's TEN COMMANDMENTS in abbreviated form:

1. You shall not worship any other god but YHWH.

Yeah, but no one really knows who and what and where this YHWH is – except a handful of folks throughout the centuries who had a personal, subjective and direct experience.

2. You shall not make a graven image.

I guess that means any non-anthropomorphic one.

3. You shall not take the name of YHWH in vain.

I AM hungry, I AM tired, I AM poor, I AM sick is an example of taking this name in vain.

4. You shall not break the Sabbath.

Tradition, interpretation and Commerce competition seem to have thrown this one away.

5. You shall not dishonor your parents.

Entirely culturally based – leads to a lot of conflict within and without the family.

6. You shall not murder.

Absolutely not. Yet, human beings seem to glamourize this.

7. You shall not commit adultery

10-4

8. You shall not steal.

Yep.

9. You shall not commit perjury.

Yeah, don’t fib on others.

10. You shall not covet.

Seems that this is what the global economy is based upon.
From the Golden or Silver Rule:

1. One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.
2. One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.

Or, he who has the gold, makes the rules.

From Shakespeare/Hamlet:

To thine own self be true.

From The Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism in which #'s 3-5 encompass ethical conduct:

1. Right View Wisdom
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech Ethical Conduct
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort Mental Development
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

From the Five ethical categories of Islam:
The obligatory
The prohibited
The supererogatory
The disfavored
The indifferent


In your personal code of ethics do have you any tenets that you have incorporated that were not covered in the above?

A couple of mine that I have incorporated into my personal code of ethics are what I call"The Adult Model" (which is if you agree to do something you do it but if you are not able to you communicate that in advance and you, with the agreement and/or knowledge of those affected, modify your goals/time frame) and the "Integrity Rule" (moral integrity can never be taken away. An individual can only give it away (and that should never even be considered as an option!).

This is far above my ability.
I already gave away too much and am now de-evolving.

Thanks Burt!

ABSOLUTISTLY, as original, honest, life-experienced, well-evolved, tantalizingly provocative and comprehensive response that one could ethically imagine seeing.

To Burt,

Thank you

Respectfully

Loong

Thanks guys for the platitudes, but I'm sure you can see that I'm pretty broken and bitter in a joyful sort of way if that makes sense.

I exist.

I have allowed that jagged heights of a 'mountain-top' experience to grind me to powder.

And, crazily enough, that seems to be... 'ok'.

I never did want to hurt anyone, so I ended up hurting myself, trying to take on the burdens of the world.

There is a method, a madness and 'an eternal golden braid', (to plagiarize a term), to this thing called life.

It just seems that 'the natural order of things' has not been lived on this planet properly in the larger scheme of things, yet old orders are breaking down and a wave of new possibilities are being forced upon us, breaking and shattering worldviews.

I don't know anything.

I just sit alone and think day after day.

Thank You Both,

Burt B.

THE CHEF JOHANN SCHMIDT STORY

Since its inception five years previous, Johann Schmidt had been the executive chef at a 5 star hotel in Bangkok. In the ultra competitive hotel/restaurant environment in Thailand's capital, Chef Schmidt's performance was exemplary along all relevant criteria: outstanding food quality in all 6 restaurants and in its continually busy banquet venues; highly creative restaurant and banquet menus; low food and labor costs; excellent professional relationships with not only the 200 plus chefs, cooks and pantry girls in the many kitchens, but throughout all levels of staff in the hotel. Consequently, he had earned an excellent reputation. What more could you ask from a chef?

For three years I had been his executive sous chef until I left a couple of years prior to accept a position of executive chef, first in Australia and then back in Bangkok. During that time as his assistant, I had grown to respect and admire his skills, knowledge and wisdom.

Since leaving the hotel that Chef Schmidt was at, we had remained in contact. One day he invited me to join him for dinner at his "chefs table."

Uncharacteristically subdued, he related to me an incident that had taken place a few weeks before. The hotel's general manager, Norbert Kroll, came up to him and told him he had just spoken to the general manager of another 5 star hotel in Bangkok who said that his executive chef was planning to throw a Christmas party for his entire staff. So, GM Kroll told Chef Schmidt that he expected him to do the same utilizing whatever expenses and resources of his own that this would entail.

Although quite dominant in his role playing of the "stern" yet exceedingly competent and likable chef, in reality Chef Schmidt was quite shy and did not enjoy having the limelight shine on him. So, very respectfully, as he always was with that GM, he said "sir, that is something that I would not be comfortable in doing."

Even though Chef Schmidt was well aware of the ruthlessness and capriciousness of the business, he was decidedly taken aback with the GM's response. The GM immediately flew off in a tirade and said "you know, I can get rid of you at anytime." Now, the only reason that GM Kroll wanted that party thrown was that (definitely not for altruistic or compassionate reasons) he did not want to nar tak/lose face with that other European GM.

That day, shortly after that totally uncalled for response from the GM, a very shaken Chef Schmidt made an appointment to meet with him. At that meeting, he immediately apologized and told the GM that "he had a bad night the night before" and "of course, he would "arrange for that party."

After telling me about that incident and his ultimate capitulation to the GM's demand/threat, Chef Schmidt said "SHUMAN" (he deliberately always called me that knowing full well my name is SHULMAN), "you would have resigned wouldn't have you?" To that, using my best Gary Cooper imitation, my only response was "yup, I would have had to."

You see, Chef Sturkner, displaying a very intact conscience and not rationaliezing the situation,knew the full moral impact of what he had done. Under admittedly trying circumstances, he realized that in this instance (and probably many more to come, especially if that GM remained there) his own integrity was not taken from him but rather, he had given it away. In a figurative, if not literal sense,he would no longer be able to look himself in the mirror and respect himself.

So, adding the word wrath after "ridicule" to an aforementioned quote, this is what Frederick Douglass had in mind and in his living soul when he said “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”

Wow !!

What a story !!!

This is why I choose to live with less..

Less is more.

I guess I have kept some of my integrity afterall.

Thank You for this wonderful piece.

-- Burt B.

To Burt,

I agree.It is better to loose face than to loose our self respect.
loong
Great Story

Les, sometimes I don't care one way or another about things that might put somebody else off. However, there have been times when I have thrown in the white towel, and it meant a great deal to me. As you know, a while ago, I made a commitment that in certain circumstances, I will fly my flag, no matter what the cost. No more white towel there! I watched too much go on that just was not right.

I follow the rules, even when I don't like them. This is because I cannot expect students to follow my rules when they don't like them, if I don't model the behavior that I want.

If I cannot follow the rules, I go elsewhere to a place where I can function by the rules.

Burt....thank you for your honesty.

Lance......great story!

Connie......I hear you! I try not to make waves with others, but if it comes down to what's right and wrong for me I will stick with my own standards, even if it does not make anyone else very happy.

Lance says thank you to all who read and/or commented on the story.
He has more work-related integrity/ethical stories (only a slight hyperbole) than there were in the "Naked City" and will be relating some more of them to you as time goes by.

Burt, based on what you have written in various forums you have an exceedingly high degree of self-awareness which Lance considers to be the "royal road" to moral integrity. So, nice going dude!

As far as Les, er, I mean less being more, I/we in all of my/our present incarnations, the eternal idealist(s), believe that no one should ever aspire to any standard of living higher than "comfortable" as anything more than that is unnecessary in an individual and collective moral sense. Perhaps many people who aspire to heights (nadirs?) copious consumption-(un)wise do so as they are unhappy with their inner essences/living spirits and the quest for unlimited material goods and/or so-called elevated status is a grotesque, dysfunctional and insecure manifestation of their dissatisfaction with themselves.

Connie and Debbie, in the workplace, unfortunately, one, on a daily and an "absolute" relativity basis, has to learn like a "knight without armor in a savage land" which ethical battles are worth fighting for the "greater cause" and which ones are counter productively not so or as Kenny Rogers would say "it wasn't me who started that old crazy Asian war..." oh,Ruby, don't take your love to town," er, I mean "you got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away and know when to run." In many work situations, mostly in a managerial capacity, after fighting the agency "enemy" within ethically for as long and hard as I could, at times I did like Snagglepuss (even though he always dressed far better than myself) and exited stage left...

Ooh! Ooh!, as Gunther Toody would say (what is with all these relatively early days of U.S. tv references/allusions!?), calling many social workers agents of change in reality is a societally cruel oxymoron.

Sooner or later coming exclusively to RR will be "THE FAMILY-SELF SUFFICIENCY STORY"