Good morning esteemed members, I have almost always looked down on the study of humanities in general, i.e human rights and social development courses and the like, mostly with good reason but some with no reason other than the usual retort: "well, everyone knows that !!". Perhaps it's because of my biased look that I bring this subject to your attention now. Nowadays, most universities incorporate Ethics related courses into the curriculum, some mandatory while others elective, that will be mostly related to the field of study you are in. What they claim to teach is to train you on how to face the ethical dilemmas you might find in the work life, giving extreme and very coincidental examples of situations where you might not know what is the right thing to do. Or perhaps you know what's right, because let's face it, you almost always do, but there are other conflicting factors at play in that situation that might drive you into choosing a different course of action. I find that useless and unimportant. For one, if anyone should happen to be under such a situation, he would dance joyously that he was the chosen one for such an unlikely event; seriously, just read some of these. Secondly, which no one I asked this question opposed, people already know the right thing to do in most situations. When someone asks you your advice on a matter and you suggest a course of action and say: "I'm sorry, but it's the right thing to do, Todd", they never argue about how right this decision is, even though they might argue of why they need to do the wrong decision, assuming Todd argues at all, because most Todds are complacent, soft kids. Finally, and in case some of you were faced with a dilemma you didn't know the answer to and you started wishing you had taken that ethics course in college, allow me to break to you what is taught in these courses. They begin by teaching you how to identify a dilemma, easy enough; then describe it; present possible solutions or decisions for handling it and finally, here is a kicker, choose the most correct one !! I would repeat that again if I was speaking but you can go ahead and read it yourself, I'll wait for you. So, in case you are a doctor, you choose what's in the best interest of the patient, as if normally, and in the absence of problems, you wouldn't; if you are an engineer, you decide on the most efficient that harms the least people, preferably none, which was news to most engineers since they thought 'engin' meant 'myth' and 'eers' stood for 'busters'. I might be greatly misinformed, or greatly mistaken, in which case I would like to be informed and corrected, or in case you are of the same disposition as me but my writing is irritating or you could put my, also your, thoughts into better order and wording I admit to the former and accept the latter. Thank you for your patience.
