Morality
Topic by Sisa
Essay by Lawrence
Morality is the applied discipline of the philosophy of ethics. Morality is mainly about distinguishing our intentions, actions and behaviour between what is right and proper from what isn’t right and what is improper. Ethics is more about systematising and codifying what is right and what is wrong.
For the purpose of this essay I will focus on the applied aspect of morality where I try to address key moral issues in the twenty first century. We are practically a quarter into the 21st century but most of us can identify problems today as the same as those we had in the 20th century.
Looking at the Wikipedia entry for 1922, the year saw the first insulin treatment for diabetes in Canada. Some of the discoverers of insulin were reluctant to patent the process on the grounds of medical ethics, but some others argued that a company might patent the process for profit without guaranteeing the quality of the medicine. Yet today society is still fighting to find a vaccine 100% effective against the dreaded Covid-19 and the medical ethics of patenting such vaccines is still a relevant debate.
The morality and ethics of a Covid vaccine today is not just one of profit, but also of distribution. Except today there are other technical issues that in 1922 were completely unknown. First of all there are so many people who are qualified to work and develop a vaccine at an industrial scale to meet world demand. Producing vaccines is a specialised process, and it costs big money to train people. Secondly, distribution of the vaccine is itself complex and might not be easily done in certain parts of the world.
Hence a key issue of morality this century still remains accessing health care when a person requires attention. The pandemic has demonstrated that a private health care system is impractical and unethical during a national emergency. The USA, UK, and China have shown that private health care (in their various forms), or rather ability to pay for health care, is inadequate for major medical emergencies.
The Irish Free State was established in December 1922 that would eventually lead to the Republic of Ireland of today and Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. The relevance of this is that the immoral act of Brexit in the UK had the unpredictable consequence of Northern Ireland becoming one of the most prosperous regions within the EU. This newly found prosperity is driving NI closer to unification with Ireland and away from the UK.
The immoral actions of the British government today will certainly bring about the unification of Ireland. Incidentally such immorality in political governance will also make the independence of Scotland closer to becoming real. Political moral actions have consequences independent of any ideology.
In a way political morality for the rest of the 21st century would be to balance what is in the national interest (eg. pandemic times) and the rights of regional identity. What is clear is that cooperation is still the most important political policy at both the national and international levels.
Ironically, in November 1922 saw the abolishing of the 600 year old Ottoman Empire. There is no doubt that what is left of the British Empire will implode within the next few years. In 1922 Russia was still trying to organise its self after the so called communist revolution: by 1990 the Soviet Union had disintegrated thus exposing the absurdity of trying to hide a vile dictatorship under some fancy idea of communism.
It would be nice if in the 21st century people could distinguish between real political policies and deceptive propagated by fancy ideology. Ideology has certainly been the means by which dictators oppress their people. Ironically, in October 1922 Mussolini and the Fascist party marched on Rome to establish the fascist dictatorship. Today ideas from fascism have found themselves in ideologies as Neo-Liberalism or extreme right wing political parties that feed on the racist instincts of many people. Will ideology remain the cancer of politics in the 21st century?
Morality in the 21st Century is not a matter of what is good or bad, improper or proper, but rather knowing that we face a moral issue that need immediate action and accessing the means available for the right course of action.
Best Lawrence
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