The Ethical Sellout by Lily Zheng

Author:Lily Zheng
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 2019-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Weathering Discomfort

Jeanette never spoke about leaving her jobs for moral or ethical reasons. In fact, the only reason she left any of her jobs was to stay with her partners: if her girlfriends had been fine with moving or staying put for Jeanette’s sake, she probably never would have left any of the compromising positions she found herself in. To an extent, Jeanette tried to rationalize her situation so that she could feel less conflicted: she was just following the rules; she was helping defendants receive lighter sentences. Yet she knew that her justifications were flimsy. Jeanette bore nearly the full brunt of the discomfort from her choices.

Feeling the discomfort of an impossible choice, especially one where complicity is involved, is important. Discomfort helps you understand more about yourself and your values and can sometimes lead you toward making a necessary change.

Abby and Jeanette both told stories that on their face seem remarkable but in reality are commonplace. We all at some point or another find ourselves in situations that threaten not only our personal values but also our responsibilities to our communities and loved ones. We all have a price of staying; some amount of money, security, validation, or other benefits we crave is enough to buy our participation in genuinely harmful systems. Quantifying how much harm to yourself you’re willing to bear to get what you want is difficult. Doing the same calculus for harm done to others is far harder.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.