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University: Lecturer: Course: Date: Ethical person Mr. Woodburn was an environmentalist. He frequently crashed in opinions with other powers that be on how the general environment should be treated. So when the city council proposed to replace a recreational park with a sports stadium, he rose up in arms. His argument was that that recreational park was one of the very few still remaining in the city. The park had natural vegetation, including some trees several centuries old.
Many people used to go there during the weekends just to unite again with nature. To Mr. Woodburn, destroying such a park was tantamount to loosing a central source of pride in the city. The city council countered his arguments by contending that there were other man-made parks within the city. This particular park was the only one with the dimensions and geographical attributes needed to create a satisfactory sports stadium.
And if created, the stadium would be a huge income earner for the whole city. So while Mr. Woodburn had a valid point of view, they contended that the situation was now a matter of aesthetics over basic business sense. The situation quickly got statewide attention when Mr. Woodburn contacted lawyers and said that his standpoint was firm. The case, now tied up in legal procedures and rigors, took several months before it got resolved.
During this time, the leaders of the city council ridiculed Mr. Woodburn, publishing all manner of negatives against him in the dailies. It was hence a surprise when Mr. Woodburn won the case in the end.
The recreational park remained, and the sports stadium idea was scrapped. The recreational park is now named after Mr. Woodburn. The entire episode struck me as being an exceptional example of an ethical persons actions. I define an ethical deed as any action undertaken by a person willingly and for the good of the rest of the society. In such an action, the person stands to gain little or nothing, but his or her passion for a better world and a better livelihood for mankind drives the action into fruition.
In so doing, the person uses his or her own resources like time, energy or even finances, to make sure that the ethical deed is accomplished (Catherine, 2002). Mainstream society tends to shy away from ethical deeds because usually they constitute a loss to the individual. The most common kind of thinking that occurs is that no one man can change the entire society, so even attempting to do so is a waste of resources. This mindset shows the despair that most people have developed over time. But even then, every now and then, someone decides to go against this mental stereotype, pursues a passion, and heralds a shift in paradigms.
To me, thats what Mr. Woodburn accomplished. Against all public ridicule and pressure from the opponents, Mr. Woodburn pursued his believes and finally, the entire city had to bend to his mindset.
The battle was a long one, since the city council had the necessary resources to even turn the general public against Mr. Woodburn. A couple of weeks into the legal muddle, almost everybody was of the opinion that Mr. Woodburn was secretively against any plan to develop the city. The city council had so rubbished his reputation and intentions that, at one time, a mass protest was held near his city residence. The message by then was clear: Mr.
Woodburn was the least popular person in the city. It is ironic that by seeking what was in the publics best interests, Mr. Woodburn had courted the entire citys wrath. Most people in a similar situation would probably have backed off their plans and termed the society a lost cause. But Mr. Woodburn didnt.
He bore on even more forcefully, getting more lawyers on his tab, and raising awareness about his intentions. He held several public conferences in which he addressed the public. In the first two such conferences, he had to make a hasty retreat from an irate mob. But with time, his message sunk into the collective pubic mind. Mindsets shifted to allow for the fact that maybe there was some sense in his actions after all. And when this happened, the rest was downhill.
The city council received a sound defeat within months. Of course, its possible to argue that Mr. Woodburn had some secret, selfish goal in all this (Harry, 1986). In fact, this was one major point that the city council strived to drum into the public ear. Mr. Woodburn was accused severally of having political goals in the whole drama.
The Stadium Controversy, as it came to be called, was just but a stepping stone into a political limelight. Mr. Woodburn eventually proved this accusation wrong by never engaging in any politics afterwards. But while the accusation stood, it hurt his public ratings significantly. It was, after all, logical, considering the context.
There are many people who believe that a completely altruistic deed is impossible. They contend that even the most ethical deeds, if scrutinized, have a certain selfish goal somewhere. For Mr. Woodburn, this view seemed vindicated when the recreational park finally got named after him. Though there was no other direct gain, it was contended that this renaming of the park proved that Mr. Woodburn was a classic example of ethical egoism.
If Mr. Woodburn didnt have such an ego, he could have rejected the name change, after all. And since the name change was permanent, Mr. Woodburn had probably ended gaining the most anyone could ever gain from such a situation. His name would be revered, memoirs would be written in his name, and so on. He may not be interested in political gains, but every other door to his aspirations had just opened.
The argument here hence was that Mr. Woodburn had leveraged the situation to smooth the way to any other goal he might pursue in future. It might be true that Mr. Woodburn's life changed for the better when he won the case. In fact, there is some evidence to this.
He rapidly became elected to the board of several international groups with environmental leanings. He also became an authority whose advice on local environmental matters was always sought. Books that he had written before suddenly had an enthusiastic market. Generally speaking, Mr.
Woodburn's life changed completely. But whether this had been his goal from the beginning is hard to say. There is no evidence that he had deliberately choreographed the events to launch himself into the spotlight. Thus while he may have benefited from his deeds, that does not detract from the fact that his deeds were of the highest ethical significance.
All in all, there is no clear cut way of judging ethical deeds. However, a certain deed can have such a significant impact on the society that without a doubt, it becomes ethical from any stand point. Any personal gains from such a deed are likely to be incidental, not premeditated. The greater good goes to the society, or to another person quite apart from the one doing the deed. In short, ethics make humans different from animals. Animals are driven by the need to survive.
But as humans, beyond a certain point, we clamor to satisfy our convictions. We face a situation of right or wrong, and choose the right, even when no retributions would occur from choosing the wrong. That is the essence of being ethical. It is voluntary. It is a passion.
And it usually costs. Works cited: Catherine Rainbow (2002) Descriptions of ethical theories and principles Retrieved from web accessed on 10 th March, 2009. Harry Binswanger (1986) Selfishness. Retrieved from web accessed on 10 th March, 2009
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Research essay sample on City Council March 2009
