What price to buy your way past this protector of virtue?
In the wake of the release of the Panama Papers, this week's thought experiment is a pretty apt inquiry into the nature of privilege. Let's take a look.
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The Prime Minister liked to think of himself as a 'pretty straight kind of guy'. He genuinely despised corruption and sleaze in government and wanted to run a cleaner, more honest administration.
Something had happened, however, that presented him with a real dilemma. At a Downing Street reception, a businessman known for his lack of scruples, but who did not have a criminal or civil conviction against him, took the PM aside. Whispering conspiratorially into his ear, he said, "Many people don't like me and don't respect the way I run my affairs. I don't give a damn about that. What does annoy me is that my reputation means I'll never be honoured by my country.
"Well," he continued, "I'm sure you and I can do something about that. I'm prepared to give £10 million to help provide clean water for hundreds of thousands of people in Africa, if you can guarantee me that I'll be knighted in the New Year's honours list. If not, then I'll just spend it all on myself."
He slapped the PM on the back, said, "Think it over," and slipped back into the crowd. The Prime Minister knew this was a kind of bribe. But could it really be wrong to sell one of this country's highest honours when the reward would be so obviously for the good?
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 148.
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What do you think? Are honours something that can be bought? Should they be for sale? Are they already for sale? I'll be back on Friday to discuss how my evolutionary ethics would deal with this.
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The Prime Minister liked to think of himself as a 'pretty straight kind of guy'. He genuinely despised corruption and sleaze in government and wanted to run a cleaner, more honest administration.
Something had happened, however, that presented him with a real dilemma. At a Downing Street reception, a businessman known for his lack of scruples, but who did not have a criminal or civil conviction against him, took the PM aside. Whispering conspiratorially into his ear, he said, "Many people don't like me and don't respect the way I run my affairs. I don't give a damn about that. What does annoy me is that my reputation means I'll never be honoured by my country.
"Well," he continued, "I'm sure you and I can do something about that. I'm prepared to give £10 million to help provide clean water for hundreds of thousands of people in Africa, if you can guarantee me that I'll be knighted in the New Year's honours list. If not, then I'll just spend it all on myself."
He slapped the PM on the back, said, "Think it over," and slipped back into the crowd. The Prime Minister knew this was a kind of bribe. But could it really be wrong to sell one of this country's highest honours when the reward would be so obviously for the good?
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 148.
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What do you think? Are honours something that can be bought? Should they be for sale? Are they already for sale? I'll be back on Friday to discuss how my evolutionary ethics would deal with this.
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