The fight of Good vs. Bad and evolution of ethics

Let's end 2017 with a bang, here's my first longer post here. I've tried to put together some thoughts and ideas in a mostly coherent fashion, remains to be seen how well I succeeded. I want to discuss what is the difference between the good and the bad, or what exactly is evil or wrong to do in a modern society.

Legal does not mean good

There are lots of things that are and have been legal, that are objectively not good things. Easy examples from recent news are politicians deciding on tax breaks and other benefits for themselves, and the killing of unarmed civilians by trigger happy police in the USA.

Both are very much legal actions, the politicians specifically can do this because the tax breaks don't benefit only them, but benefit others as well. The police are given a break saying, "I was afraid for my life" and "do you know how quickly you can be killed if you hesitate?", and similar things while almost never ending up facing serious penalties for their actions.

Why shouldn't politicians be allowed to vote for tax breaks that benefit themselves? Simply because they have the wrong motives for it - instead of thinking of the good of the whole nation, they could easily be swayed by personal gains. Politicians are supposed to represent the needs of the people, not themselves.

What about the police? Well, it seems a combination of incredibly poor training and lack of good equipment and support, specifically in the U.S. has led to this situation. In many other countries the police have significantly longer training periods, and are armed with multiple alternate tactics and tools in addition to their gun. Then you ask: Why is it bad? Because innocent people die for no reason of their own, and the people responsible do not get punished, and the systems responsible do not get changed.

Another interesting example is business practices around the world. Quick and obvious example is how selling products or services at a much higher rate than you know they're worth, or just promoting things you know are of inferior quality than the competition as "better", are practices that are commonplace in business. These are fully legal actions, and not doing these things is generally frowned upon by owners, managers, and such.

Hell, domestic violence and marital rape, child labor, involuntary sterilization, and of course, slavery, all used to be legal and still are in some parts of the world.

Illegal does not mean bad

There are an incredible number of things that are illegal, and the list is mostly growing all the time, partially due to new laws being put in place, and partially due to the vague definitions that the language of laws uses, often on purpose.

Some smaller, but still important examples: teens sending nude pictures of themselves to other people of their age, not mowing your lawn, hell skipping school can get you arrested.

One of the big and controversial examples is prostitution. In most "civilized" areas of the planet prostitution is in some way illegal, either buying or selling sex is illegal, or organized prostitution is illegal. Now considering the fact that prostitution happens regardless of if it's illegal, would it not be good to make sure that prostitutes are given the best possible care and protection in their work? This would mean e.g. organization, brothels and other safe spaces where prostitutes do not have to fear abusive clients or pimps. If legalized they could even require STD checks, pre-registration with identity checks and similar from their clients, making it even safer for everyone.

Another example is drugs, which are generally illegal, and the illegality is enforced by large international treaties. If drugs were to be fully legalized, they could be researched to make them safer to their users, proper treatment options would be available for anyone suffering around them without fear of criminal charges, and we would reduce the prison population significantly by not locking up people who are doing nothing to hurt other people. If hurting yourself by taking drugs should land you in jail, so should alcohol and tobacco. They don't, and neither should drugs.

Making these things illegal while there is still a clear market for them means that who dominates the market is going to be criminals. Then add to the fact that if you've already made these people criminals, adding a bit more crime on top of already criminal activity is a minor step to take. Because of these factors we have in picture the abusive pimps, human trafficking, drug cartels, and massive amount of violence and social problems.

Legalize these things, and the illegal components become quickly obsolete, and the price competition alone will cut their potential profits to negligible amounts. Additionally, another obvious benefit is reduction of the expenses for fighting these crimes as well as increased tax revenue, instead of chasing drug lords the police could chase down corrupted politicians, and instead of arresting sex workers or their clients the money could be spent on e.g. improving police training.

Who then really are the "bad guys"?

First, we must start with the question: What is "bad"? The simple and general answer to is somewhat easy to give:

• Unnecessary violence
• Stomping on other people to benefit yourself
• Allowing others to perform these actions without intervention

So e.g. shooting people who pose no threat to anyone, and approving tax laws that will make other parts of the society suffer but benefit yourself are bad. Similarly, e.g. imprisoning someone that hasn't done anything harmful to others, or where you don't have sufficient proof is bad. But what else should there be?

Maybe we should also ask: What clearly isn't "bad"? Quick thinking tells me at least the following:

• Actions that affect only yourself
• Defending your freedoms in case someone else tries to attack them
• Using necessary levels of force to stop others from doing "bad" things

So e.g. drinking alcohol or using drugs is fine as long as you don't attack others, or operate dangerous machinery such as cars, while under the influence. Similarly, if someone attacks you, it should be ok to defend yourself. However, the combination of the "bad" and "clearly not bad" leads to an interesting conclusion: You should always try to stop others from e.g. violently attacking others or performing other "bad" actions.

What becomes a bit of a grey area is stealing to feed yourself if the society around you has failed you, and similar actions. While stealing from another is clearly wrong, it's the society as a whole that has failed you and is to blame for the action you must take to protect your right to live. Also, marketing or public relations, the modern propaganda, is a bit of a gray area - is it THAT "bad" to lie to someone about the merits of your product, political decisions, and similar? I certainly feel it is pretty bad, but on quite a different level still from violence and violating my rights in other ways.

What these points quickly lead me to as a definition for "bad guys" is for example:

• Corrupt politicians, working against the gains of the many to benefit themselves, often by voting on laws that benefit corporations that support them
• The members of police, military, security and prison guards, etc. who violently abuse other people
• The people stealing, using violence, or similar simply for financial gain or personal pleasure
• Possibly the people doing dishonest "marketing" and "public relations"

What this list notably does not include are the following:

• Prostitutes and their clients, if fully legalized and voluntary
• The research, manufacture, or use of drugs (alcohol and tobacco included)
• People protecting themselves or others, from unnecessary violence and threats to their freedoms, with the necessary levels of force

I would like to hear your ideas on what is missing from here.

Modern evolution of ethics and morality

So where does all this lead us? In the past our morality and codes of ethics was passed down to us in the form of rules, legislation, and similar. On this modern age where the people have unprecedented freedoms and access to information what is starting to take place is a quick evolution of what the people see as "good" or "bad".

Easy examples of this is how racism, sexism, homophobia and the mistreatment of other minorities has quickly become clearly a bad thing in the eyes of many, but the older generations often still don't quite see how these are problems.

Women's rights and the banning of slavery are now clearly spread throughout the "civilized" countries, and only relatively few countries violate them, and various sexual minorities are being given similar legal status as heterosexuals have enjoyed for a long time.

Drugs are also getting slowly legalized around the world, most notably marijuana, and Portugal decriminalizing all drugs. Prostitution is also slowly getting legalized again in many areas, and even state sponsored in some cases.

What we need to happen is for the population that is quickly becoming more and more enlightened, to start demanding that these newly understood ethics and questions of morality are followed by their governments, government officials, and other people in their societies.

What I'd love to see is for many of these gray areas to be explored a bit further as well, and e.g. for flat out lying about your product, service, or political agenda to be made illegal other than in extraordinary circumstances. These are things that negatively affect the society, and do not bring benefits other than to individuals who own or operate the companies, and run the government.

I'd also love to see the next direction for social progress to be made on the question of software piracy, and copying of other digital goods. If the reason for it is simple malice or lack of access to reasonably priced digital goods due to geoblocking and greed, should likely determine what we think of it. Is it reasonable to claim that copying digital goods means direct loss of sales for the full price of the product? I don't think it is.

Should whistleblowing by revealing heinous acts others commit be legally protected, regardless of what is revealed and of whom? Probably, and potentially given certain legal guidelines to do it safely as to not compromise e.g. national security.

Tell me, what kind of behavior or laws would you like to see be examined more carefully by the people?