A Question of Ethics

The study of ethics presumably presents its students with the tools to react to and engage in a changing world.

I present the following to you, dear reader, as a case study/question in doing the right thing.

Let us pretend that a respected member of the university community woke up in the morning, put on a stylish v-neck sweater, and trotted off to work.

Let us also say that in his haste, this respected member of the university community happened to put the aforementioned sweater on backwards, so the stylish V was prominently pointing down his back.

Did this community member mean to do this? Was he sporting a fashion-forward design? Was he in the midst of a study on social norms? Was he enjoying his cramped adam's apple? We will never know.

What we do know is that a certain fledgling university employee, known for occasionally and innocently making inappropriate comments, (eg, making conversation at the company christmas party with a co-worker about her Christmas Sweater, assuming she was wearing it in sport, when she actually wasn't) noticed the backwards sweater after a round of inconsequential small talk with the community member.

This university employee weighed the alternatives. He thought about his place in the university eco-system. He thought about his role in the niche.

He, a very casual ethics student, studied the situation, weighed its complexities, and decided on a course of action.

He said nothing, sat back, and enjoyed the emperor's new clothes.

Just as nobody likes to be the person to comment on spinach in another's teeth, he figured there'd be someone else to yell, "But he's wearing his sweater backwards!"