Posted on 06/22/2016 2:32:51 PM PDT by lafroste
Ever since I woke up this morning I have been unusually bothered by my unexpected questioning of my response to the one great ethical dilemma in my life. This event took place, oddly enough, on April Fools day, 1997 which means that now it is nearly 20 years old. I had a little talk with God at the time asking Him if this was His idea of an April Fools joke on me. I am still interested in discussing this issue with Him when I finally meet Him Sandal to face.
Even though it is now 20 years past, I sense that it is still dangerous. Therefore I am still not going to reveal details. But the situation was this:
I was in a circumstance that let me see that the death of an evil man who richly deserved to die was also wrong, as in illegal. I could have easily prevented it (real easily, and probably make a small fortune at the same time). However, had I prevented it, I would have unleashed a sh&tstorm of truly epic proportions, costing millions of people potentially hundreds of millions of dollars and leading to a media feeding frenzy that would have lasted years. It would have easily made it to the SCOTUS. The people that I would hurt were friends of mine, people I admired. I let this evil man die (and no, I had no involvement with his demise). I shunned my 15 minutes of fame, the money that I could have gained, all of it.
My reflections today have led me to wonder about other people's ethical dilemmas, and if they still bother them or have they found peace. So, I would like to know how others contend with their own dilemmas. Discussion is welcome.
“If you choose A, this bad thing happens. If you choose B that bad thing happens. You MUST choose A or B.”
I think ethics would demand you try to choose the action that causes the least amount of harm. How to judge what is the least amount of harm is probably the tricky part.
Were you the photog who didn’t take the picture of River Phoenix dying in the gutter?
...of a spine and a pair. You sound like a liberal seeking ways to "find yourself."
What you’re saying is that anyone in the right position could have discovered the information but You do not know if any else did.
Personally I wouldn’t grieve over this mans death. You saved a lot of people from suffering unnecessarily.
No. I would have been rewarded by others. The evil man was nearly irrelevant to the entire situation. His only relevance was that he existed at all.
Actually I know that no one else knew this. The amount of power that I blundered into caused me to sit and think about long and hard. It is what still troubles me.
My ethical dilemmas have not involved life and death choices. I’ll present an ethical dillemma of lesser proportions.
Sometimes on FR (and elsewhere on the internet, and in groups I’m in) people will say something that is blatantly false ... or blatantly irrelevant as an argument for a goal that they and I agree on... eg a candidate.
When and how should a FReeper correct another FReeper on facts and logic? We can send a personal FReepmail and try not to embarass the other person publicly. But if the other person is leading fellow FReepers down the wrong path through lies and illogic, do other FReepers have a role in publicly correcting the error... which may embarass the original FReeper?
Well all I can figure is that if “the others”knew what you knew your life would be in danger. Does this have anything to do with the Clinton crime family?
Alan Ginsberg died on April 5th, 1997. I guess a lot of people would have considered him an evil man, especially around here. But his death appears to have been inevitable and not to have had major financial implications.
Anyway, in requiem to this thread I will say I have found the answer I sought and am finally at peace about my decision. Maybe that's why I posted it in the first place.
Your ethical dilemma is that you were”playing God”, not wrestling with an ethical dilemma.
God chooses when each of us will die. Some of us go to meet Him in Heaven, some of us wait for Judgment Day.
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