Chapter Eleven: Navigating Global Ethics Theories
Part Two: Motivating and Enforcing Global Ethics
Reading:
Melé, D., & Sánchez-Runde, C. (2013). “Cultural diversity and universal ethics in a global world”. Journal of Business Ethics, September 2013, Issue 4, pp 681-686
Key Dilemma of Part Two:
If we can create a truly just universal global ethics, how can we motivate and inforce it; or must we give up the project or a universal global ethics?
Review of List of Navigation Strategies for Seemingly Intractable Conflicts, Differences, and Dilemmas:
Example to help us work through this dilemma:
Global climate change, caused by industrialization, is upon us, and the sources of greenhouse gases and other pollutants are fairly easy to identify. Global treaties that commit countries to reduce their production of climate change chemicals are inspiring, but only weakly enforced. At some point, stronger measures will need to be taken to stop the production of these chemicals. What if some countries and corporations resist efforts to enforce such reductions? Will we need to use violence to force these countries and corporations to change their practices? And will such violence itself contribute to the risk of runaway greenhouse gases.
- The challenge of a climate change global ethic is that there are belief systems that resist measures to reduce greenhouse gas production:
- There are some, perhaps many, religious people that believe that climate change is God’s test in our faith in Him to deliver us from peril, as humans are made in the image of God, so He will be our eternal protector.
- There are some, perhaps many, technology-loving people who believe that a technological solution will be found to solve the problem of climate change without have to roll back current industrial practices.
- There are some, perhaps many, skeptical people who believe that the threat of disastrous climate change is an exaggeration (fake news). They believe that there have been many climate fluctuations in the past, and we are merely going through such a fluctuation now.
- There are some, perhaps many, wealthy/powerful people, whose wealth/power depends on continued production of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, so they will do anything within their power to resist restrictions on these chemicals.
- How can the challenges of these four categories of people be met nonviolently, or will violence be necessary?
Introduction to Part Two:
We need to construct a vision of global ethics from a nonviolent collaborative-process perspective. Traditionally, ethics is framed as a set of principles, imperatives, or rules to be followed. Therefore, this version of global ethics is essentially theoretical and philosophical, but the implementation is left to forces of persuasion, governmental forces, or military forces. Implementation through nonviolent collaborative-processes is not usually the focus of global ethics.
What is particularly powerful about collaborative processes, used in global ethical conflicts, is their ability to create a space to navigate between values in an effort to generate overarching moral progress. This is sometimes easier within cultures with more ethical latitude than cultures with more rigid ethical beliefs and practices; however, it depends on the way a culture’s specific ethics and practices embrace the specific beliefs and practices of other cultures. I will suggest some collaborative processes that may be useful for investigation, dialogue, and the construction of space for moral progress.
Finally, I suggest that global multiculturalism is the foundation for the effective creation of an inclusive global ethics.
Questions:
1. What does global ethics look like from a nonviolent, collaborative perspective?
I suggest that the central concern that must be addressed by a system of global ethics is how to address the industrialized, capitalist world order, where countries, corporations, cultures, and individuals are apparently addicted to power, wealth, and status. Even though there are millions of people on earth, who are satisfied to work hard in harmony with nature and generosity to others; there are other people that want to maximize their power, wealth, and status, even at the expense of other people and the environment. Cultures vary on how they encourage people to value one mode of existence over the other.
2. How is multiculturalism necessary for the creation of an inclusive global ethics?
Multiculturalism is based on the idea that all cultures have the right to interact respectfully with each other. No culture should be demonized; rather all cultures should participate in ongoing dialogues and collaborations in the creation and maintenance of a sustainable and truly inclusive global ethics
3. Force may be needed in policing global crimes and evils, but can we democratically create and maintain global ethics without authoritarian force?
In order to prevent the necessity of using force to police global crimes and evils, we need to at least start to institute the following crime and evil prevention reforms as soon as possible:
- Ban and eliminate nuclear weapons.
- By progressive levels of lethality, dismantle other weapons of mass destruction.
- Ban military weapons for civilian purchase.
- Phase in global military disarmament, until there are no militaries anywhere. (Costa Rica abolished their standing army in 1948—the year Gandhi was assassinated and the year that I was born)
- Commit wealthy countries to a plan to uplifting low-income countries, so that all countries are at comparable levels of wealth as there will be no peace unless everyone experiences fairness and justice.
- Commit wealthy communities to adopt impoverished communities.
- The upper-percenters need to adopt an impoverished local and global families of the lower-percenters.
- Reduce wealth gaps within all countries.
- House the homeless everywhere.
- Provide medicine on a sliding scale everywhere.
- Eliminate prisons and provide economic counseling, training, and jobs to former inmates.
- House the criminally insane in therapeutic hospitals.
- Create a Conflict Transformation Corps that provides culturally-appropriate training in conflict processes for all of the people of the world.
- Create a Diversity Corps to train all people to respect differences of culture, religion, gender, sexuality, politics, and disability.
- Commit all countries to sustainable ecological practices, coupled with global education on the climate crisis.
4. Can all of these reforms be done nonviolently, without violence?
Of course, this is an impossible question to answer. It can only be said that for the survival of life on earth, it will be necessary to start today. If we do not start soon, we will necessitate that these measures will require violence, which can be shown to be, all too commonly, self-defeating.
