Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

Where are the ethics?

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter

Home » Podcasts » 2006 Podcasts

I whine a little about the lack of ethics in a large percentage of the questions I get.

Listen to the podcast: Where are the Ethics?. It's a podcast!

Transcript

Some days I could just cry.

I get a LOT of questions submitted to Ask Leo either in the form of comments on specific articles, or as questions submitted using the ask-a-question form. Many more questions every day than I could ever hope to answer. But I do read them all.

And reading them all is getting really depressing.

I estimate that somewhere between a quarter and a half of all questions asked are attempts to deceive, steal, hack or hide from the repercussions of questionable activity.

Not a day goes by that I don't get a ton of "please recover my password" requests. Some may be legit I suppose, but many are blatant or poorly-disguised attempts to get me to supply a password into someone else's account.

Not a day goes by that I don't get stories of accounts actually being hacked, and vicious email or IM's being sent to everyone in the hacked account's address book.

Not a day goes by that I don't get a request from someone attempting to recover an instant messaging conversation. Sometimes it's their own, but more often than not they're quite up front about wanting to hack into a girlfriend's, boyfriend's or spouse's IM history because they suspect that they're being cheated on.

I've spoken about IP tracing before as well. Another all-to-frequent request is a variation of "can I track down this person by their IP address", or its counterpart, "can I be traced by my IP address". In either case, you know there's something going on.

And the one that still causes my jaw to drop every time I get it is the repeated request for software activation codes. Apparently some folks think that activating software illegally is there for the asking, and I'll dole it out.

Some are blatant, some are poorly veiled attempts to deceive me, and others look very, very legitimate. Some are adults but many are kids with more time than honesty.

But so many are just so ... wrong. And no, I don't answer them.

There are just so many people trying to do so much that's unethical, I sometimes despair for internet, and even humanity, for what it all represents.

Some days I could just cry.

Related:

  • Rebroadcasting the Ask Leo! podcasts. From the Terms & Conditions: "If you publish a podcast or other internet-only audio program, you may include the weekly Ask Leo! podcast within yours for free, provided that you include the entire podcast (normally exactly three minutes long), and provide attribution and a link back to the Ask Leo! web site in any site or shownotes associated with your podcast.

Article C2557 - February 14, 2006

Helpful? Get new articles weekly by email in my FREE newsletter!

Your Name:
Your Email:


Why Subscribe?

Recent Comments
31 Comments

Dear Leo, Yes ethics seem to be going down the tube.But in reality they are not.You are only one of millions that believe in right & wrong.Sometimes it's difficult not to break ones ethics.I live in Thailand.I tried to get in touch with a Microsoft company to buy a legal Windows program.Was uinable to locate one.Tried the Internet & sent them a request to purchase a Windows program.No answer.People do try to be honest.I really think if the entertainment Industry was not so greedy more people would purchase legal CD's & Movies & not copies.Most of us out here are not rich & our money is hard to come by.I no. No excuse. Any thanks for all of your help in solving so many of my computer problems.
Raymond

Posted by: Raymond Hughes at February 23, 2009 6:00 PM

Your "I could just cry!" really struck a chord with me. Life would be so much nicer if we could trust everyone. As we were growing up, that was the actual case for many of us -- because our parents effectively screened the people we came into contact with and associated with.

But, as we age we discover that there is an element of our race that has sociopathic tendencies; i.e. -- they think only of themselves, and not of others. The sociopathic are about 5 percent of our society; but they sure appear to be more widespread than that. This is because a disproportionate percentage of our public figures are part of this group. Sociopaths gravitate to positions of influence and power. At times it seems like society has gone to hell, and everybody but us has abandoned morality. But it simply isn't the case; it just seems that way.

I am not implying that a majority of public figures are dishonest. Far from it. Many are motivated by a great desire to be of service -- to help others. I am claiming, however, that amongst public figures one will find about 20 percent who are sociopathic; that is, four times more than the run-of-the-mill population. So ... our good leaders are especially plagued by this disproportionate level of sociopathic behavior. And these sociopaths are the reason many people label all public figures as scoundrels! What a price the good ones pay for their attempts to help us!

But you are right to cry! All humanity should be crying for a "fix" that would cause man's inhumanity to man to cease. Some place their hope in religion. Others in evolution. Others in discovering the culprit gene. And still others in society.

The great danger is that a society desperate for a more moral society will actually propigate even greater inhumanity in trying to weed out the "weeds" of society. Morally motivated purges are a strong part of mankind's history.

So...just continue to be your good, moral self. Helping others is one of the highest forms of morality. And know that there are 19 out of 20 others out there who feel just as you do. Many of us could just cry too!

Posted by: Marvin at February 24, 2009 9:24 AM

Some believe that there are basic instinct genes for some morality aspects. However, civilization largely depends upon social interaction to communicate the behavior norms which permit society to work. Morals and manners, for better or for worse, are learned from our parents and peers.

Posted by: R Reynolds at March 3, 2009 5:48 PM

Well, looking for that quote by P.T. Barnum the great man of the P.T. Barnum circus on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.t._barnum
They say that he NEVER said "A fool is born everyminute..." .In Hebrew we have a saying : "Available fools never cease, they just change places with each other after being burnt".
Shades of the Madden Ponzi Scheme, steroid muscle builders in sports. I loved the comments above, but it seems that technology has widened the ability to "Fool all the people some of the time".
thank You Leo for your great help in weeding out the weeds from the garden.

Posted by: Moshe Natan at March 4, 2009 12:53 AM

The principle at work in ethics is free will.
The internet has given many the access,denied billions of forebears, to info and advice- as well as scamming routes.
The free will that 'good' people use is balanced by the increase in 'bad' moves- from others less enlightened.
It's just Yin-Yang, Leo! -Good luck..

Posted by: trevor at March 6, 2009 3:42 AM

I need to crack a web site called ask-Leo and was wondering if you could help me? I intend to steal his Latte money (although I wouldn't drink that kind of thing).
Leo, I for one appreciate an honest man/woman. People like you are very high on my "trusted" list. Thank you.
I cried when Dick Nixon was exposed as a liar. Up 'til then I had always accepted that my President would not lie to me. Adulthood is a b**ch.
I'm suspicious enough not to open that email that says I won $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
However, I am concerned that you aren't getting enough legit q's, so: How do I deceive, steal, hack or hide from the repercussions of questionable activity?

Posted by: Catmoves at March 10, 2009 3:01 PM

I know exactly what you mean because I have the knowledge but do not have a degree i am considered the Hacker to everyone I know and they ask stupid things like that to me too.I was even ask why I am legally attending a college now after 20 years, so brother you are not alone.It does not even seem to matter that I am bonded for a local security firm I constantly get the 'well can't you get this or that for free for me' or 'get into this or that account'.
I have thought if they would put as much time and energy into learning how to do what I do then they would have a better appreciation maybe but I guess that is why we know what we do SELF DISCIPLINE and MORALS.That is a good thing because the constant nagging creates stress as defined by the Marine Corp.... The overwhelming urge to choke the snot out of a soul and your brain says no while your muscle fibers slowly try to override !
So my heart goes out to you.

Posted by: James Reisler at March 19, 2009 11:25 PM

When we speak about Ethics, we are referring to right conduct. But whose conduct? By whose standards? Yesterday an "X-rated" movie is a "PG-Rated" movie today. Once, I was called "Sir" or "Mr". Today I am called "Bro" or "dude". I hear phrases such as, "Hay man, he is really 'bad'." But today's interpretation is quite the opposite, believing that bad represents good and good, bad. All of these examples find us imperceptibly changing---the world's acceptance of its behavior has no plumb bob of righteousness. The standard of excellence, the standard of what is right in the heart has always been changing. We believe what our itching ears want to hear, and if a little bit of light gets on us, we slink down into the chair for fear that it might expose the darkness of our hearts. We polish up our shoes in the hope that no one knows where we've been. We candy-coat our lives with lies and false pretenses and deceit we are unaware of. We nod our heads and continue reading the morning paper, sticking our forks into our plates, and wiping our faces satisfied that everything is wonderful. But little do we know that we are next to open graves, oblivious. Right conduct is only a concept, and we have lost an awareness of what responsibility and accountability are---that we are indeed our brother's keeper who watches out for one another. We have lost sight of a standard of what is right and wrong, and turn our heads as if one never existed. And our own history that we are making each day finds us unable to mock what we have done, for we are reaping what we sow.

What ethics? It is a word without meaning to most, choosing to veil the world mirror so that it does not have to torment over what it has done to itself. We would do well to cry, and hope that we are heard.

Posted by: Stu Kopelman at May 25, 2009 4:21 PM

It does seem that morals and ethics are losing ground, but the internet has made it easy for people to make comments anonymously, saying things that they would never say to a person's face (they might get punched in the mouth; no one likes pain!) There are always people who are cons, manipulative, sleazy, criminals, drunks, addicts, abusive, jealous of your success, etc. Avoid them!

Posted by: Lee Krjcky at June 13, 2009 9:13 AM

With all respect to Dave, if you believe that humans have evolved over millions of years,and if after all that time man hasn't suddenly become "good," then surely a few more eons won't make it so.

Posted by: Lee Nelson Guptill at June 17, 2009 7:29 AM

Post a comment on "Where are the ethics?":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

  • Read the article at the top of this page. If your comment shows you didn't, it'll be deleted and ignored.

  • Comment only on this article. Use the Google search box at the top of the page if you have a question about something else.

  • Don't include personal information in the comment. No email addresses. No phone numbers. No physical addresses.

  • Don't spam. Excessive links to unrelated sites within a comment or across multiple comments will cause all such comments to be removed.

  • Don't ask me to recover lost passwords or hacked accounts. I can't, and those comments will be deleted.

  • I can't respond to every comment. And I can't vouch for the accuracy of others who do.

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Question? Ask Leo!