Dialogue on Ethics and Integrity Responses

What do you mean by "Deceive for the sake of the task?

In the military it looks like camouflage clothing, among other things. The police commonly do this type of thing (stakeouts, etc.). I think the point she's making is that there is a belief in the Guardian framework that the end justifies the means. Have you ever chosen to distort the truth in some way, because you felt it was important to get something to happen and you were afraid that people would object. Often we rationalize that there isn't time to explain, or people would need more background to really understand, or the people involved have a limited mind set and they don't seem disposed to change it, etc. In this model there is an appropriate place for this kind of action. If it falls within the Guardian integrity - for the greater good. Can others think of other examples?
 
 

You seem to indicate that mixing the two syndromes creates corruption, please give me an example.

My favorite is our current obsession with making the government act like a business. I'm not suggesting that they throw money around, but when the government gets too concerned with low cost and meeting budgets they begin to forget what their purpose is (there's a good topic for discussion - the purpose of government). this leads to the kinds of conversations we had a few years back with the Republicans trying to figure out the "value" of the national forests. the government is supposed to give out grants (National Endowment for the Arts, etc.) It's supposed to protect the weak, etc. These are not money making ventures. When we get too concerned about having to count our penny's we are likely to miss the point and that's when corruption sets in. On the other side, when corporations become more concerned with protecting themselves and "deceive for the sake of the task" as some oil companies and automobile companies have done, among others, you get corruption from the other perspective.