tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/morality-676/articlesMorality – The Conversation2024-02-21T13:18:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2228312024-02-21T13:18:19Z2024-02-21T13:18:19ZMaking it personal: Considering an issue’s relevance to your own life could help reduce political polarization<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576054/original/file-20240215-28-zbjze5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C1720%2C1732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thinking about issues’ impact on their own lives can help people envision more common ground.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/polarization-in-the-united-states-royalty-free-image/1436162554?phrase=political+polarization&adppopup=true">wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Political polarization can be reduced when people are told to think about the personal relevance of issues they might not care about at first glance.</p>
<p>We, <a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/Rebecca-Dyer">a social psychologist</a> and <a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/keelah-williams">an evolutionary psychologist</a>, decided to investigate this issue with two of our undergraduate students, and recently published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296177">our results</a> in the science journal PLOS One.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141">Previous research</a> has found that conservatives tend to judge “disrespecting an elder” to be more morally objectionable behavior than liberals do. But when we had liberals think about how “disrespecting an elder” could be personally relevant to them – for example, someone being mean to their own grandmother – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296177">their immorality assessments increased</a>, becoming no different than conservatives’.</p>
<p>When people consider how an issue relates to them personally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000567">an otherwise neutral event seems more threatening</a>. This, in turn, increases someone’s perception of how morally objectionable that behavior is.</p>
<p>The pattern was different with conservative participants, however. When conservatives considered the personal relevance of what is typically considered a more “liberal” issue – a company lying about how much it is contributing to pollution – their judgments of how immoral that issue is did not significantly change. </p>
<p>Contrary to what we expected, both conservatives and liberals cared relatively equally about this threat even without thinking about its personal relevance. While some people did focus on the environmental aspect of the threat, as we intended, others focused more on the deception involved, which is less politically polarized. </p>
<p>All participants, no matter their politics, consistently rated more personally relevant threats as more immoral. The closer any threat feels, the bigger – and more wrong – someone considers it to be.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>In the United States today, it can feel like conservatives and liberals are <a href="https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/political-divide-america-beyond-polarization-tribalism-secularism">living in different realities</a>. Our research speaks to a possible pathway for narrowing this gap. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two rows of seated people, seen from the back, listen to four people speaking as they face the audience." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thinking about issues as closer to your own life – happening sooner, nearer or to people you care about – can change how you view them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rear-view-photo-of-audience-listening-to-panel-royalty-free-image/1179025358?phrase=%22town+hall%22+meeting&adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People often think of moral beliefs as relatively fixed and stable: Moral values feel ingrained in who you are. Yet our study suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296177">moral beliefs may be more flexible</a> than once thought, at least under certain circumstances. </p>
<p>To the extent that people can appreciate how important issues – like climate change – could affect them personally, that may lead to greater agreement from people across the political spectrum.</p>
<p>From a broader perspective, personal relevance is just one dimension of something called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018963">psychological distance</a>.” People may perceive objects or events as close to or far away from their lives in a variety of ways: for example, whether an event occurred recently or a long time ago, and whether it is real or hypothetical.</p>
<p>Our research suggests that psychological distance could be an important variable to consider in all kinds of decision-making, including financial decisions, deciding where to go to college or what job to take. Thinking more abstractly or concretely about what is at stake might lead people to different conclusions and improve the quality of their decisions.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Several important questions remain. One relates to the differing pattern that we observed with conservative participants, whose assessments of a stereotypically “liberal” threat did not change much when they considered its relevance to their own lives. Would a different threat – maybe gun violence or mounting student loan debt – lead to a different pattern? Alternatively, perhaps conservatives tend to be more rigid in their beliefs than liberals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000446">as some studies have suggested</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, how might these findings contribute to actual problem-solving? Is increasing the personal relevance of otherwise-neutral threats the best way to help people see eye to eye?</p>
<p>Another possibility might be to push things in the opposite direction. Making potential threats seem less personally relevant, not more, might be an effective way to bring people together to work toward a realistic solution.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222831/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Changing the ‘psychological distance’ someone feels toward an issue can shift their attitudes in ways that might help people on opposite sides of an issue see more eye to eye.Rebecca Dyer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, Hamilton CollegeKeelah Williams, Associate Professor of Psychology, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216052024-01-29T02:29:41Z2024-01-29T02:29:41ZWho we care about is limited – but our research shows how humans can expand their ‘moral circle’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571787/original/file-20240128-23-p9w2if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C65%2C5005%2C3571&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/help-concept-hands-reaching-out-each-1588320151">Bignai/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A cost-of-living crisis, the ongoing impact of COVID, climate change, and numerous global conflicts and refugee crises. When it feels like so many people are doing it tough, how do we decide where to direct our compassion? </p>
<p>In a world that seems <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01012-5">increasingly fractured</a>, we wanted to find out if people can bridge the divide between “us” and “them” – to grow their feelings of wanting to help others, who would be typically beyond their “moral circle”.</p>
<p>We discovered that a surprisingly short period of compassion training can expand how much someone cares about people far beyond their immediate circle. </p>
<h2>Measuring who matters most to us</h2>
<p>Not all moral connections are equal. If the person suffering is our child, our partner, our friend, we are quick to help. But when faced with the suffering of a complete stranger, or someone on the other side of the planet, our motivation to help is likely reduced.</p>
<p>Taking this further, what if the person suffering was actually someone we disliked, or even someone who may have caused harm to others? Would we care then? </p>
<p>Philosophers such as Peter Singer have developed the popular term “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_circle_expansion">moral circle</a>” to refer to those we consider worthy of our concern and those we do not. Typically we prioritise the moral needs of our family and <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/ingroup">ingroup</a> (the social group we belong to) first, and we care much less about those different or distant to us.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-decide-who-and-what-we-care-about-and-whether-robots-stand-a-chance-91987">How we decide who and what we care about – and whether robots stand a chance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Researchers have found we order groups <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/pspp0000086">in this fairly predictable way</a>: family/friends, ingroup, revered, stigmatised, outgroup, animals (high sentience), environment, animals (low sentience), plants, and villains. </p>
<p>Research also shows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221101767">Australia is not particularly high</a> in terms of moral expansiveness – the size of one’s moral circle. In a 2022 study, Australia ranked 32nd on a moral expansiveness scale (MES), with countries like Canada, France and China ranking much higher.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average moral expansiveness scale (MES) scores per country. Higher numbers indicate greater moral expansiveness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221101767">Kirkland et al. (2022)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But are our moral boundaries fixed, or can we move up the moral expansiveness ladder? The question of whether our moral concern for others is stable or zero sum (that is, “my concern for someone comes at the expense of another”) is an empirical one.</p>
<h2>Can we expand our moral circles?</h2>
<p>When thinking about ways to grow our moral circle, things like empathy and mindfulness may come to mind. But our work shows that <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34279046/">compassion is stronger than both</a> at predicting the size of one’s moral circle.</p>
<p>Our work also shows that compassion predicts our <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-022-01900-z">willingness to help those we dislike</a>. And other research shows compassion training increases <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45363-1">feelings of closeness toward a disliked person</a>. </p>
<p>Building on this, our latest research found that a brief <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-023-02300-7">compassion training intervention</a> can increase our moral expansiveness. </p>
<p>In this study, 102 participants were randomly assigned to complete a brief two-hour seminar on compassion training, or to a control group who didn’t attend a seminar.</p>
<p>In the seminar, we focused on defining compassion. The message was: things like anger, anxiety and sadness are normal human emotions, but we have a responsibility to learn and practice how to work with these feelings in helpful and supportive ways.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in tshirt and jeans sitting on the forest floor listening to earphones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571792/original/file-20240128-23-ly0d61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants in the moral expansiveness study spent two weeks listening to audio exercises.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-forest-lean-against-tree-headphones-1889602081">Aleksandr Pobeda/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants then had two weeks to continue to practice what we did in the intervention by listening to guided audio exercises, which were a combination of compassionate breathing and imagery exercises, as well as meditations.</p>
<p>Compassion meditations typically follow a set structure. We begin by expressing compassion to a target – someone we like – but then expand out to other targets, such as strangers or disliked others, to other sentient beings like animals, and to elements of the natural environment, such as coral reefs or forests.</p>
<p>We found that two weeks after the program, participants who had completed compassion training has greater moral expansiveness towards family and revered groups in society (for example, charity workers). </p>
<p>At the three month follow-up, these outcomes improved further. Moral concern for others had increased across the board, including towards outgroup members (such as political opponents), stigmatised members of society, animals, plants, the environment – and even towards supposed “villains” in our society (for example, convicted criminals).</p>
<p>This shows compassion and moral expansiveness are closely connected. We don’t know for sure, but the improved results at the three month mark may have been due to continuing the audio exercises, or perhaps due to a “sleeper effect” – it takes time for people to shift their moral view.</p>
<h2>A hopeful future?</h2>
<p>The year 2024 is full of big choices, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-4-billion-people-are-eligible-to-vote-in-an-election-in-2024-is-this-democracys-biggest-test-220837">4 billion people eligible to vote</a> on who should lead their country.</p>
<p>Election years often spiral into divisions of “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12227-0">us” and “them</a>”, with “we” the public having to choose between the people and policies we hope will improve our world. </p>
<p>Compassion might offer one way to ensure we don’t fall into the trap of turning against one another. We can all recognise the right for people and sentient creatures to live a life free of suffering. </p>
<p>And if compassion helps guide us in our decisions and actions, and even expand our moral sensibilities, we may be better placed to tackle some of the big challenges we are facing – and ensure those who are suffering most don’t get left behind. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-gooders-conservatives-and-reluctant-recyclers-how-personal-morals-can-be-harnessed-for-climate-action-164599">'Do-gooders', conservatives and reluctant recyclers: how personal morals can be harnessed for climate action</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Kirby receives funding from the Mind & Life Institute and is a board member of the Global Compassion Coalition. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlie Crimston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it feels like so many people are in need of compassion, how do we decide where to direct it?James Kirby, Associate Professor in Psychology, The University of QueenslandCharlie Crimston, Lecturer in Psychology, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2186862023-12-01T13:39:32Z2023-12-01T13:39:32ZWhy all civilian lives matter equally, according to a military ethicist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562255/original/file-20231128-22-svbtks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=103%2C25%2C8510%2C5613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The scene in the Bureij refugee camp following an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Nov. 14, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansBuriedInRubble/8cbb263c97d94eed9d66f53d553e2a3f/photo?Query=gaza%20destruction&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=735&currentItemNo=15&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Adel Hana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/89960/enough-self-defense-and-proportionality-in-the-israel-hamas-conflict/">Some commentators</a> have criticized Israel for causing <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/assessing-israel-s-approach-to-proportionality-in-the-conduct-of-hostilities-in-gaza">what is claimed</a> to be <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/14/gaza-unlawful-israeli-hospital-strikes-worsen-health-crisis">disproportionate harm</a> to civilians in its military response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.</p>
<p><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/118788/israels-war-gaza-morally-justified">Others have defended</a> Israel’s actions, claiming that such force – and the risk to civilians involved – is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/defence-minister-says-israeli-forces-heart-gaza-city-2023-11-07/">necessary to eliminate</a> Hamas, which some Israelis believe poses an <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-israels-war-against-hamas-is-existential-and-carries-no-time-limit/#:%7E:text=The%20former%20defense%20minister%20and,%22Zionist%20and%20democratic%22%20values.">existential threat</a> to Israel.</p>
<p>As of Nov. 25, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html">health officials in the Gaza Strip</a>, more than 14,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of whom are women and children.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/11/10/what-winning-the-war-means-for-israelis">But one of the arguments</a> given by defenders of Israel’s actions is that, tragic though these deaths are, the harm inflicted on civilians is proportionate because it is outweighed by the importance of destroying Hamas. </p>
<p>But what does “proportionate” mean in the context of civilian deaths? And how should we assess Israel’s claims of proportionality against critics who argue that Israel’s actions have caused disproportionate harm to civilians? As a <a href="https://philosophy.case.edu/faculty/jessica-wolfendale/">scholar of war crimes and military ethics</a>, I argue that to assess these claims requires careful thought about what it really means to value civilian lives. If all civilian lives are morally equal, as international law holds, then the lives of civilians on both sides of a conflict should be treated with the same degree of respect. </p>
<h2>Why targeting civilians is wrong</h2>
<p><a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule1">International humanitarian law</a>, or IHL, prohibits direct attacks on noncombatants – a category that includes civilians as well as wounded and surrendered soldiers. IHL also prohibits direct attacks on civilian objects such as schools, religious centers and hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. </p>
<p>However, because it is impossible to avoid all harm to civilians in a war zone, <a href="https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/proportionality#:%7E:text=The%20principle%20of%20proportionality%20prohibits,and%20direct%20military%20advantage%20anticipated">IHL permits</a> attacks on military targets that are likely to cause harm to civilians if two conditions are met: First, the foreseeable harm to civilians must be proportionate to the military advantage sought by the attack. And second, the choice of tactics and weapons – what is referred to in IHL as the “<a href="https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/proportionality#:%7E:text=The%20principle%20of%20proportionality%20prohibits,and%20direct%20military%20advantage%20anticipated">means and methods</a>” – must also aim to minimize risk to civilians, even if it means putting more soldiers in harm’s way.</p>
<p>The prohibitions on directly targeting civilians and exposing civilians to disproportionate risk of harm exist because, under IHL, civilians have <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/geneva-convention-relative-protection-civilian-persons-time-war">protected status</a> as long as they take “<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/geneva-convention-relative-protection-civilian-persons-time-war">no active part in the hostilities</a>.” This means that, as <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/geneva-convention-relative-protection-civilian-persons-time-war">stated in the Geneva Conventions</a> – the set of <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions/overview-geneva-conventions.htm">international treaties</a> governing the conduct of armed conflict – all civilians must be “treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.” </p>
<p>Directly targeting civilians or exposing them to disproportionate harm is therefore wrong for the same reasons that it is wrong to kill or harm innocent people in peacetime. People who pose no threat to others deserve respect and protection from violence regardless of their nationality or group identity. To violate that respect in war is not only a <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf">war crime</a> but a moral crime, which is why <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/israel-gaza-hamas-what-we-know.html">Hamas’ massacre</a> of at least 1,200 Israeli citizens and the taking of 240 hostages is rightly condemned as an atrocity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors marching with placards that have photographs of individuals with 'Bring her home,' or 'Bring him home,' written at the bottom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562270/original/file-20231128-15-ggfica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562270/original/file-20231128-15-ggfica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562270/original/file-20231128-15-ggfica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562270/original/file-20231128-15-ggfica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562270/original/file-20231128-15-ggfica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562270/original/file-20231128-15-ggfica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562270/original/file-20231128-15-ggfica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli protesters in Tel Aviv call for the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas on Nov. 28, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestinians/ef40ba52e7064a04b7fc9b089502fb9e/photo?Query=2023%20hostage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1083&currentItemNo=11">AP Photo/Ariel Schalit</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How should the lives of innocent people be weighed against important military objectives? </p>
<h2>Proportionality and moral assessment</h2>
<p>The condemnation of Hamas’ crimes is based on the same moral principle as the laws that protect noncombatants in war: All innocent people deserve protection.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3557942">scholars</a> and legal experts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199943418.013.24">disagree</a> about how the legal framework laid out in the Geneva Conventions should be applied in war zones. </p>
<p>For example, in 1987 <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/international-expert-meeting-report-principle-proportionality">the International Committee of the Red Cross</a> argued that the definition of “military advantage” – the advantage against which potential civilian harm must be weighed – should only include “ground gained” and “annihilating or weakening the enemy armed forces.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/international-expert-meeting-report-principle-proportionality">But the 2016 U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual</a> claimed that “military advantage” should also include other goals such as “diverting enemy forces’ resources and attention.”</p>
<p>There is also disagreement about what counts as “civilian harm.” For example, scholar <a href="https://www.elac.ox.ac.uk/people/emanuela-chiara-gillard/">Emanuela-Chiara Gillard</a> <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2018-12-10-proportionality-conduct-hostilities-incidental-harm-gillard-final.pdf">argues</a> that “civilian harm” should include psychological and physical harms; legal expert Dr. <a href="https://www.state.gov/biographies/beth-van-schaack/">Beth Van Schaack</a> <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/32577/evaluating-proportionality-long-term-civilian-harm-law-war/">argues</a> that long-term harms should also be considered. </p>
<p>In short, there are no easy answers to questions about how to weigh harms against civilians against the value of military objectives. But while answers are difficult, there is a different way to frame this question: What does it mean – not just legally, but morally – to treat all civilian lives as equal, as the law requires?</p>
<p>As scholar <a href="https://philosophy.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-directory/matthew-talbert">Matthew Talbert</a> and I argue, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-611-6_11">first step in answering</a> this question is to ask what a military force would accept if it were “their” civilians who were at risk of harm from military action. </p>
<p>That is the standard we should apply when assessing potential military actions that threaten harm to enemy civilians. We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-611-6_11">call this standard</a> the “principle of the moral equality of noncombatants.” For example, Israel argued that its <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/15/middleeast/shifa-hospital-gaza-idf-intl/index.html">attack on Shifa hospital</a> was justified because, it claimed, Hamas was hiding a command base and weapons under the hospital. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/world/middleeast/gaza-hospitals-shifa.html">hospital, which was running low</a> on fuel, food and water, housed patients, including premature babies, and civilians seeking refuge from the conflict. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/11/26/dire-conditions-at-al-shifa-hospital-revealed-during-gaza-pause">According to footage</a> shown in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/11/26/wounded-patients-left-at-al-shifa-hospital-face-dire-conditions">news reports</a>, the attack left the hospital seriously damaged, filled with debris and lacking essential supplies for the remaining patients, who include the elderly and infirm.</p>
<p>Israel has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/19/idf-israel-army-footage-claims-hamas-tunnel-al-shifa-hospital-gaza">released footage</a> supporting its claim that there was a Hamas command center under the hospital. Does that mean Israel’s attack on the hospital meets the requirements of proportionality? In other words, was the harm to civilians caused by the attack – including the <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/protection-hospitals-during-armed-conflicts-what-law-says">ongoing harm</a> resulting from the loss of a major hospital – proportionate to the military value of destroying a Hamas command base? </p>
<p>In applying the principle Talbert and I proposed in our paper, the question would be phrased as follows: If Hamas was hiding a control base under an Israeli hospital and it was Israeli civilians at risk, would Israel think that attacking the hospital would be justified? If the answer is “no,” then the attack against Shifa hospital is also not justified. </p>
<p>This is because if the risk to Israeli lives outweighs the benefits of capturing a Hamas command base, then the risk to Palestinian lives should be given the same weight and lead to the same conclusion. Under IHL, all civilians are legally entitled to the same protection, regardless of their nationality. </p>
<h2>Taking civilian lives seriously</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the debate about proportionality in the conflict between Israel and Palestine is only the latest of many debates about proportionality and civilian deaths in war zones. </p>
<p>For example, since 2001, the United States’ drone program has killed at least <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/07/us-airstrikes-killed-at-least-22000-civilians-since-911-analysis-finds">22,000 civilians</a> in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere. A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/18/us/airstrikes-pentagon-records-civilian-deaths.html">New York Times report</a> on these deaths found multiple instances of “flawed intelligence,” cover-ups and cases of mistaken identity. Despite this record, civilians deaths <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/18/pentagon-drone-strike-syria-civilian-al-qaeda/">still occur</a>.</p>
<p>Using the principle of the moral equality of noncombatants to assess this track record would reveal whether the U.S. military is taking sufficient care to avoid harm to civilians. If the U.S. military would not accept these deaths – and the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/accountability-for-killing-9780199981724?cc=us&lang=en&">policies and practices</a> that contribute to them – if U.S. civilians were at risk, then these deaths are unjustified. </p>
<p>This would mean that the drone program must change in order to treat civilians in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere with the respect to which they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/nclr.2011.14.4.519">legally and morally entitled</a>. This example illustrates that to meet the standards of IHL and the <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/35386/laws-war-nature-moral-function/">moral principles</a> that underlie those standards, military forces must apply the principle of the moral equality of noncombatants. There is no legal or moral justification, I argue, for treating some civilians lives as less important than others. </p>
<p>This is a demanding principle. Applying it would be difficult - military and political leaders would have to accept that there might be military objectives that are not important enough to justify risk to civilian lives. And it would require acknowledging that some military objectives might be so important that even harm to “their” civilians might be justified. </p>
<p>But one of the <a href="https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/atg/PDF_s/Family___Holocaust_Tracing/IHL_HumanRights.pdf">functions of IHL</a> is to “limit the suffering and damage caused by armed conflict.” This principle reflects the moral and legal status of civilians in IHL and could lead to greater respect for and protection of all civilians during conflict.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Wolfendale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Proportionality requires that lives of civilians on both sides of a conflict must be treated with the same degree of respect.Jessica Wolfendale, Professor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2174732023-11-23T17:24:27Z2023-11-23T17:24:27ZMatching state pension to the national living wage would help pensioners maintain their dignity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558813/original/file-20231110-27-e08yw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3461%2C2305&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The UK is currently 16th out of 50 European countries in terms of the best pension offering.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hands-elderly-woman-british-money-palm-596706170">Linda Bestwick/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A question that is perennially <a href="https://www.if.org.uk/research-posts/can-the-uk-afford-to-pay-pensions/">asked</a> by financial experts is: “can the government (in other words, the taxpayer) afford to keep increasing pensions?” But in my view, the real question should be: “what is the purpose of the state pension?” </p>
<p>This isn’t an economics question, it’s a moral question. And, as a society, we are poor at discussing moral questions. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/welfare-spending-pensioner-benefits/#:%7E:text=Pensioner%20benefit%20spending%20in%202023,5.3%20per%20cent%20of%20GDP">report</a> from the Office for Budget Responsibility earlier this year stated that in the current financial year, the state pension will cost around £124 billion. This is more than the £105 billion education <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/298910/united-kingdom-uk-public-sector-expenditure-education/#:%7E:text=Government%20spending%20on%20education%20in%20the%20UK%202023%2C%20by%20function&text=The%20United%20Kingdom%20spent%20approximately,primary%20and%20pre%2Dprimary%20education">budget</a> and more than double the £52 billion <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8175">defence</a> budget.</p>
<p>The level of the UK pension is safeguarded by the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/the-triple-lock-how-will-state-pensions-be-uprated-in-future/">triple lock</a>, which was first introduced in the June 2010 budget. It means annual increases in payments are made in line with earnings growth, price inflation (currently 4.6%) or 2.5% – whichever is highest. </p>
<p>With another triple lock <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/the-triple-lock-how-will-state-pensions-be-uprated-in-future/">increase</a> of 8.5% in pensions due in April 2024, the state pension will rise to £221.75 per week (£11,531 per annum). This is only £20 per week less than the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-personal-allowance-and-basic-rate-limit-for-income-tax-and-certain-national-insurance-contributions-nics-thresholds-from-6-april-2026-to-5-apr/income-tax-personal-allowance-and-the-basic-rate-limit-and-certain-national-insurance-contributions-thresholds-from-6-april-2026-to-5-april-2028">personal allowance</a> everyone can earn before having to pay tax or national insurance. </p>
<p>Assuming wages exceed inflation and 2.5% in line with the last five year <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/october2023">averages</a>, then the pension up-ratings could be in the region of 5% in 2025 and 2026. This will see pensioners, who have no other income, having to pay tax – in some cases, a decade after they last paid income tax.</p>
<p>So, how do we ensure that retired people are able to have a comfortable standard of living once they stop working? As a starting point, we can consider <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1606&langId=en">principle 15</a> of the European pillar of social rights, which was set out in 2017 by the European Union and maintains: “The right of workers and the self-employed to a pension commensurate with contributions and ensuring an adequate income. The right to equal opportunities to acquire pension rights for both women and men. The right to resources that ensure living in dignity in old age.”</p>
<h2>Comparing incomes</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates">national living wage</a> is two thirds of UK average earnings and should be the minimum to cover “adequate income” and “dignity in old age”. The salary obtained by an adult working 37 hours per week at the national living wage is currently £10.42 per hour. This will <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67484102">increase</a> to £11.44 per hour from April 2024.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A table comparing incomes in 2023 from the state pension, national living wage and average earnings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560698/original/file-20231121-4461-ybavll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560698/original/file-20231121-4461-ybavll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560698/original/file-20231121-4461-ybavll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560698/original/file-20231121-4461-ybavll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560698/original/file-20231121-4461-ybavll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560698/original/file-20231121-4461-ybavll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560698/original/file-20231121-4461-ybavll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A comparison of the state pension, national living wage and average earnings in the UK in 2023.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Were the UK pension matched with the national living wage, it would be set at a figure of £22,308 per year, and pensioners’ income would be vastly different as of April 6 2024. </p>
<p>Even after paying more than £1,900 in tax, the poorest pensioner would be still be £225.15 per week better off than they are today. And the extra disposable income could be recycled into the economy through increased expenditure, with knock-on impacts in indirect taxes such as VAT. </p>
<h2>A European comparison</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.almondfinancial.co.uk/pension-breakeven-index-how-does-the-uk-state-pension-compare-to-the-rest-of-europe/">recent survey</a> by pension advice firm Almond Finance UK shows the UK is currently 16th out of 50 countries in terms of the best pension offering across Europe. Spain tops the survey, with Belgium in second place and Luxembourg third. </p>
<p>Bringing the state pension in line with the national living wage would move the UK up to fourth position, ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Lichenstein, France, Denmark and Switzerland.</p>
<p>Such an increase would raise the annual cost to the Treasury from the current <a href="https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/welfare-spending-pensioner-benefits/#:%7E:text=Pensioner%20benefit%20spending%20in%202023,5.3%20per%20cent%20of%20GDP">£124 billion</a> to £236 billion. And such a large increase in expenditure would require more taxes or more borrowing, which would accrue more debt interest in turn. But this sum could be reduced by £13 billion by charging pensioners national insurance. </p>
<p>In a response to an <a href="https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/money/calls-living-state-pension-payments-30501193">online petition</a> in August, which called for the state pension to be matched to the national living wage, the government <a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/636088">said</a> it had “no plans to increase the state pension to equal 35 hours a week at the national living wage”. It went on to describe the state pension and national living wage as having “different purposes” and said that a direct comparison could not be drawn between the two. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/autumn-statement-live-experts-respond-to-chancellors-tax-and-benefit-cuts-218211">focus</a> on cutting both business rates and national insurance in the autumn statement, it’s worth considering how those measures will help to ensure that pensioners live in dignity in old age.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217473/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Parry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How does the UK ensure a decent standard of living for its elderly population?Chris Parry, Principal Lecturer in Finance, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180952023-11-21T23:18:44Z2023-11-21T23:18:44ZWhy George Santos’ lies are even worse than the usual political lies – a moral philosopher explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560833/original/file-20231121-4482-abz219.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C15%2C5231%2C3347&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rep. George Santos on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 24, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HouseSpeaker/89cab2060aad40ca9171f34e8e511ea4/photo?Query=george%20santos&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=262&currentItemNo=11">AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Nov. 16, 2023, the bipartisan House Committee on Ethics issued a scathing report on the behavior of Rep. George Santos, finding that Santos had engaged in “<a href="https://ethics.house.gov/press-releases/statement-chairman-and-ranking-member-committee-ethics-regarding-representative-76">knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act</a>.” That committee’s Republican chair later introduced a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/17/politics/santos-expulsion-resolution-introduced/index.html">motion to expel</a> Santos from Congress. Regardless of the success or failure of that motion, which will be considered after Thanksgiving, Santos himself has announced he will <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/nyregion/george-santos-ethics-committee.html">not seek reelection</a>. </p>
<p>These consequences are being brought to bear on Santos in large part because of what the report calls a “<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24169355-report-on-ethics-george-santos">constant stream of lies</a> to his constituents, donors, and staff.” Santos appears to have deceived donors about what their money would be used for. Ostensible campaign donations were redirected for his private use, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/nyregion/santos-botox-ferragamo-expenses.html">purchases of Botox and subscriptions to OnlyFans</a>, an X-rated entertainment service. </p>
<p>What, though, makes Santos’ lies so unusual – and so damning? The idea that politicians are dishonest is, at this point, something of a cliché – although few have taken their dishonesty as far as Santos, who <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/the-everything-guide-to-george-santoss-lies.html">seems to have lied about</a> his education, work history, charitable activity, athletic prowess and even his place of residence. </p>
<p>Santos may be exceptional in how many lies he has told, but politicians seeking election have incentives to tell voters what they want to hear – and there is some empirical evidence that a willingness to lie may be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008144117">helpful in the process of getting elected</a>. Voters may not appreciate candidates who are unwilling or unable to mislead others from time to time.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://phil.washington.edu/people/michael-blake">political philosopher</a> whose work focuses on the moral foundations of democratic politics, I am interested in the moral reasons behind voters’ right to feel resentment when they discover that their elected representatives have lied to them. </p>
<p>Political philosophers offer four distinct responses to this question – although none of these responses suggests that all lies are necessarily morally wrong.</p>
<h2>1. Lying is manipulative</h2>
<p>The first reason to resent being lied to is that it is a form of disrespect. When you lie to me, you treat me as a thing to be manipulated and used for your purposes. In the terms used by philosopher Immanuel Kant, when you lie to me, you treat me as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9833.2010.01507.x">a means or a tool</a>, rather than a person with a moral status equal to your own. </p>
<p>Kant himself took this principle as a reason to condemn all lies, however useful – but other philosophers have thought that some lies were so important that they might be compatible with, or even express, respect for citizens. </p>
<p>Plato, notably, argues in “The Republic” that when the public good requires a leader to lie, the citizens should be <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D3%3Apage%3D389">grateful for the deceptions of their leaders</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ias.edu/scholars/walzer">Michael Walzer</a>, a modern political philosopher, echoes this idea. Politics requires the building of coalitions and the making of deals – which, in a world full of moral compromise, may entail being deceptive about what one is planning and why. As Walzer puts it, no one succeeds in politics without <a href="http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/Philosophers/Walzer/PoliticaAction_TheProblemofDirtyHabnds.pdf">being willing to dirty their hands</a> – and voters should prefer politicians to get their hands dirty if that is the cost of effective political agency. </p>
<h2>2. Abuse of trust</h2>
<p>A second reason to resent lies begins with the idea of predictability. If our candidates lie to us, we cannot know what they really plan to do – and, hence, cannot trust that we are voting for the candidate who will best represent our interests.</p>
<p>Modern political philosopher <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/beerbohm/home">Eric Beerbohm</a> argues that when politicians speak to us, they invite us to trust them – and a politician who lies to us <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/beerbohm/files/beerbohm_the_ethics_of_electioneering_jpp.pdf">abuses that trust</a> in a way that we may rightly resent. </p>
<p>These ideas are powerful, but they also seem to have some limits. Voters may not need to believe candidates’ words in order to understand their intentions and thereby come to accurate beliefs about what they plan to do. </p>
<p>To take one recent example: The majority of those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, when he was trumpeting the idea of making Mexico pay for a border wall, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/14/even-trump-voters-think-mexico-paying-for-the-wall-is-kind-of-a-joke/">did not believe that it was actually possible</a> to build a wall that would be paid for by Mexico. They did not take Trump to be describing a literal truth, but expressing an untruth that was indicative of Trump’s overall attitude toward migration and toward Mexico – and voted for him on the basis of that attitude. </p>
<h2>3. Electoral mandate</h2>
<p>The third reason we might resent lies told on the campaign trail stems from the idea of an electoral mandate. Philosopher John Locke, whose writings influenced the Declaration of Independence, regarded political authority as stemming from the <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7370/7370-h/7370-h.htm#CHAPTER_VII">consent of the governed</a>; this consent might be illegitimate were it to be obtained by means of deception.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white engraving of a man with shoulder-length hair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505396/original/file-20230119-17-r25b8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philosopher John Locke championed the idea of the consent of the governed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/john-locke-english-philosopher-undated-engraving-news-photo/517391868?phrase=Philosopher%20John%20Locke&adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This idea, too, has power – but it also runs up against the sophistication of both modern elections and modern voters. After all, campaigns do not pretend to give a dispassionate description of political ideals. They are closer to rhetorical forms of combat and involve considerable amounts of <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/02/09/the-history-of-political-spin-in-washington-dc-and-why-its-not-so-bad-for-us-as-youd-think/">deliberate ambiguity, rhetorical presentation and self-interested spin</a>. </p>
<p>More to the point, though, voters understand this context and rarely regard any candidate’s presentation as stemming solely from a concern for the unalloyed truth.</p>
<h2>4. Unnecessary and disprovable</h2>
<p>Santos’ lies, however, do seem to have provoked something like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1146096826/rep-elect-george-santos-faces-growing-anger-from-new-york-voters">resentment and outrage</a>, which suggests that they are somehow unlike the usual forms of deceptive practice undertaken during political campaigns. </p>
<p>Certainly the congressional response to these lies is extraordinary. If Santos is expelled from Congress, he would be only the third member of that body to have been expelled <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/11/01/house-could-expel-george-santos-today-here-are-the-other-lawmakers-who-have-been-kicked-out-of-congress/?sh=386ba482c988">since the Civil War</a>. </p>
<p>The rarity of this sanction may reflect a final reason to resent deception, which is that voters especially dislike being lied to unnecessarily – nor about matters subject to easy empirical proof or disproof. It seems clear that voters may sometimes be willing to accept deceptive and dissembling political candidates, given the fact that effective statecraft may involve the use of deceptive means. Santos, however, lied about matters as tangential to politics as his nonexistent history as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/11/santos-lies-volleyball/">star player for Baruch College’s volleyball team</a>. </p>
<p>This lie was unnecessary, given its tenuous relationship to his candidacy for the House of Representatives, and easily disproved, given the fact that he did not actually attend Baruch. Similarly, the ethics report on Santos emphasized the fact that his expenditures often involved purchases for which there was no plausible relationship to a campaign, including US$6,000 at <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/george-santos-campaign-funds-how-spent-what-to-know-rcna125531">luxury goods store Ferragamo</a>. The proposition that such a purchase was useful for his election campaign is difficult to defend – or to believe. </p>
<p>I believe voters may have made their peace with some deceptive campaign practices. If Walzer is right, they should expect that an effective candidate will be imperfectly honest, at best. But candidates who are both liars and bad at lying can find no such justification, since they are unlikely to be believed and thus incapable of achieving those goods that justify their deception. </p>
<p>If voters have made their peace with some degree of lying, in short, they are nonetheless still capable of resenting candidates who are unskilled at the craft of political deception.</p>
<p><em>This is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/all-politicians-must-lie-from-time-to-time-so-why-is-there-so-much-outrage-about-george-santos-a-political-philosopher-explains-197877">updated version of an article</a> originally published on Jan. 20, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Blake receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.</span></em></p>A political philosopher writes that voters may put up with some degree of deception from politicians, but they may not accept being lied to unnecessarily.Michael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy and Governance, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149822023-10-25T13:29:56Z2023-10-25T13:29:56ZChristian leaders in Ghana are trying to reshape government – it may not end well<p>Ghana is constitutionally <a href="https://classic.iclrs.org/content/blurb/files/Ghana.pdf">a secular state</a>. This means religious liberty is guaranteed, and all citizens are free to believe and manifest any religious faith. No political parties are allowed to base their appeal on religion. </p>
<p>However, the situation is changing. Church leaders are becoming more vocal on issues of national interest in Ghana. The Church of Pentecost recently <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thecophq_nadec23-pentecostnews-possessingthenations-activity-7090623609685073920-1xGI?trk=public_profile_like_view">proposed</a> setting up a Christian morality council to oversee private and public behaviour. Some Christian leaders are also <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/9/1202">cultivating</a> “insider” status with political elites and developing a high media profile.</p>
<p>They aim to remake Ghana according to their values and beliefs. The question is what impact that will have on democracy.</p>
<p>Many Ghanaians regard the country as a “nation of Christians”. According to the <a href="https://census2021.statsghana.gov.gh/">2021 census</a>, about 71% of the population is Christian. Muslims make up 18%. Followers of indigenous or animistic religious beliefs make up 5%. Another 6% are members of other religious groups or don’t have religious beliefs.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=wyX5M8UAAAAJ&hl=en">a scholar of religion and politics</a>, I argue in a recent paper that <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/9/1202">the “Christianisation” of politics in Ghana</a> is an attempt to deal with Ghana’s serious problem of state-level corruption and to improve democracy. But I don’t believe it will have this effect. Rather, Christian nationalism seeks to push aside people who have other beliefs. That is not a basis for democracy. And trying to influence policy through religion will get in the way of fundamental institutional reforms that are necessary to make the government more accountable and its actions more transparent.</p>
<h2>Christianity and politics</h2>
<p>Influential expressions of Christianity in Ghana include the <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/The-Birth-and-Effects-of-Charismaticism-in-Ghana-I-116593">burgeoning Pentecostal or Charismatic</a> churches, which in recent years have become the <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/ghana/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%202021%20government,or%20have%20no%20religious%20belief">most popular churches</a> in Ghana. Census data puts them at <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/ghana/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%202021%20government,or%20have%20no%20religious%20belief">44%</a> of Christians in the country. These churches tend to have a <a href="https://thecophq.org/">conservative political orientation</a>, a strong belief in the veracity of the Bible, and a message that the nation is undergoing serious moral decay. </p>
<p>Some leading Christians would like to see Christians governing the country and all of society according to biblical law. Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, leader of the Action Chapel, one of the most prominent charismatic churches in the country, stated in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2TaTLnWg7U">interview</a> in 2019 that: Christians “should rule in corporate, politics, the marketplace, everywhere”. The implication is that Christianity should be a dominant social, political and economic expression in Ghana which would project a certain worldview which all Ghanaians, whether or not they are Christians, should adhere to. </p>
<p>The issue is what the appropriate values are to which Ghanaians should adhere. On the one hand, there is a Christian approach, as suggested by Archbishop Duncan-Williams. On the other there is what might be called a “secular” approach where values are not linked to religious belief. </p>
<p>Afrobarometer <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Summary-of-results-Ghana-Afrobarometer-R9-21oct2022-1.pdf">data</a> indicates that most Ghanaians are socially conservative, for example in relation to the rights of LGBTQI+ people. Many also despair about the country’s perceived moral decay, characterised by serious corruption, and about democratic decline. There has been extra-parliamentary, yet peaceful and pro-democracy, opposition to the government, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20563051221147328">demanding</a> a new constitution and a more equitable political system.</p>
<h2>Democratic decline</h2>
<p>Ghana transitioned from several years of military rule to democracy in 1993. It has since conducted several free and fair elections. It has a reputation as a democracy. America’s National Intelligence Council <a href="https://irp.fas.org/nic/african_democ_2008.pdf">stated</a> in 2008 that “Ghana has emerged as one of Africa’s most liberal and vibrant democracies, reclaiming a position of political leadership on the continent.”</p>
<p>In recent years things have changed under the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party, both of which have had turns governing the country.</p>
<p>Sweden’s V-Dem (“Varieties of Democracy”) Institute <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/18/dr_2017.pdf">categorised</a> Ghana as a liberal democracy in 2003-2014 and again in 2017-2020. This description changed to “<a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/12/dr_2021.pdf">electoral democracy</a>” in 2021 and “<a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/19/dr_2022_ipyOpLP.pdf">autocratizer</a>” in 2022 – indicating steep democratic decline. </p>
<p>The American organisation Freedom House <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/ghana/freedom-world/2023">says</a> the decline involves “discrimination against women and LGBT+ people”. It also notes “weaknesses in judicial independence and the rule of law”. It points out corruption, poor public service delivery, political violence and illegal mining. </p>
<h2>A Christian solution?</h2>
<p>There are several ways to deal with these issues. One is to amend the constitution to reform government and the state, making functionaries more accountable and policies more transparent. </p>
<p>The Church of Pentecost, Ghana’s largest church, with more than three million members, favours <a href="https://citinewsroom.com/2023/07/clergy-chiefs-others-call-for-establishment-of-national-moral-and-integrity-council/">another way</a>. It suggests creating a National Morality and Integrity Council with statutory powers to oversee private and public behaviour, even at state level. </p>
<p>The church believes that to improve democracy and reduce corruption it is necessary for practising Christians to play a leading role in society – including government. According to <a href="https://thecophq.org/infest-others-with-your-purity-rev-dr-joyce-aryee-tells-christians/">Joyce Aryee</a>, a former government appointee and Christian leader, this would “infest others with their purity” and transform behaviour for the good. </p>
<p>Critics <a href="https://democracyinafrica.org/does-ghanas-democracy-lack-moral-integrity/">argue</a>, on the other hand, that bringing more Christians into positions of leadership and having a morality council to oversee society would weaken democracy. Ghana must nurture a diversity of beliefs, motivations and behaviours. It could then pursue the common good by drawing on a variety of worldviews, reasoning, values, aspirations and habits – not only those deriving from Christianity. </p>
<h2>Mutual respect</h2>
<p>Democratic development can only be realised when citizens make a moral commitment to treat each other with the same respect as they would like to receive. It is necessary to care for each other’s wellbeing as one might care for one’s own growth and happiness. </p>
<p>Ghana’s democracy will fail unless the moral agency of citizens works to moderate economic and social iniquities, by reforming democratic institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Haynes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Christian leaders in Ghana are pushing the envelope of influence in political affairs.Jeffrey Haynes, Professor Emeritus of Politics, London Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080142023-08-23T20:09:47Z2023-08-23T20:09:47ZDo universal values exist? A philosopher says yes, and takes aim at identity politics – but not all of his arguments are convincing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543163/original/file-20230817-19-65q9rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C3%2C2287%2C1450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ravi Sharma/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-au/Moral+Progress+in+Dark+Times%3A+Universal+Values+for+the+21st+Century-p-9781509549498">Moral Progress in Dark Times</a>, German philosopher Markus Gabriel makes a case for a new enlightenment based on universal values, arguing that the democratic law-based state is a valuable vehicle for encouraging this “moral progress”.</p>
<p>The aims of his book are admirable, but Gabriel is only partially successful in explaining what the new enlightenment might entail and how it might be implemented in democratic societies. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Moral Progress in Dark Times: Universal Values for the 21st Century – Markus Gabriel (Wiley)</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Moral realism</h2>
<p>Gabriel is a <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-realism/">moral realist</a>. He asserts the objectivity of moral facts, their universality, and their essential knowability by human beings – although he concedes that in “dark times” they can be obscured by ideology, propaganda, psychology and manipulation.</p>
<p>According to Gabriel, moral facts are not justified by God, human reason or evolution, but “by themselves”. They are, however, “partially concealed” and require insight to be discovered in opaque circumstances.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542038/original/file-20230809-24377-pfevys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moral realism is conventionally opposed to <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/relativism/">ethical relativism</a>, which proposes that morality depends on the standards, norms and practices of particular times and places. Gabriel thus condemns “the incoherent, erroneous, and politically dangerous idea that morality is at best the expression of one’s belonging to some kind of social group or other”. </p>
<p>He maintains there are guiding moral principles for human behaviour that extend across cultures, and that their validity does not depend on their being recognised by a majority of people.</p>
<p>Evolutionary psychology is a key element of Gabriel’s argument, although later in his book he distances himself from theories that assume morality is extrapolated from instinctive behaviour. He links evolutionary psychology to our capacity to discern moral truths, without supposing an evolutionary explanation for those truths. </p>
<p>According to Gabriel, it is through socialisation that “one senses normativity”. Empathy can occur when people are together. “There is a bond of humanity that can be empirically observed,” he argues. </p>
<p>Although we are error-prone when making decisions in complex situations, the very existence of relatively stable human societies is proof that humans cannot be wholly evil. We must know and be able to do some things that are morally right. </p>
<h2>Day of Judgement</h2>
<p>Apart from wanting to avoid cultural or historical relativism, the position Gabriel wishes to adopt remains elusive. His account of moral realism is never adequately explained. The new moral enlightenment he proposes is overly optimistic and, in any attempt to implement, potentially problematic.</p>
<p>His book tries to do too much and address too many issues. It has a discursive, rambling, anecdotal style devoid of rigorous argument; its key ideas are scattered throughout. The book is replete with real-life examples that are international in scope but weighted heavily toward German society. </p>
<p>All of this leaves the reader guessing about what exactly these positions amount to and how they are supported. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543164/original/file-20230817-7412-8ve27q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Last Judgment – Joos van Cleve (c.1540)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public domain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The only argument Gabriel offers – which he calls a “new argument” – rests on a thought experiment termed the “Day of Judgement”. He asks us to consider what our reaction would be if we were facing God’s judgement and God commended us for all the bad things we have done and condemned us for the good. We would find this judgement incomprehensible. A god whose judgements had no continuity with our own would not be God, but a “terrible demon”. </p>
<p>This thought experiment does not, of course, assume the actual existence of God, but Gabriel suggests the scenario demonstrates that “moral facts are largely obvious; we can basically recognise, albeit often with some difficulty, what we should do”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/english-philosophers-thought-they-had-sloughed-off-the-dead-weight-of-history-but-history-suggests-otherwise-205400">English philosophers thought they had sloughed off the dead weight of history, but history suggests otherwise</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Populism and identity politics</h2>
<p>Gabriel does make some worthwhile and insightful points. Of particular interest is his rejection of identity politics. </p>
<p>Modern social sciences, Gabriel believes, have taught us that notions of what is “normal” and “typical” are “impermissible simplifications of the social reality”. Yet because everyday life runs more smoothly on the basis of established expectations, we take familiar patterns of life as nature itself. </p>
<p>Gabriel maintains there is “no normality that applies to the whole of society”. And yet “society” is invoked by various parties, associations and activists groups to justify courses of action. </p>
<p>This is how Gabriel defines “populism”. Populism is when an assumed normality is associated with “the people”. The problem with populism is that it produces “an imaginary, distorted picture of normality”. </p>
<p>Gabriel does not associate “populism” only with the right. Left-wing attempts to give voice to minorities simply because they are minorities are deemed “equally incoherent”. Both left and right are condemned for engaging in “relativist manoeuvres in the culture war of identities”.</p>
<p>Identity politics, argues Gabriel, establishes patterns between “identities” and the distribution of material and symbolic resources. These patterns are then used to formulate political guidelines. </p>
<p>But this is the wrong way to go, because such “identities” do not really exist. Identity politics stands on the “propagation of stereotypes”. It attributes individual behaviours to identification with particular social groups. </p>
<p>As distortions of reality, stereotypes are unsuitable vehicles for negotiating conflicts. They are also dangerous, as they encourage prejudices against certain groups of people, who are deprived of resources as a result. The near-religious fervour of identity politics, Gabriel suggests, arises from stereotypical social identities becoming metaphysically “charged”.</p>
<p>Moral progress thus aims to dismantle the system of stereotypes. Identity politics must be overcome in the light of universal moral values. While it is good that people resist oppressive discrimination, those struggles should not aim at the preservation of identities. The goal is to overcome such identities, in so far as they dehumanise people. </p>
<p>“No one who fights against unjust oppression,” Gabriel argues, “should have the goal of unjustly oppressing the oppressors.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543166/original/file-20230817-15-indv5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">According to philosopher Markus Gabriel, we must dismantle stereotypes. Image: an 18th-century Dutch engraving of the peoples of the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Difference politics</h2>
<p>Against identity politics, Gabriel advocates “difference politics”. This recognises “that every person is the other (of another)”. It proposes that being different is a symmetrical relationship. Difference politics is not simply a matter of tolerating diverse identities; it requires us to understand difference as a feature of our common humanity.</p>
<p>But recognising difference is only a necessary first step towards tolerance and leniency. It remains insufficient because it retains the idea of identities.</p>
<p>This is where Gabriel’s position runs into practical difficulties.</p>
<p>Gabriel argues that if race has no biological basis, which it doesn’t, then it cannot be grounds for assigning special rights. The goal of moral progress is to achieve “colour-blindness”. Thus groups discriminated against in the past on the basis of some non-existent “race” are not morally entitled to perpetuate racism to balance the past damage. </p>
<p>While there is a role in society for commemorative cultures, we should not “turn racist nonsense into cultural stereotypes and perpetuate these under the banner of de facto non-existent cultures”. According to Gabriel, we all need to train ourselves through moral reflection to become aware of our own stereotypes and try to prevent them affecting our actions. </p>
<p>But while race does not exist, racism does. There is a “lived experience” of discrimination undergone by some groups. It is not clear how Gabriel’s argument might help us negotiate the practical political issues and entrenched material disadvantages that are the result of this historical legacy. </p>
<p>Similarly, on the economic front, Gabriel does not reject capitalism per se, although he does deem a “social market economy” superior to “morally reprehensible” US-style neoliberalism, in which the extreme wealth of the few is not used by the state to free others “from poverty, hardship and despair”. </p>
<p>The goal, he argues, should be to develop a system of just and sustainable distribution. </p>
<p>Yet Gabriel does not agree that a disadvantaged majority is entitled to set up systems that disadvantage a wealthier minority. He asserts it is wrong to attack elites if you aim to be a universalist. It would be contradictory for a universalist to attack them, he asserts, because the attackers would in fact be advocating the “statistical pseudo-universalism” of their own group identity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-could-a-reinterpreted-marxism-have-solutions-to-our-unprecedented-environmental-crisis-199963">Friday essay: could a reinterpreted Marxism have solutions to our unprecedented environmental crisis?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Spirit</h2>
<p>What, then, is Gabriel’s universalism based on? </p>
<p>Biology and evolutionary psychology show humans are adaptable animals sharing a “survival form”. A baby of one ethnicity raised in a culture of another ethnicity will automatically learn the language and culture of their social context. This is taken to falsify racial stereotypes. </p>
<p>But humans are not only animals, according to Gabriel. What separates humans from other animals, including sentient ones, is “spirit”. For Gabriel, this amounts to an ability to exercise a kind of self-reflective free agency, wherever we happen to be situated geographically, historically, culturally and socially. </p>
<p>Our individual self-perceptions are connected to our “existential identity”. Certain things are “sacred” to us as individuals. We have an “existential, inalienable need for the meaning of life”. </p>
<p>These factors comprise what Gabriel calls an “anthropological constant”. What unites humans is that we are by nature self-definers. Different groups of people thus have far more in common than identity politics would suggest.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-socrates-know-nothing-wisdom-can-teach-a-polarized-america-202696">What Socrates' 'know nothing' wisdom can teach a polarized America</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1303&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543165/original/file-20230817-13660-84peqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1303&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Last Judgment – Wassily Kandinsky (1910)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public domain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Darkening of spirit</h2>
<p>The internet, Gabriel believes, has massively contributed to “darkening our spirit”. Moral progress is threatened by “digital distortions”, which undermine our knowledge of truth, facts, knowledge and ethics. Internet dependence can lead us to treat self-evident moral truths, such as respect for others, as null and void. </p>
<p>The response to the coronavirus pandemic crisis, however, represents moral progress. The vast majority of people accepted lockdowns for moral reasons: they believed lockdowns would protect the vulnerable and support hospital systems.</p>
<p>The pandemic also made the structures of society more visible. It brought home the importance of interpersonal contact and exposed the underfunding of health providers. </p>
<p>Gabriel believes post-pandemic progress will require societies not to revert to “compulsive consumption and the associated burnout capitalism”. He criticises neoliberalism for assuming that progress can be achieved by leaving as many decisions as possible to the market. The problems associated with free-market economics – massive social and economic inequalities, exploitative global supply chains, ecological damage – demonstrate the need for “a reordering of the social market economy”. </p>
<p>A humane market economy is deemed possible, on the grounds that people are capable of making decisions guided by mutuality and fairness. </p>
<p>But a moral form of economic management can only succeed, according to Gabriel, if it is guided by ethical principles that take into account insights from science, art, religion and life experiences. Reordering must be done in the name of “sustainability”. The goal is to advance a good and sustainable life, without declining prosperity. Prosperity itself must be redefined so it no longer amounts to the accumulation of money and goods. </p>
<p>The coronavirus responses showed that democracies are, in fact, capable of making economically difficult decisions on moral grounds. Post-pandemic, the task is for nation states to jointly develop universal values and forms of cooperation not simply based on market logic. </p>
<p>Gabriel ends his book with his vision of a new enlightenment. He appeals to ordinary people to bring about change, first in their own behaviour, then by voting with their feet. “We must all vaccinate ourselves together,” he argues, “against the spiritual poison that divides us into national cultures, races, age groups and classes and incites competition between us.”</p>
<p>On this point, his passion is unmistakable: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We must recognize that the infection chains of global capitalism, which destroys our nature and causes moral stupidity in the citizens of the nation states, turning us into full-time tourists and consumers, will ultimately kill far more people than all viruses combined.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208014/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denise Gamble does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Philosopher Markus Gabriel argues that a new enlightenment based on moral facts is necessary to overcome the darkness of our times.Denise Gamble, Visiting Research Fellow, School of Humanities, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2052752023-06-26T12:20:54Z2023-06-26T12:20:54ZAsian folktales offer moral lessons that help reduce racial prejudice in children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533260/original/file-20230621-24-qn6kml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=326%2C65%2C5894%2C4072&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A teacher tells a story to a group of students.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/diversity-elementary-school-students-who-sit-on-the-royalty-free-image/1320972631?phrase=asian+reading+children+classroom&adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a Cambodian children’s folktale, one man is afraid of lawyers and another is afraid of filth. As the story goes, both are constantly bombarded by their fears despite their efforts to avoid them. </p>
<p>The moral of the tale is revealing and contains a powerful anti-racism message: What you hate becomes your fate.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.uml.edu/education/faculty-staff/faculty/kim-minjeong.aspx">educational linguist</a> and <a href="https://www.uml.edu/fahss/psychology/faculty/mccabe-allyssa.aspx">a psychologist</a> who specialize in children’s literacy development, we know that reading such folktales about people from different ethnic groups <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.14.5.447">reduces prejudice</a> in young children.</p>
<p>By age 4, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12788">children learn stereotypes</a> against certain groups of people, and by age 7, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.535906">children of color internalize stereotypes</a>. Research suggests that <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-10122-011">reading stories about a person’s own culture</a> has many benefits, including literacy achievement. </p>
<p>But according to <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-and-or-about-poc-2018/">2020 Cooperative Children’s Book Center statistics</a>, one barrier to providing culturally sustaining texts to young children is the remarkable lack of availability of such texts. </p>
<p>For example, 29% of <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-and-or-about-poc-2018/">children’s books</a> are about animals and 41% about white children. Only 9% address experiences of children of Asian descent.</p>
<p>Because of this dearth of culturally sustaining texts, we decided to produce our own children’s book specifically focused on children of Asian descent. </p>
<p>We teach in Lowell, Massachusetts, a city that has one of the largest Southeast Asian communities in the U.S. and has a number of different <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/lowellcitymassachusetts">Southeast Asian American groups</a>. The Cambodian American community in Lowell, for instance, is the second largest in the U.S. and the third largest in the world outside of Cambodia. </p>
<h2>A significant step in combating anti-Asian hate</h2>
<p>Racism against Asians and Asian Americans is not new in America.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act#:%7E:text=It%20was%20the%20first%20significant,immigrating%20to%20the%20United%20States">Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-shameful-stories-of-environmental-injustices-at-japanese-american-incarceration-camps-during-wwii-174011">incarceration of Japanese Americans</a> during World War II demonstrate the long history of abuse that continues today. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.csusb.edu/hate-and-extremism-center/data-reports/original-reports-hate-and-terrorism-center-staff">Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism</a>, hate crimes against Asians in the U.S. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-increased-339-percent-nationwide-last-year-repo-rcna14282">increased by 339%</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968211005598">number of studies</a> reveal that such racism has severe negative impacts on many aspects of psychological and physical well-being for victims of prejudice of all ages.</p>
<p>Illustrated by art students from our university, our multilingual children’s book is called “<a href="https://umlseada.omeka.net/items/show/1241">A Long Long Time Ago in Southeast Asia</a>” and focuses on the Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laotian and Burmese communities. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An image of the cover of a book that includes illustrations of a white elephant and a rabbit among others." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The book cover of a collection of Asian folktales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">minjeong kim and Allyssa McCabe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In March 2018, we held a workshop to introduce this book to 25 Lowell public school elementary school teachers. During that session, we learned that teachers needed a broader understanding of the cultural contexts that shape Asian folktales for them to teach them effectively in their classrooms. </p>
<p>To that end, we also produced a scholarly collection of research articles, which we published in 2022, called “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666912883/Perspectives-on-East-and-Southeast-Asian-Folktales">Perspectives on East and Southeast Asian Folktales</a>.”</p>
<h2>Moral lessons</h2>
<p>In our research, we found several functions of folktales to be useful to fight against racism, especially when such tales are read to children regularly. Many Asian countries, such as Korea and Vietnam, use folktales as part of an ethics education that is part of their core curricula.</p>
<p>First, folktales often contain explicit moral lessons on honesty, wisdom, good deeds and perseverance.</p>
<p>For example, “A Big Pot of Gold,” one of the Vietnamese folktales in our book, is about a poor but honest couple who decided not to take a pot of gold they accidentally found. </p>
<p>When a thief overheard the couple, he decided to steal the pot. But instead of gold, he got a pot full of snakes. When the thief returned the pot to the couple, it was again full of gold. </p>
<p>The story ends with community members explaining the moral lesson: If you are a good person, you will have good outcomes. </p>
<p>A second important function of Asian folktales is that they challenge stereotypes against Asians by using Asian protagonists who display culturally valued traits and exemplary behavioral norms. </p>
<p>Stereotypes associated with Asians as being quiet and passive are countered by individuals who act bravely to resolve problems.</p>
<p>A third function of Asian folktales is the use of social justice themes such as helping the poor and the weak. </p>
<p>In “The Big Pot of Gold,” for instance, the honest couple used the gold to help other poor people.</p>
<p>Using multicultural books to teach children about other cultures is not new. </p>
<p>When folktales are taught alongside other multicultural books, a wide spectrum of Asian American experiences gets represented and allows children of all races to read about people of different cultures. </p>
<p>That in itself is effective in reducing racism for future generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Minjeong Kim has received funding from Creative Economy Grant of University of Massachusetts to conduct research cited in this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allyssa McCabe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children’s books that feature Asian protagonists are rare. Two scholars decided to offer their own in their attempt to reduce racial prejudice.Minjeong Kim, Associate professor, UMass LowellAllyssa McCabe, Professor of Psychology, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2070262023-06-06T03:52:18Z2023-06-06T03:52:18ZDoes competition make us less moral? New research says yes, but only a little bit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530222/original/file-20230606-18-kaq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C35%2C3806%2C2553&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bao Truong / Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of our economic and even social interactions are competitive. We use markets to find jobs, but also dates. What does this mean for our morals? Does capitalism give us the American dream, or American Psycho? Does the experience of competition keep us honest, or drive us towards cheating? </p>
<p>These profound questions preoccupied the minds of some of the great classical economists, who saw capitalism as rife with both good and bad moral influences. Adam Smith mostly focused on the good, whereas Karl Marx was admittedly less optimistic.</p>
<p>To test this question convincingly in the lab, our <a href="https://manydesigns.online/#team">project coordinators</a> invited dozens of behavioural scientists to contribute their own experimental designs, resulting in observations of more than 18,000 people in total.</p>
<p>Our results, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2215572120">published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, show that competitive interactions tend to make people’s behaviour slightly less moral – and offer some intriguing clues about why this might be so.</p>
<h2>A difficult question to answer</h2>
<p>We are not the first to take a scientific approach to the question of competition and morality. However, individual tests have delivered mixed results, possibly because of differences in the definitions and measures of morality used. </p>
<p>Some of the early results were provocative, such as a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1231566">finding</a> that people in competition were less likely to prevent the death of a mouse. However, these results were <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/105/1/226/97758/Does-Market-Interaction-Erode-Moral-Values">hard to replicate or interpret</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/karl-marx-his-philosophy-explained-164068">Karl Marx: his philosophy explained</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One way to account for differences in the design of individual studies is to conduct a “meta-analysis”, evaluating and combining the results of many different studies. However, meta-analysis often has troubles of its own, as selective reporting and publication bias can influence which studies are available to be included in the analysis.</p>
<h2>What was different about our study</h2>
<p>To really get some reliable results, we went a step further and carried out a “prospective meta-analysis”. </p>
<p>The “prospective” part means that all the studies to be included in the analysis were registered before they were done. This prevents cherry-picking of results, or bias in what kind of results are published.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cute-dogs-help-us-understand-adam-smiths-invisible-hand-35673">How cute dogs help us understand Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our project involved 45 different experiments carried out by teams around the world. Each team independently designed an experiment to test the effects of competition on morality.</p>
<p>The results of these studies, which involved observations of more than 18,123 individual participants, were then collated and analysed.</p>
<h2>A small decline in morality (on average)</h2>
<p>The meta-analysis revealed that competition has an overall negative effect on morality, but the effect is very small. (The effect is measured by a number called Cohen’s <em>d</em>. A value of 0.2 is considered a small effect, and the value we found was only 0.1.)</p>
<p>As expected, we also observed a substantial variation in the effects as measured by different experiments. Some were positive, some were negative, and the sizes of the effects also varied.</p>
<p>So despite the advantages of our new prospective meta-analysis, the jury is still out regarding the overall effect of competition on morality. </p>
<p>Perhaps the question is too general to answer properly without a particular context. The devil may be in the details.</p>
<h2>Loss, not competition, to blame?</h2>
<p>My team (one of the 45 involved in the meta-analysis) used a number-guessing game between two people as an instance of competition. This was followed by an individual game of honesty, which was our measure for the effects on morality. </p>
<p>This individual experiment resulted in a small negative overall effect of competition (<em>d</em> = –0.1) much like the meta-analysis, but it failed to reach statistical significance on its own. </p>
<p>However, exploratory analysis of our results revealed a potential breakthrough.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/oh-the-morality-why-ethics-matters-in-economics-5963">Oh, the morality: why ethics matters in economics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We found it was only the losers of the number-guessing game who became more dishonest, with a larger effect (<em>d</em> = –0.34). The winners of the competition stage, on the other hand, showed no change in their honesty behaviour. </p>
<p>These exploratory results – yet to be replicated – suggest a reason why competition does not affect morality much on average. Perhaps it is being disadvantaged in a competitive process that corrupts, not competition per se.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ozan Isler is a research fellow at the University of Queensland's School of Economics. He acknowledges funding from the Templeton Religion Trust for an international research grant on religious belief and moral behavor.</span></em></p>Do competitive, market-like interactions encourage immoral behaviour? A study of 18,000 people in 45 experiments shows there’s no simple answer.Ozan Isler, Research Fellow, School of Economics, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1951262023-03-10T15:57:19Z2023-03-10T15:57:19ZUncovering the secret religious and spiritual lives of sex workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511468/original/file-20230221-16-jwylk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2683%2C575%2C3082%2C3073&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Tanya* is telling me just how important her <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/methodist_1.shtml">Methodist Christianity</a> is to her. We’re chatting over a video call, and I can see Tanya’s living room in the background. This also happens to be her workspace because Tanya, who is 50, is a full-time phone and cam sex worker. For Tanya, earning her living through sex work does not conflict with her religious beliefs at all. Tanya tells me that she had a client who talked to her about his enjoyment of wearing women’s clothing. He confided in her because they both shared the same religious identity. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>He [the client] started talking more and more … he said I listen … he told me he goes to church every Sunday and was a church elder and he opened up. I also said to him … that I used to go to Sunday school every week and so we connected … because I am not going OMG when he told me. And he asked me if I still go to chapel now, and I said no but I still pray and believe in God, and he said that’s nice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tanya reassured her client that there was “no need to feel guilty”, that what they were doing wasn’t “wrong”. She even told him: “I bet there are other people in the church who do it”.</p>
<p>Tanya was one of 11 sex workers I spoke to who all had spiritual and religious beliefs. I wanted to discover how these two seemingly opposite life choices could interconnect and coexist. I discovered people like Tanya, who spoke to their clients about God and religion, but I also spoke to women who used religion as a kink to arouse their clients or as a tactic to earn more money or, in some cases, protect themselves when they felt threatened.</p>
<p>I found out that rather than being incompatible, religion and spirituality can create unique connections and meaningful experiences for both sex worker and client. Tanya’s story shows how sex work experiences are not one dimensional, and are not only about selling sex for money. They can hold multiple meanings. As the journalist Melissa Gira Grant suggests in <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1568-playing-the-whore">her book</a>, sex work is a role where social skills and empathy are regularly performed. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>My PhD research attempts to shine a light on the realities of the everyday lives of religious sex workers, which include positive experiences as well as distressing ones. I spoke with sex workers who were <a href="https://christianity.org.uk/article/what-is-a-christian-1">Christian</a>, <a href="https://www.christianity.com/church/denominations/what-is-catholicism.html">Catholic</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-muslims-believe-and-do-understanding-the-5-pillars-of-islam-155023">Muslim</a>, <a href="https://www.routesnorth.com/language-and-culture/norse-paganism/#:%7E:text=Sometimes%20known%20as%20heathenry%2C%20Norse,realms%20extending%20out%20from%20it.">Norse Pagan</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25646996/">spiritual</a>. All the women were over the age of 18 and were consensual sex workers. </p>
<h2>Religion, sin and ‘morality’</h2>
<p>So, what do different religions say about sex work? Research by independent scholar Benedikta Fones, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-04605-6_11">suggests</a> that in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament representations of sex workers are typically negative. That perhaps doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. The stereotypical “religious” view of sex before marriage is that it is immoral, so why should sex work be any different? Fones argues that these religious ideas, about sex work being “unacceptable”, then spread into wider culture.</p>
<p><a href="https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/handle/10523/13618">Research shows</a> that sex work is generally considered an immoral act within Christianity, Judaism and Islam. </p>
<p>That said, there are some religious organisations or charities that do provide essential support for some sex workers. But there are also “saviour charities”, whose existence gives further insight into the complex relationship between sex work and religion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A stained glass window depicting Adam and Eve." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512018/original/file-20230223-3777-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512018/original/file-20230223-3777-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512018/original/file-20230223-3777-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512018/original/file-20230223-3777-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512018/original/file-20230223-3777-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512018/original/file-20230223-3777-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512018/original/file-20230223-3777-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden on a stained glass window in the cathedral of Brussels, Belgium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brussels-belgium-july-26-2012-adam-391219801">Shutterstock/Jorisvo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the sociologist <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/sociology-social-policy-and-criminology/staff/gemma-ahearne/research/">Gemma Ahearne</a> has <a href="https://plasticdollheads.wordpress.com/2019/08/18/sex-workers-and-faith/">written</a>, some religiously motivated groups aim to stop people working in the sex industry and aim to eradicate sex work entirely. </p>
<p>And it’s not just religious doctrines which find sex work to be immoral – some religious sex workers do too, as <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282705375_The_Role_of_Religion_among_Sex_Workers_in_Thailand">a research project</a> in Thailand discovered in 2015. But the women I spoke with rejected that narrative of religious condemnation. For them, religion and sex work can co-exist and both were a meaningful part of their lives. </p>
<h2>Using religion to earn more</h2>
<p>One of my first discoveries was how some sex workers use religion to earn more money. One example of this was how one sex worker had decided to capitalise on her Muslim heritage to boost her “brand”.</p>
<p><strong>Zahra and Islam</strong></p>
<p>Zahra is a 26-year-old British Muslim. Zahra was inspired by other women who use the hijab when sex working. From this, she created her alter ego, where she wore the hijab when she made online sexual content and when working as an escort. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On Twitter … I networked with this one girl, she wears a hijab, not in her real life but using it to make more money and mix it up and she is like earning 150k, she’s up there with celebrities and stuff and so, yeah I decided I would have an alter ego, my “hoejabi”, that’s what I called it and I made content wearing a head scarf and like that and I had jobs coming through from that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So Zahra utilised the hijab and, in her own words, “made a lot of money from it”. </p>
<p>However, this coexistence of identities – as sex worker and religious person – is not simple, and must be managed by a process of constant internal negotiation. Zahra spoke to me at length about the requests she has had from clients which she turned down, because to agree with them would have challenged her religious values and morals.</p>
<p>She added: “I have had clients go, ‘can you sit on the Qur’an and cum or can I bring a Qur’an and ride it whilst saying this and that’, and I say no. That is too extreme for me.” </p>
<p>So although Zahra uses her religion to earn more money by sexualising Islamic symbols like the hijab, she is still a Muslim woman. She believes in Allah in her private life. She set boundaries within her work to ensure that she doesn’t go against her own religious beliefs. </p>
<p>But sexualising religion in this way can come with risks. In 2015, the former porn actor Mia Khalifa starred in a porn film while she was wearing the hijab. She received death threats as a result and was strongly criticised by some people in Muslim communities. Some claimed she was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-30721981">letting down the Islamic faith</a> (although Khalifa herself was raised Catholic). </p>
<p>But despite – or perhaps because of – the controversy around her film, Khalifa became one of the most searched-for stars on the adult movie site Porn Hub.</p>
<p>Being a Muslim and sex worker may be risky - but for Zahra, it was empowering and positive. And she is not alone. There is a Muslim group called <a href="https://twitter.com/FullDecrim">Muslims for Full Decrim</a> whose members are also current and former sex workers who support the decriminalisation of the sex industry. Clearly, religious communities like Islam are diverse and this is reflected in how people feel about their religion and sex work. </p>
<p><strong>Maya, yoga and spirituality</strong></p>
<p>Another sex worker I met used elements of her spiritual life to increase interest from clients. Maya, a 25-year-old British woman showed me her bedroom over a video-call. Maya, like Tanya, is a cam sex worker, so her bedroom is also her workspace. But Maya’s bedroom is also the space where she practises yoga. She told me that she performed yoga on camera for her clients:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Good spiritual link, customers have said they find it relaxing to watch. Yeah, I don’t know why I didn’t mention that! I think it’s even like, called a subculture … I sent a video of myself into the site proving I can do it [yoga], you add it to your list of specialities so people can find you for specifically doing that. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Maya, yoga can be relaxing and a way to connect with her spiritual identity. But it is also a way to make money and it shows how religion and spirituality are becoming more diverse and less bound by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Researching-New-Religious-Movements-Responses-and-Redefinitions/Arweck/p/book/9780415277556">traditional religious</a> rules and doctrines. Maya was managing her beliefs flexibly. This was also true for Zahra.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Silhouette of woman doing a yoga pose." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512023/original/file-20230223-730-v9q6v9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512023/original/file-20230223-730-v9q6v9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512023/original/file-20230223-730-v9q6v9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512023/original/file-20230223-730-v9q6v9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512023/original/file-20230223-730-v9q6v9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512023/original/file-20230223-730-v9q6v9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512023/original/file-20230223-730-v9q6v9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Woman practising yoga in a studio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-practicing-yoga-studio-upward-318285245">Shutterstock/Luna Vandoorne</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maya’s and Zahra’s stories show the evident demand from some clients for religion when they are paying for sex. Zahra and Maya sexualise their religion and spirituality when sex working – meeting the desires of clients who get off on that. </p>
<p><strong>Khan, a trans Norse Pagan</strong></p>
<p>But there were other women I met who needed religion to help them belong.
Khan, a 41-year-old transgender woman, was raised Christian but now has a Norse Pagan religious identity. She told me how she changed her religious path because she felt conflicted between her gender identity, sex work identity and, specifically, her Christian identity.</p>
<p>She said that being a transgender woman created challenges to being a Christian and that Christianity would not accept her occupation as an escort. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t think there is a way to reconcile the sex work with Christianity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is these kinds of religious ideas about the immorality of sex work that meant Khan looked for and found a religion – Norse Paganism – which better suited her feelings and identities. Norse Pagan practices are diverse and people engage with the religion differently. An introduction to <a href="https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/norse-paganism-for-beginners">Norse Paganism</a> on spiritualityheath.com states that it “is an inclusive spiritual practice, open to all who are moved toward it”. </p>
<p>The inclusivity offered by this religion seems to enable people with diverse and marginalised identities to feel accepted within it – in other words, it is a religious community free from judgement. For Khan, it was a welcoming religion. It helped her to overcome the challenges she had experienced as a transgender woman sex worker within the Christian faith.</p>
<p>Khan’s story supports the idea that religious beliefs are becoming more fluid and that people are able to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272160042_Lived_Religion_Faith_and_Practice_in_Everyday_Life">tailor religion</a> to better align with their “self”.</p>
<p>But, as Tanya’s story showed, there are Christian sex workers who do not feel conflicted in the way that Khan did. Religious beliefs – even those within mainstream religions like Islam and Christianity – are diverse and one size does not fit all. </p>
<h2>Enhancing sexual pleasure</h2>
<p>Another topic I was keen to examine was whether sex workers themselves experience sexual pleasure while working. This point is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1363460716665781">seldom addressed</a>. But according to a number of the women I interviewed, they not only enjoyed sex with some of their clients, but religion and spirituality sometimes increased that pleasure and led to more of a connection.</p>
<p><strong>Amy and spiritual vibes</strong></p>
<p>Take Amy, for example. Amy is a 23-year-old American porn actor who has a spiritual identity. Our interview lasted nearly three hours. She explained to me how being a sex worker and being spiritual were not at “odds with each other”. She described how they are two separate things within her life. However, she also told me that sometimes her sexual encounters (for example, when she is creating pornography) can be a spiritual experience. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sex can still be spiritual for me … And even if you don’t have, like, a connection with the person and you’re not gonna see them again or don’t care about them, or whatever, you can still enjoy … the moment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amy told me that sex could “turn her brain off” and “that’s kind of like a spiritual experience”. Amy’s spirituality concerns <a href="https://lonerwolf.com/low-or-high-vibration-signs/#:%7E:text=High%20vibrations%20are%20generally%20associated,%2C%20fear%2C%20greed%20and%20depression.">“high vibes”</a>, which are positive qualities such as love, and “low vibes” associated with negative qualities such as hatred. So for Amy, although sex work and spirituality are separate, there was also a blurring of lines between them, and some sexual experiences when making porn gave her “high vibes”. </p>
<p><strong>LRE, astrology</strong></p>
<p>Another sex worker I spoke to said that the sex part of her work could become especially enjoyable when she and her client connected over a shared love of astrology and star signs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An ancient clock showing zodiac signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512025/original/file-20230223-1458-dycuhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512025/original/file-20230223-1458-dycuhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512025/original/file-20230223-1458-dycuhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512025/original/file-20230223-1458-dycuhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512025/original/file-20230223-1458-dycuhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512025/original/file-20230223-1458-dycuhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512025/original/file-20230223-1458-dycuhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zodiac signs on ancient Torre dell'Orologio clock in St Mark’s Square, Venice, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/astrological-zodiac-signs-on-ancient-clock-1120931675">Shutterstock/Viacheslav Lopatin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>LRE is a 22-year-old British woman who works part-time as an escort and sexual content creator. Like Amy, LRE’s spiritual identity could sometimes enhance her sexual pleasure with clients. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Oh, he was a Sagittarius [client]… we did bits and then halfway through he was like, what star sign are you? I was like, ‘you are my new favourite person ever’ … he was like laughing and smiling and I was like ‘no seriously, I love that you asked me that’ … and I thought … this is why there is such sexual chemistry.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although the stories of Amy and LRE have some things in common, their spiritual identities were present in their sex work in different ways. In Amy’s case, her spiritual identity was not necessarily known to the fellow porn actor she had sex with. But for LRE, her spiritual identity was known and openly discussed with her client. </p>
<h2>Belief as a coping strategy</h2>
<p>Despite the many empowering and sex-positive stories I heard, there was sometimes a reminder that not all sex worker experiences are positive. </p>
<p><strong>Lilly, Christian Orthodox</strong></p>
<p>Lilly is one such example. Lilly was a 25-year-old escort, originally from Romania. She is Christian Orthodox and lives in the UK. She told me how she prays in her head when she is with a client who makes her feel uncomfortable:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I have a problem or think something is wrong with this guy, I start to pray in my head, and it helps me not to think because if they feel I am scared, they will take advantage. So, when I start to pray, I forget I am scared and go away from those feelings and so, he will be quiet as he doesn’t feel like this. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Safety challenges are an occupational hazard for sex workers. It is important to say, though, that for Lilly at least, feeling unsafe with a client was not a regular occurrence. </p>
<p>Lilly told me that sex work provides her with greater opportunities to earn more compared to other jobs available to her. I did feel concerned that Lilly, at times, was made to feel scared by her clients. But it was also clear to me that, for Lilly, these negative experiences do not outweigh the positive benefits she says she gains from being an escort. </p>
<h2>Decriminalisation</h2>
<p>One way to keep sex workers like Lilly <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00636-0">safer</a> is to decriminalise the sex industry. Those who oppose decriminalisation seem to be under the misconception that all sex workers are coerced, <a href="https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-020-00201-5">trafficked</a> or exploited. Although this is true for some, it is not true for most and the misconception that all sex workers are victims is itself, as research shows, a result of stigma and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4730391/">lack of knowledge</a> about the industry. </p>
<p>It is also important to differentiate between criminalised, legalised and decriminalised sex industries. Criminalisation of the sex industry makes all sex work-related practices illegal. Legalisation of the sex industry is where sex work is legal under specific state defined conditions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors hold a banner that reads: 'Decriminalise sex work safety first'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512031/original/file-20230223-630-hw1m62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512031/original/file-20230223-630-hw1m62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512031/original/file-20230223-630-hw1m62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512031/original/file-20230223-630-hw1m62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512031/original/file-20230223-630-hw1m62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512031/original/file-20230223-630-hw1m62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512031/original/file-20230223-630-hw1m62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest in London in July 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/protest-against-trumpinspired-law-that-would-1227159718">Shutterstock/Koca Vehbi</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, under legalisation laws <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/prostitution-and-exploitation-prostitution">within the UK</a> (except for Northern Ireland, who have adopted the <a href="https://prostitutescollective.net/briefing-no-nordic-model/">Nordic Model</a>) sex work practices are predominantly legal. However, some engagements with sex work such as soliciting on the street and working with another sex worker within the same house (as this is considered a brothel) are <a href="https://prostitutescollective.net/know-your-rights/">criminalised</a>. </p>
<p>Decriminalisation is where sex work is stripped of regulations and sex workers can operate freely. I support the <a href="https://decrimnow.org.uk/the-facts/">decriminalisation</a> of the sex industry globally because it is under these conditions that sex workers can best protect themselves and it is the first step in abolishing stigma. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1748895814523024">Research</a> has also <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002680">shown</a> it is the best strategy for <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00636-0">harm reduction</a>. </p>
<h2>Stigma heightens risks</h2>
<p>Although it is not the belief of all sex workers, the women I spoke to argued strongly for the decriminalisation of the sex industry. Stories told to me by Khan and LRE, who are both escorts, are cases in point. </p>
<p>Khan lives and works in a US state where escorting is illegal. So, if she has a violent client, she will tell staff and security at the hotel where she is working that she is on a date that has gone wrong. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… God forbid, something does happen, like there’s staffed or security and I will say I was on a date and this guy went crazy … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Khan is forced to hide her sex work from staff when she is in potential danger due to fear of prosecution. LRE faces similar issues in the UK. She told me how she has to hide her income around her hotel room when she is escorting to reduce the likelihood of theft and violence. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… If you get money, put like £100 in the safe and then anything else, just stash it around the room …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All the women I spoke to informed me they do not report violence from clients or thefts to the police. This is not surprising, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-28441-1">given evidence</a> that women, men and transgender sex workers are all at heightened risk of police sexual misconduct in comparison to non-sex workers. </p>
<h2>Not ‘just’ sex workers</h2>
<p>I think my interviews show that sex workers are not just sex workers – they have complex and multifaceted identities. You absolutely can be a sex worker and be religious or spiritual. But it is not necessarily easy to always get a balance. It is the result of constant and skilful identity management. The stories of women like Tanya, Maya, Zahra, LRE, Amy, Lilly and Khan underline how important it is to recognise the sheer diversity of people who work in this industry. </p>
<p>Although there are negative experiences in the sex industry, the women I spoke to, on the whole, felt empowered by their profession. They saw it as providing great opportunities for earning money and offering them positive experiences. </p>
<p>And, importantly, it didn’t get in the way of their religious and spiritual beliefs. As Zahra told me at the end of our discussion: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>…I do believe in God and believe in Allah and in my private life. I believe in it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So whether it was Tanya consoling a church elder, or Zahra finding a way to utilise her Muslim faith, these women were opening up new discussions about what it means to be a sex worker. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>All names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-artist-formerly-known-as-camille-princes-lost-album-comes-out-189486">The artist formerly known as Camille – Prince’s lost album ‘comes out’</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-like-being-in-a-warzone-aande-nurses-open-up-about-the-emotional-cost-of-working-on-the-nhs-frontline-194197">‘It’s like being in a warzone’ – A&E nurses open up about the emotional cost of working on the NHS frontline</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/living-with-mnd-how-a-form-of-acceptance-therapy-is-helping-me-make-one-difficult-choice-at-a-time-184973">Living with MND: how a form of ‘acceptance therapy’ is helping me make one difficult choice at a time</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Interviews with religious and spiritual sex workers examine how these seemingly opposite life choices can interconnect and coexist.Daisy Matthews, PhD candidate in Sociology, exploring the lives of religious and spiritual sex workers, Nottingham Trent UniversityJane Pilcher, Associate Professor of Sociology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980162023-02-03T05:57:21Z2023-02-03T05:57:21ZFuture of Welsh rugby at stake after misogyny allegations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507603/original/file-20230201-10491-xvmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3882%2C1827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Allegations of sex discrimination should be a watershed moment not only for Welsh rugby but the people of Wales</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Prime Minister Harold Wilson said “a week is a long time in politics”, it’s unlikely that many thought Welsh rugby would one day be the subject of this truism. But a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64333230">BBC Wales investigative documentary</a> has exposed a “toxic culture” within the sport’s governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), highlighting some very serious allegations of sexism and misogyny on the part of union employees.</p>
<p>The union’s CEO, Steve Phillips, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/29/steve-phillips-resigns-wru-chief-executive-toxic-culture-claims">resigned</a> in the days following, saying it was time for someone else to lead the way. And an announcement was made that an investigation would be held into the culture of the Welsh game.</p>
<p>This should be a watershed moment – not only for rugby but, more contentiously, for the people of Wales. Rugby has huge <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443330710741084/full/html">historical and social importance</a> for the country, and is a vital part of its <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523360008714148">national identity</a>. What happens next is critical not only for the sport but for Wales as a whole.</p>
<p>However, knowing what to do next has a lot to do with understanding how we got here in the first place. And in that regard, there had been plenty of warnings to suggest that something seismic was about to happen in Welsh rugby. </p>
<p>In late 2021, businesswoman Amanda Blanc told the WRU it had “deep-rooted” cultural and behavioural problems when she <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59335487">resigned from chairing the Professional Rugby Board</a>. In autumn of the same year, a group of 123 former women internationals <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/58547024">launched a petition</a> calling for improvements to the women’s game in Wales.</p>
<p>At that time, the WRU conducted a review into the women’s game, the results of which have yet to be published. But its current acting CEO Nigel Walker has told the Senedd a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-64497272">redacted version</a> will be made available. Walker also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/acting-wru-chief-walker-apologises-handling-sexism-allegations-2023-01-30/">apologised</a> for the WRU’s handling of the sex-discrimination allegations that have emerged.</p>
<p>Such incidents suggest the governing body has long had a patriarchal culture, which is reflected in the uniformity of its leadership. There is only one woman currently sitting on the <a href="https://community.wru.wales/governance/rugby-boards/wru-board/">WRU board</a>, and no people of colour.</p>
<p>The events of the past week reflect a deep-seated challenge to ensure greater diversity in Welsh rugby. This is a goal which could do much to reduce the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-19799-5_18">toxic masculinity</a> that arises within some rugby practices and environments. </p>
<p>The institutional challenges faced by the WRU are aggravated by problems the sport faces as a whole. <a href="https://www.premiershiprugby.com/news/new-research-shines-the-light-on-discrimination-in-womens-rugby">Research</a> found that 55% of women and girls agreed that “many women feel unwelcome to play rugby because of the jokes and negative language some people use about women”. Some 37% had heard homophobic slurs at their club in the last year, while 59% had heard sexist slurs and negative jokes about women.</p>
<p>In the same week as the WRU crisis, transgender women in Scotland were <a href="https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12505/12794861/scottish-rugby-union-bans-transgender-women-from-contact-rugby">banned from contact rugby</a>. In England, there has been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/rfu-tackle-height-law-change-waist-backlash-b2270623.html">pushback against the Rugby Football Union’s edict on changes to the tackle law</a>. (The governing body had wanted to lower the permitted tackle height to the waist for safety reasons, but this decision was met with opposition from across the game.)</p>
<p>Debates on player welfare, particularly regarding <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/19/amateur-players-launch-lawsuit-against-rugby-authorities-over-brain-injuries">head injuries and concussion</a>, as well as on attitudes towards alcohol and levels of aggression in rugby union are ongoing. Alongside the evident sex discrimination, it suggests rugby, at least in terms of how it might be perceived by outsiders, is in a reactive, out-of-step state. </p>
<p>For a growing part of the population, the sport can no longer be a neutral, innocent space for escaping everyday life. It is a place in which the spotlight of social justice is increasingly relevant. </p>
<p>By perpetuating the status quo for so long, the WRU has been unable to embrace the internal self-reflection and self-critique needed for gradual reform. This moral drift has made it a bigger and easier target for criticism when the revelations finally exploded.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cloudy sky above the Principality Stadium. The river Taf runs alongside it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C0%2C5326%2C3532&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Principality Stadium in Cardiff is the home of Welsh rugby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glitch Images/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Walker admits <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/30/welsh-rugby-future-danger-nigel-walker-wru">the future of Welsh rugby is in danger</a>. Based on the experiences of other institutions such as the <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/mark-rowley-david-carrick-met-metropolitan-police-suella-braverman-b1055472.html">police</a>, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35657868">BBC</a> and the <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/05/measuring-the-impact-of-metoo-on-gender-equity-in-hollywood">film industry</a>, significant reform will be needed if the WRU wants to be an ongoing part of the conversation on the dynamics of Welsh society and culture. </p>
<p>A first step towards redemption is for the WRU to achieve greater diversity in its leadership, so as to better reflect the people of Wales. Having different voices will go a long way to preventing cultural and social inertia in the future. </p>
<p>Regarding the women’s game, a rethink of financial resources is needed. This should aim to meet the demands of grassroots players for more opportunities to participate. It should also enable women to play professional rugby in Wales on a par with the game in England, and to implement the principle of equal pay for men and women at international level.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alun Hardman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A BBC Wales investigation reported claims of a ‘toxic culture’ of sexism and misogyny within Welsh rugby’s governing body.Alun Hardman, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Sport Ethics, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1948262022-12-02T13:03:04Z2022-12-02T13:03:04ZCorruption in South Africa: new book lifts the lid on who profits - and their corporate enablers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496463/original/file-20221121-26-3p10v6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/the-unaccountables/">book</a> The Unaccountables: The Powerful Politicians and Corporations who Profit from Impunity is welcome for the way it contextualises corruption. It shows how politicians and bureaucrats could not implement corruption without their corporate and professional enablers – the accountants, auditors and advocates who make it all possible.</p>
<p>The book is the result of a decade of research by <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org.za/">Open Secrets</a> and other NGOs. It is edited by Michael Marchant, Mamello Mosiana, Ra’eesa Pather and Hennie van Vuuren (a blend of investigative journalists and activists) and has 11 named contributors. Analytically, it covers four overlapping issues:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>crimes such as stealing public funds and evading tax </p></li>
<li><p>culpable negligence by professionals such as auditors </p></li>
<li><p>serial failure by regulatory authorities </p></li>
<li><p>moral and political issues such as inequality and corporate tax avoidance.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Corporate corruption</h2>
<p>Readers who are diligent in taking in the daily media will remember most of the high profile cases summarised in this book. But not all. It reveals that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-deaths-of-144-mentally-ill-patients-and-south-africas-constitutional-democracy-91433">Life Esidemeni tragedy</a>, in which 144 patients died after being placed in inadequate facilities run by NGOs in 2015, had one apartheid precedent. During the 1960s the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Party-political-party-South-Africa">National Party</a> regime outsourced the psychiatric care of 11,000 patients (9,000 of them black) to the British company Intrinsic Investments: 207 died (p.50). </p>
<p>The book fills some gaps in media reports. These tend to focus on those who are despised by the plutocratic, wealthy establishment – the ruling African National Congress politicians and their cronies. The media are comparatively reluctant to cover crimes committed by fellow denizens of their plutocratic stratosphere, such as auditors, accountants and advocates. For example, global media coverage of Hong Kong focuses on Chinese repression of freedom of expression – but overlooks its role as a tax shelter and corporate secrecy hideout for front companies and money laundering:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a long-running failure to hold the powerful and wealthy to account for the crimes that they profit from. Economic crimes and corruption are committed by a small band of the powerful, but they pose fundamental threats to democracy and social justice. They result in the looting of public funds, the destruction of democratic institutions, and ultimately … the human rights of millions of people. (p.12)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fear of those with money to bring defamation litigation, or who decide on corporate advertising spending in the media, aggravates this situation.</p>
<p>This book is structured around apartheid profiteers, war profiteers, state capture profiteers, welfare profiteers, failing auditors, conspiring consultants, and bad lawyers.</p>
<p>The authors note how over 500 global corporations negotiated, thanks to their tax accountants, with Luxembourg, a tax haven, paying only 1% tax on their profits (p.254). They seem to have missed the case of Ireland, where such tax is one thousandth of 1% on profits. Such tax shelters pervade the west, especially <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries">Commonwealth countries</a>.</p>
<p>The book calls for action to end such tax avoidance. But it does not spell out what it would entail. It would require the South African government to negotiate an international coalition to campaign through the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the African Union, to find enough allies to mitigate such a global power structure – class power in its purest form.</p>
<p>US president Joe Biden’s proposal that globally, corporate tax should have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/biden-offers-drop-corporate-tax-hike-proposal-source-2021-06-03/">a floor of 15%</a> provides a good start for such campaigns.</p>
<h2>Regulation failure</h2>
<p>This book gives welcome attention to a long-neglected problem in South Africa. That is the serial failure of regulatory authorities to hold companies or professionals to account. One instance too recent for this book to cover is that the minerals and energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, has fired from the National Nuclear Regulator a civil society representative, on the grounds that he is <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/eskom/mantashe-fires-anti-nuclear-activist-from-regulatory-board-20220225">anti-nuclear</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Book cover with the words 'The Unaccountable' over images of several punidentifiable men walking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496457/original/file-20221121-19-rl2eao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496457/original/file-20221121-19-rl2eao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496457/original/file-20221121-19-rl2eao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496457/original/file-20221121-19-rl2eao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496457/original/file-20221121-19-rl2eao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496457/original/file-20221121-19-rl2eao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496457/original/file-20221121-19-rl2eao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the minister’s portfolio and performance contract require him to promote nuclear power, it is a conflict of interests for him to interfere in the regulator of nuclear safety. The regulator should fall under the environmental affairs department, as in other countries. This is a topical example of the abuse of power, and defanging a regulatory authority.</p>
<p>The book underscores that the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (IRBA) refuses to name and shame. It abuses secrecy to protect the names and reputations of auditors guilty of conspiring with their corporate clients to conceal the truth (p.272):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the IRBA’s desire to protect its members overshadows its responsibility. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since at least the first world war, pacifists have denounced the military-industrial complex as the merchants of death. The <a href="https://www.gov.za/national-conventional-arms-control-committee-ncacc-statement-south-african-arms-sales-regulation">National Conventional Arms Control Committee</a> is supposed to oversee South African exports of armaments and munitions. This is to ensure the country does not violate international treaties. It is not known to have refused any permits to export armaments to countries at war, even when they indiscriminately bomb civilians, as in Yemen.</p>
<p>The authors call for its statutory framework to be drastically toughened up.</p>
<h2>Apartheid profiteers</h2>
<p>The historical chapter of the book, on apartheid profiteers, holds no surprises. Of course, <a href="https://www.sanlam.co.za/Pages/default.aspx?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4OybBhCzARIsAIcfn9m5OBZxhgPlZPIjzU68Z0C7CSAqA8Eqkui60NBY7q8qkcX4Hw3vu_UaAlITEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">Sanlam</a>, the insurance giant, and <a href="https://www.naspers.com/">Naspers</a>, the media behemoth, were always part of the Afrikaner nationalist movement, led by the secretive <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Afrikaner-Broederbond">Broederbond</a>. Of course, individual Afrikaner businessmen donated to the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/national-party-np">Nasionale Party</a>, which formalised apartheid in 1948, as did the military-industrial complex. All those companies manufacturing armaments had only one monopoly buyer – the South African Defence Force:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a significant portion of the business elite kept the taps open to the party at the height of domestic repression and foreign wars (p.25). </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The authors do a thorough job of exposing all the Swiss, Belgian and Luxembourg bankers who comprised the sanction-busting front companies. It exposes the late <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mobutu-Sese-Seko">Mobutu Sese Seko</a> of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) for providing false end user certificates to enable <a href="https://www.armscor.co.za/">Armscor</a>, the apartheid-era state arms procurement company, to smuggle in weaponry (p.42).</p>
<p>The book revisits the controversial <a href="https://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/the-arms-deal-what-you-need-to-know-2/">1999 arms deal</a>. It explains how bribes were described in corporate paperwork as consultancy fees. The arms deal was the first opportunity of the post-apartheid military to buy big-ticket weapons after a quarter-century of arms sanctions, which the post-apartheid military lacked the budget to maintain in service. </p>
<p>Since then, the amount wasted in the arms deal has been dwarfed by the billions spent by <a href="https://www.transnet.net/Pages/Home.aspx">Transnet</a>, the rail, ports and pipelines parastatal, on corrupt locomotive contracts. The same for <a href="https://www.prasa.com/">Prasa</a>, the passenger rail parastatal, and <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/">Eskom</a>, the power utility, contracts.</p>
<p>Overall, it is a book that should be on the bookshelf of every thinking South African.</p>
<p><em>Updated to clear confusion created by the absence of an index in the advance proof sent to the author.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is an ANC member, but writes this review in his professional capacity as a political scientist.</span></em></p>The new book is structured around apartheid profiteers, war profiteers, state capture profiteers, welfare profiteers, failing auditors, conspiring consultants and bad lawyers.Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905232022-10-21T12:38:19Z2022-10-21T12:38:19ZIntuitions about justice are a consistent part of human nature across cultures and millennia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490972/original/file-20221020-19-jm6ebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1531%2C144%2C4475%2C3287&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Laws from different places and eras largely reflect a universal human sense of justice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/lady-justice-statue-of-justice-in-library-royalty-free-image/1313531795">simpson33/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Thou shalt not kill” may be the most recognizable moral prohibition in societies around the world. </p>
<p>But where does your sense of justice come from?</p>
<p>Throughout history, justice and laws about wrongdoing have been <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Tanakh">attributed to one god or another</a>. More recently, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674518360">justice has been traced to moral truths</a> that can be discovered by judges and other legal experts, and to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41203513">social norms that vary across cultures</a>. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKHl_vwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">our</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CzKmINsAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">research</a> instead suggests that the human sense of justice, and criminal laws, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0827-8">is generated by the human brain</a>.</p>
<p>Put simply: Being human makes you a decent lawmaker even if you’ve never stepped foot in law school. To an important extent, criminal laws appear to be the end products of gut feelings about justice that are a part of human nature.</p>
<p>Here’s how we investigated just how universal these intuitions are:</p>
<h2>Testing the human brain’s sense of justice</h2>
<p>Human conflict ranges from the mild, as when neighbors disagree about the appropriate loudness of music, to the serious, including cases of fraud, robbery, rape, homicide – the stuff of criminal law.</p>
<p>Laws and litigation come in handy when you’re butting heads with someone. But your <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262072755/heuristics-and-the-law/">brain automatically generates intuitions about justice</a> when there is even the potential for conflict, long before you set foot in court. People, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1128983">even young children</a>, have strong feelings about what counts as a wrongful action and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1110306108">how much punishment a wrongdoer deserves</a>.</p>
<p>These justice intuitions come naturally to everyone. They’re like human lungs or human retinas – part of being human. </p>
<p>So maybe the standard-issue human brain forms the basis of formal and informal justice. If so, a distinctive prediction follows: Laypeople will make decent lawmakers using their sense of justice even when they have no training in law. Further, laypeople will be able to intuitively recreate core features of actual criminal laws from cultures they are totally unfamiliar with.</p>
<p>We devised a study to test those predictions. We showed participants various offenses drawn from actual criminal codes but not the punishments that the law establishes for those offenses.</p>
<p><iframe id="zIAwq" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zIAwq/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Some of the offenses we presented came from a modern and culturally familiar society, drawn from Title 18 of the <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/18/18.HTM">Consolidated Pennsylvania Statutes</a>. But other offenses were truly ancient and culturally foreign. Some participants evaluated offenses <a href="https://cart.sbl-site.org/books/061506P">from the Laws of Eshnunna</a>, a 3,800-year-old Mesopotamian legal code – one of humanity’s most ancient legal codes. Other participants saw offenses from the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691636320/the-tang-code-volume-ii">Tang Code, a 1,400-year-old legal code from China</a>.</p>
<p>These archaic laws are the next best thing to time travel. They are like fossils that preserve the legal thinking of ancient lawmakers.</p>
<p>To give some examples, some of the Eshnunna offenses shown to participants included: biting out the eye of another man, seizing a boat fraudulently and failing to keep one’s aggressive ox in check, resulting in a slave being killed by the ox. Such were the offenses of an ancient Mesopotamian society.</p>
<p>Despite the massive cultural differences between the ancient city-state of Eshnunna and modern societies, if the sense of justice, and laws, originates in the human brain, then the king who decreed the Laws of Eshnunna and the participants in the study may be of one mind.</p>
<p>So next we asked participants to rate each of the offenses they saw. Some participants were asked to imagine they were lawmakers; they were asked to mock-legislate the fines each offense would deserve by law. Other participants mock-legislated prison sentences for each offense. To make sure participants were giving their untrained intuitions, we excluded from analyses participants who attended law school. </p>
<p>Indeed, the Eshnunna king and the participants in our study did display a shared sense of justice. The more study participants judged an ancient offense as serious, the higher the actual punishment provided by law for that offense.</p>
<p>This match between participants’ intuitions and ancient laws wasn’t perfect, but it was substantial. It suggests that human beings share a sense of justice and that people today can recreate the core of criminal laws from faraway societies that are thousands of years in the past.</p>
<h2>Cultural effects on the sense of justice</h2>
<p>A shared sense of justice that is part of human nature does not deny cultural differences. </p>
<p>Consider this Tang offense: “All cases of a master who kills a slave who has not committed an offense are punished by one year of penal servitude (NB: redeemable by paying a fine of 20 copper chin).” The Tang Code considers this offense to be relatively mild – consider, for example, that “beating and killing a person in an affray” was punished by the Tang Code with strangulation or a fine of 120 copper chin. In contrast, study participants judged “killing a slave who has not committed an offense” a very serious transgression.</p>
<p>And yet, participants’ intuitive responses generally matched the responses called for in the ancient criminal codes. For instance, participants agreed with the Tang lawmakers that beating and killing a person in a fight is a worse offense than betting goods and articles in games of chance.</p>
<p>To us, this mix of cross-cultural differences and similarities suggests that the brain machinery that generates the sense of justice combines universal principles with open parameters that are filled in with local information. The universal principles may explain why participants generally saw eye to eye with the Eshnunna king and the Tang lawmakers. The open parameters may explain cultural variation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two bighorn sheep butt heads" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490973/original/file-20221020-15-6tujk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People, animals, even very simple organisms can be in conflict.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bighorn-sheep-rams-in-rut-butting-heads-royalty-free-image/1057145660">Stan Tekiela Author/Naturalist/Wildlife Photographer/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Evolutionary roots of a sense of justice</h2>
<p>Conflict is evolutionarily ancient. Organisms, including nonhuman animals, can offend against others – for example, by preying on them. And so natural selection would have endowed organisms with means that help them solve conflicts in their favor: fangs, antlers, neurotoxic venoms. These defenses and weapons are useful. Our ancestors lived in a world without police, and so they had to be their own police if they were to survive and thrive.</p>
<p>But human conflict is special. With their ingenuity and knack for cooperation, people can produce a huge array of goods and services that other people can swindle, rob, adulterate, counterfeit, embezzle and destroy. So the scope of human conflict is vast. </p>
<p>Brawn may help in human conflict, but brain is key. Humans live in an information-dense world, where it’s important to know precisely how much harm is being done to you when someone offends against you. Accurately appraising wrongs allows victims to demand or deliver an amount of punishment that is, as in the story of Goldilocks, just right: neither too small that an undeterred offender will re-offend, nor too great that the offender will counter-punish the original victim. Our human ancestors didn’t have price tags or written laws to appraise wrongful actions, so they needed to appraise wrongful actions with their brains.</p>
<p>The brain mechanisms for appraising wrongdoing appear to be part of human nature – the same in all times and places humans have lived in. Of course, justice intuitions and criminal laws vary across cultures. Grand theft auto wasn’t appraised in Sparta because there were no cars 2,500 years ago. Written criminal laws are absent in societies without writing systems.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2352(02)00198-8">human sense of justice</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1911517117">seems to be fundamentally similar across space and time</a>. And criminal laws everywhere may be shaped by a sense of justice and offense-appraising mechanisms that are universal – akin to how <a href="https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2009.27462B">universal mechanisms of taste perception</a> give rise to the world’s diverse cuisines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Sznycer received funding from Fonds de recherche du Québec and Quebec Bio-Imaging Network </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlton Patrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What people consider to be fair and just today are in line with the laws of ancient Mesopotamia and the Tang Dynasty in China – suggesting that these intuitions are part of human nature.Daniel Sznycer, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Oklahoma State UniversityCarlton Patrick, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, University of Central FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1878352022-08-05T12:13:18Z2022-08-05T12:13:18ZWhy are nuclear weapons so hard to get rid of? Because they’re tied up in nuclear countries’ sense of right and wrong<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477238/original/file-20220802-19-qrajme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C1020%2C674&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during the 2022 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations on Aug. 1, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-speaks-during-the-2022-news-photo/1242248550?adppopup=true">Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every five years, the nearly 200 member states of the <a href="https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/npt/">Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons</a> meet to review their progress – or lack thereof. After being postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the monthlong conference <a href="https://www.un.org/en/conferences/npt2020">is now meeting in New York</a> and opened with a stark warning.</p>
<p>The world is “just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/world/europe/nuclear-war-un-guterres.html">United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Aug. 1, 2022</a>, citing growing conflicts and weakening “guardrails” against escalation.</p>
<p>The treaty has three core missions: preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to states that do not have them, ensuring civil nuclear energy programs do not turn into weapons programs, and facilitating nuclear disarmament. The last review conference, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/conf/npt/2015/">held in 2015</a>, was widely regarded as a nonproliferation success but a <a href="https://cpr.unu.edu/publications/articles/why-the-2015-npt-review-conference-fell-apart.html">disarmament failure</a>, with the five members that possess nuclear weapons failing to make progress toward eliminating their nuclear arsenals, as promised in <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/peace_security-paix_securite/action_plan-2010-plan_d_action.aspx?lang=eng">previous conferences</a>.</p>
<p>At the heart of this dispute are states’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.3402/egp.v2i2.1916">motivations for keeping nuclear weapons</a> – often perceived as rooted in hard-nosed security strategy, by which morality is irrelevant or even self-defeating.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.polisci.txst.edu/people/faculty-bios/doyle.html">a nuclear ethicist</a>, though, I see these explanations as incomplete. To understand <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538164136/Nuclear-Ethics-in-the-Twenty-First-Century-Survival-Order-and-Justice">leaders’ motives</a> – and therefore effectively negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons – other scholars and I argue we must acknowledge that policymakers express underlying moral concerns as strategic concerns. History shows that such moral concerns often form the foundations of nuclear strategy, even if they’re deeply buried. </p>
<h2>National values</h2>
<p>It is easier for many people to see how the <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/treaty-nuclear-weapons-prohibition">nuclear abolitionist argument</a> is fundamentally based in morality. The fear of <a href="https://theconversation.com/nuclear-war-could-be-devastating-for-the-us-even-if-no-one-shoots-back-131809">nuclear winter</a> – or even a less severe “nuclear autumn” – is rooted in the immorality of killing millions of innocent people and devastating the environment in long-lasting ways.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows a man standing in a sea of rubble, with the ruins of one building in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477239/original/file-20220802-10020-gr7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477239/original/file-20220802-10020-gr7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477239/original/file-20220802-10020-gr7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477239/original/file-20220802-10020-gr7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477239/original/file-20220802-10020-gr7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477239/original/file-20220802-10020-gr7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477239/original/file-20220802-10020-gr7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hiroshima, Japan, after the atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/world-war-ii-after-the-explosion-of-the-atom-bomb-in-august-news-photo/566461861?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, a realistic and strategic approach to the value of nuclear weapons has dominated <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538164136/Nuclear-Ethics-in-the-Twenty-First-Century-Survival-Order-and-Justice">security discourse</a> since the early Cold War era. This approach argues that the primary purpose of nuclear weapons is to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491573">deter adversaries</a> from attacking vital national security interests. If an attack does occur, then nuclear weapons can be used to <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21511">punish aggression</a> in a proportional way and caution other adversaries, restoring nuclear deterrence. </p>
<p>Even so, according to <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/joseph-nye">political scientist Joseph Nye</a>, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs under President Bill Clinton, a strategist <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Nuclear-Ethics/Joseph-S-Nye/9780029230916">may pose as a moral skeptic</a> but “tends to smuggle his preferred values into foreign policy, often in the form of narrow nationalism.”</p>
<p>Nationalism asserts the moral priority of one’s own nation over others. Communities’ deep-held beliefs are intimately woven into <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/michael-walzer/just-and-unjust-wars/9780465052707/">ideas about nationhood, security and prestige</a>.</p>
<p>In the United States, for example, the moral underpinnings of American identity are deeply rooted in the idea of being “<a href="https://www.neh.gov/article/how-america-became-city-upon-hill">a city on a hill</a>”: an example the rest of the world is watching. Americans are anxious about losing their way, and many feel that their country was once a <a href="https://www.mic.com/articles/5505/is-america-the-greatest-force-for-good-in-the-world">force for good</a> in the world, but no longer. Thus, national survival is embraced as a moral value, and deterring or defending against aggression has strategic, political and moral overtones.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether someone thinks these concerns are justified, it is important to recognize that, in their defenders’ view, they go beyond strategy or sheer survival. They reflect societies’ foundational ideas about what is wrong and right – their sense of morality.</p>
<h2>Early motives</h2>
<p>So how are these moral concerns applied to the questions of nuclear weapons and their role in security strategy?</p>
<p>It is worth remembering what motivated President Franklin D. Roosevelt to authorize the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/A-Perpetual-Menace-Nuclear-Weapons-and-International-Order/Walker/p/book/9780415421065">development of the atomic bomb</a>: the genocidal evil of Nazi German aggression in World War II and the knowledge that Adolf Hitler had begun an atomic bomb program. </p>
<p>And when Nazi Germany had been defeated, the U.S. justifications for <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250070050/hiroshimanagasaki">using atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki</a> centered on two kinds of moral concerns. The most frequently invoked was utilitarian: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1995/07/was-it-right/376364/">preventing a greater number of deaths</a> in a land invasion of Japan. The second, not expressed as explicitly, viewed the atomic bombing as a kind of moral <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/atomic-bombings-ian-w-toll">punishment</a> for the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor and the brutal treatment of Allied prisoners of war.</p>
<p>In short, the motivations for the original atomic bomb program and its uses could not be described in solely “hard-nosed” strategic terms. As political philosopher <a href="https://www.ias.edu/scholars/walzer">Michael Walzer</a> <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/michael-walzer/just-and-unjust-wars/9780465052707/">has argued</a>, both morality and strategy are about justification: Both tell us what we should do or should not do, based on some set of values. And strategy is often used for decision-makers’ moral aims, such as their goal to defeat a genocidal regime.</p>
<h2>Morally excusable?</h2>
<p>Along with other scholars, I have argued that moral concerns also motivated the central role of <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1081/E-EPAP3-120052995/defense-military-policy-nuclear-war-deterrence-policy-thomas-doyle">nuclear deterrence policy</a> during the Cold War. American policymakers portrayed Soviet communism, like Nazism, as a politics of brute force that had no regard for law or morals. Once the Soviet Union and China had acquired nuclear weapons, American analysts came to believe that communism represented <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674005426">an existential threat</a> not only to U.S. security, but to liberal democracy in general.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white photograph shows newspaper headlines about Russia's atomic weapon testing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477240/original/file-20220802-12171-qiicwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477240/original/file-20220802-12171-qiicwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477240/original/file-20220802-12171-qiicwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477240/original/file-20220802-12171-qiicwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477240/original/file-20220802-12171-qiicwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477240/original/file-20220802-12171-qiicwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477240/original/file-20220802-12171-qiicwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A selection of U.S. newspaper headlines about President Truman’s announcement that Soviet Union had conducted its first nuclear weapon test, in 1949.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/selection-of-us-newspaper-headlines-on-president-trumans-news-photo/85274999?adppopup=true">Keystone/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.ias.edu/scholars/walzer">Walzer described</a> such situations as “supreme emergency conditions,” in which ordinary moral prohibitions against mass destruction are suspended to ensure what political leaders see as <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/michael-walzer/just-and-unjust-wars/9780465052707/">the highest value: national survival</a>. </p>
<p>This is self-preservation – but people often think about that, too, as a moral concern. Social norms against suicide, for example, imply that people have a moral duty to preserve their lives except under certain conditions, reflecting a belief that human life has intrinsic moral value.</p>
<p>Walzer did not claim that using nuclear weapons, or even threatening their use, was morally justified. However, he suggested they might be necessary for national security, and therefore become morally excusable in supreme emergency situations. His argument has been <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/conspiring-with-the-enemy/9780231182454">very influential</a> in government and academic circles.</p>
<p>Many critics claim that it is always <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/morality-prudence-and-nuclear-weapons/B9969D41EC15E37CA7F506CDD2A578C9">immoral to use nuclear weapons</a>, since they cannot discriminate between soldiers and innocent civilians, including children, the elderly and the infirm. Moreover, the use of nuclear weapons cannot but bring social and environmental catastrophe, the kind that our <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/books/review/review-the-road-by-cormac-mccarthy.html">darkest dystopian novels</a> and films depict. And if it is immoral to use nuclear weapons, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05568649109506350">it is immoral to threaten to use them</a>.</p>
<p>But it is unsurprising that the leaders of the nuclear-weapon states are ultimately committed to the survival of their countries and peoples, even if others must pay an ultimate price. To fully appreciate nuclear motivations, we must understand the role of this kind of moral concern in their decision-making.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas E. Doyle II does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Policymakers often think of their decisions about nuclear weapons as moral, a nuclear ethicist explains – which is key to understanding their motives.Thomas E. Doyle II, Associate Professor of Political Science, Texas State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1861192022-07-07T19:52:03Z2022-07-07T19:52:03ZHumans are aggressive, sometimes too much – could ‘moral enhancement’ technologies offer a solution?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472928/original/file-20220707-15-4ntwzr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C0%2C3668%2C1756&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a mistake to think problematic aggression is limited to those with psychiatric disorders. Healthy people have also the capacity for impulsive violence – and resulting “morally” poor behaviour.</p>
<p>Traditionally, moral development has been facilitated by social institutions such as religion, education and societal convention. But technology could change this. </p>
<p>If scientists could identify the predictors of reactive aggression, bio-medicine may offer ways to improve the moral behaviour of those more at risk of problematic aggression.</p>
<p>This concept of “moral enhancement” is strongly contested. Bioethicists ask: can, and <em>should</em>, biomedical interventions be used to make people “morally” better? </p>
<p>We need a lot more research before we can weigh up the practical and ethical feasibility of aggression-reducing techniques. But exploration in this space is well under way. </p>
<h2>What is ‘moral enhancement’?</h2>
<p>Broadly, moral enhancement refers to the use of bio-medicine to improve moral functioning. Some suggested methods include decreasing bias, increasing empathy, improving self-control and enhancing intelligence.</p>
<p>While this may seem like science fiction, consider the other types of human enhancement that already exist. </p>
<p>Transhumanists are acquiring new modes of perception through seismic sensors, neural implants and magnetoreception devices. <a href="https://theconversation.com/mind-bending-drugs-and-devices-can-they-make-us-smarter-91696">Smart drugs</a> are used for purported cognitive benefits such as memory and alertness – and <a href="https://theconversation.com/melding-mind-and-machine-how-close-are-we-75589">brain-computer interfaces</a> are fusing mind and machine. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/super-intelligence-and-eternal-life-transhumanisms-faithful-follow-it-blindly-into-a-future-for-the-elite-78538">Super-intelligence and eternal life: transhumanism's faithful follow it blindly into a future for the elite</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s not a huge leap, then, to imagine we could target the biological processes that mediate our social behaviours. </p>
<p>Of course, moral enhancement is controversial, and bioethicists disagree over its feasibility and ethical implications. Could it work? And under what conditions (if any) might it be justified? </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12152-022-09501-2">My latest</a> research explores a proposal I think is underappreciated: that moral outcomes could be improved by reducing aggression. </p>
<h2>Everyday aggression</h2>
<p>Aggressive disorders have long been treated by medical practitioners. But this is usually confined to psychiatric cases, and we know aggression is more widespread than clinical and forensic statistics reflect. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118303092.ch8">Research indicates</a> only half of non-fatal violence is reported, with around 72% of unreported cases being assaults that don’t cause severe injury. But just because aggression may fall outside a clinical scope, that doesn’t mean it’s not morally problematic. </p>
<p>Everyday aggression plays out in familiar settings. Violence flares up in professional sports. Parental outbursts at youth matches aren’t uncommon; we’ve seen several examples of mums and dads <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/vse10&div=11&g_sent=1&casa_token=ihxS3X2nuA0AAAAA:oE0AfGtg3bZRsH_wWD5S6gHkPQHwDz3F5XYbsaHAH2Lo3SZ-nZjAP_PrGy3JTmdZFPSrhivCHw&collection=journals">physically assaulting</a> referees and umpires. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An angry women with dark hair in a driver's seat screams and raises a fist." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472930/original/file-20220707-21-af8u55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It can come as a shock when seemingly sensible people lose it in traffic,</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2014, one-punch attacks became so frequent in Australia, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/daniel-christie-latest-fatality-in-epidemic-of-street-violence-20140111-30nmz.html.">media outlets</a> deemed them an “epidemic”. Then there’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847821002667?casa_token=jEY0qCVJR4QAAAAA:vikfwOvO-Yc6YKQtNAyp6hgZbsRvaCCXLCZyF4S4AZF6Nkl0Lii_VllNYzmHMj6VufHvTAkVL7c">road rage</a>, which accounts for numerous cases of injury and property damage each year.</p>
<p>These examples tell us aggression pervades almost every forum of human activity. They suggest otherwise healthy people have the capacity to lose themselves to episodic violence. And perhaps some of us pose a greater hazard than others – without necessarily knowing it. </p>
<p>If we can identify risk-predictors of impulsive aggression, we may be able to prevent some of this spontaneous harm before it’s inflicted.</p>
<h2>How do we classify aggression?</h2>
<p>Psychology defines aggression as any behaviour intended to cause harm. This excludes consensual harm which a person desires for some greater good, such as surgery or tattooing.</p>
<p>Aggression comes in two broad varieties: reactive and instrumental. Reactive aggression is described as “hot-blooded” and involves extreme anger in the face of a threat. Instrumental aggression is “cold-blooded” and involves calculated acts with low emotional arousal. </p>
<p>While both types of aggression can overlap, each has a distinct neurophysiological signature. Reactive aggression activates “primal” parts of the brain, while instrumental aggression recruits more evolved areas in the neocortex.</p>
<p>Morally speaking, there’s reason to think reactive aggression is more hazardous than other forms. That doesn’t mean instrumental aggression isn’t worrisome. In fact, it’s involved in some of the most damaging conditions such as criminal psychopathy.</p>
<p>But reactive aggression is different because it lacks higher-order cognition. It engages the relatively basic limbic system – the region of the brain which deals with behavioural and emotional reactions. It also shuts down the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for rational decision-making.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close up of football players huddled loosely on a field, mid-game" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472929/original/file-20220707-12046-kcfozx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aggression is a common feature in many sports. It’s not always problematic in this context, but it can be.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>Precise <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154621001522?casa_token=aG4XBtgecGwAAAAA:_DTNdre_hnc7zXjzvLjVPX0QgwFjlmZdI9l3pz9zQzNeLfyMxEDOpdkodp7-oSCfn_FBllOBaNA">biomarkers</a> of reactive aggression haven’t yet been established, but scientists have identified some <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-020-01208-6#Abs1">key contributors</a>. These include a range of genes, receptors, neurochemicals related to serotonin and dopamine, hyperactivity of the amygdala, and reduced brain matter in particular regions.</p>
<p>Certain biomedical procedures show promise. Neuromodulation techniques have been found to lower aggression by directly altering brain activity. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/3/882">One example involves</a> a painless procedure in which electrodes are placed on a person’s head to excite or inhibit a specific part of the brain.</p>
<p>Researchers <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8247950/">have suggested</a> we could use such technology on young people with conduct disorders to prevent problematic behaviour in adulthood.</p>
<p>Another emerging technique is <a href="https://mindmedicineaustralia.org.au/what-is-psychedelic-assisted-therapy/#">psychedelic-assisted therapy</a>. Working with therapists, patients use substances such as LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin to access altered states of consciousness and positively shape values, thoughts and behaviour. Early clinical trials have shown impressive results for treating conditions including addiction, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. </p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35585789/">Gene-based strategies</a> such as <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/definition/what-is-crispr/#">CRISPR</a> also offer hope for therapeutic and enhancement purposes. These work by inserting genetic material into a person’s body to modify or replace unwanted genes. Most gene therapies are still in early trial stages. They’ll need much more evaluation before they can used safely and ethically on humans. </p>
<p>Importantly, there are questions over whether moral enhancement is <a href="https://theconversation.com/common-drugs-can-affect-our-minds-and-morals-but-should-we-be-worried-about-it-44660">already happening</a>, such as when we take drugs that change our brain chemistry. If so, should we simply think of new moral enhancement strategies as a part of existing pre-emptive medical treatments?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A jar of 'happy pills' sits against a light blue background, with a silver cap unscrewed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472931/original/file-20220707-26-7zwg0j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We already know of the many benefits antidepressants provide. Should such medicine be considered a form of ‘moral enhancement’?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The barriers</h2>
<p>There are major challenges in implementing any of the above techniques to target aggression. One is non-specificity: the neural structures involved in aggression are also implicated in states such as fear, reward, motivation and threat-detection.</p>
<p>Also, antisocial behaviours can’t simply be associated with one or two genes. They’re a result of a complex genetic architecture in which hundreds of genes, or even thousands, interact with a person’s environment and lifestyle.</p>
<p>Even if we could safely target the determinants of reactive aggression, there are lingering practical and ethical considerations. For one, not all aggression is antisocial. Aggression is often necessary for acts of protection and self-defence. </p>
<p>People can also have mixed motivations, meaning different aggression types can be present in a single act. To complicate things further, some researchers argue for additional classifications such as “micro-”, “prosocial” and “appetitive” aggression.</p>
<p>Any moral enhancement proposals must consider the impact on the person, their character and sense of self. Additionally, there are concerns around autonomy, personal freedom and the possibility of coercive treatment. </p>
<p>These factors would need to be carefully weighed against the potential benefits of moderating an individual’s aggressive tendencies. </p>
<p>Moving forward, we need to learn more about the moral significance of different types of aggression, how they present in an individual’s actions, and how they’re reflected in their biology. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/neuralinks-monkey-can-play-pong-with-its-mind-imagine-what-humans-could-do-with-the-same-technology-158787">Neuralink's monkey can play Pong with its mind. Imagine what humans could do with the same technology</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cohen Marcus Lionel Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some might argue ‘moral enhancement’ medicine already exists — such as when we take medicine that alters our brain chemistry. Where do we draw a line?Cohen Marcus Lionel Brown, Sessional Academic, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1855362022-06-26T08:25:02Z2022-06-26T08:25:02ZHomosexuality and Africa: a philosopher’s perspective<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470292/original/file-20220622-3417-rm7mnk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most African countries have tough anti-gay laws.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rawpixel.com/search/gay%20pride?page=1&sort=curated">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most African countries are constitutional democracies that afford extensive rights and freedoms to their citizens, and safeguard their dignity. </p>
<p>It is arbitrary, to say the least, to exclude from these the right to express sexuality or gender identity. But opponents of homosexuality would like to do just that. They often invoke “public interest”, “protection of community” and “morals” to violate the dignity of homosexuals. </p>
<p>Ghana’s <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Ghana_1996.pdf">current constitution</a>, for example, is widely hailed as an inspiring model of a state’s observance of these freedoms. Yet, on 29 June 2021, The <a href="https://cdn.modernghana.com/files/722202192224-0h830n4ayt-lgbt-bill.pdf">Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021</a> was introduced in parliament. It aims to promote “proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values, and proscribe the promotion of and advocacy for LGBTQ+ practice”. </p>
<p>The bill’s supporters claim to be motivated by religious and cultural values and ideals. The <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2003/05/13/more-name/state-sponsored-homophobia-and-its-consequences-southern-africa">trend</a> of the discussion of homosexuality in Africa since the 1980s suggests that this view is not uniquely Ghanaian, and that homosexuality nags at the conscience of Africans.</p>
<p>From religious perspectives, homosexuality is problematic because it is sinful, and sinful because it offends against God’s will. Several theologians deny this.</p>
<p>But whether or not religions condemn same-sex relationships, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/05568641.2022.2035248">my position</a> is that in many African societies the problem has to do less with sinfulness than with an existential and moral commitment. </p>
<p>To put it more plainly, I believe that many people oppose homosexuality because they feel they have a culturally sanctioned moral commitment to have children. And that commitment stems from the ultimate goal of promoting community welfare. In my view, this is a value which can accommodate same-sex relationships and protect homosexual people. </p>
<h2>Culture and nature</h2>
<p>I start by accepting that being African is a culturally distinct mode of being. I mean merely that certain values are more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa than in other geographical locations. I don’t mean that all Africans share one culture. And African cultures evolve all the time. I also start from the position that a person does not choose to be gay. </p>
<p>Being gay in Africa can pose culturally specific problems which the dominant, heterosexual culture may find hard to accept. But I think African culture can also offer a solution to this nonacceptance – a moral theory that allows people to embrace both their sexual being and their cultural being. Being gay and being African need not be seen as a contradiction.</p>
<p>First let’s look at the dominant African culture I’m talking about. </p>
<p>In African societies, an important factor in anti-gay agitation is the moral weight assigned to having children, and emphasis on heterosexual intercourse as a way to achieving this. Procreation ensures continuation of biological heritage, through which the history of society unfolds. </p>
<p>Hence raising children and contributing to a lineage is upheld as a vitally important good for community. In this way, biological reproduction through heterosexual sex becomes a moral responsibility. </p>
<p>To write off the preference for heterosexuality as pre-modern and as biased against homosexuals is insulting and unimaginative. Rather than condemning this preference, it’s more productive to find a way for culture to make room for homosexuality. </p>
<p>Some people describe homosexuality as “unnatural”, “anti-social” or “un-African”. This is not true. Several studies, including <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/83859">one</a> on 50 societies in every region of the continent, decisively support the conclusion that homosexual relationships constitute “a consistent and logical feature of African societies and belief systems.”</p>
<p>The argument that same-sex practice is unnatural because it violates human nature also overlooks the fact that sexuality is a natural feature of human beings. Sexuality is part of what it is to be human. To be human is to be a sexually oriented being. </p>
<p>The tendency in Africa to relegate sexuality to a relatively minor part of human life – to the drive to procreate – tends to treat homosexual expressions as inappropriate. But sexual orientation is central to every person’s entire sense of self, and not just to a small part of it which can be lopped off or put on hold at will.</p>
<p>Accepting the centrality of a person’s sexual orientation to their humanity has significant moral implications which do not square with the existential and moral commitments of African societies I’ve described. </p>
<p>Opponents of homosexuality put more emphasis on the duty to have children, and overlook a deeper value, that of building and sustaining community. They gloss over the role that homosexuals can play in achieving the latter task. </p>
<h2>A moderate communitarian solution</h2>
<p>My view is that the rights of homosexuals can be better protected by an African moral theory than by the standard constitutional safeguards.</p>
<p>The African moral theory that can achieve this is the Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye’s “<a href="https://science.jrank.org/pages/8772/Communitarianism-in-African-Thought-Gyekye-on-Moderate-Communitarianism.html">moderate communitarianism</a>.” This theory holds that an action is intrinsically good if it serves the communal good – namely “<a href="https://science.jrank.org/pages/8772/Communitarianism-in-African-Thought-Gyekye-on-Moderate-Communitarianism.html">the social conditions</a> that will enable each individual to function satisfactorily in a human society.” </p>
<p>Moderate communitarianism gives equal value to what is good for individuals and what is good for community – as long as individuals and community serve and protect each other’s value and dignity. </p>
<p>From this perspective, homosexual people contribute to the communal good. If what you are is not a matter of choice, and sexuality is part of who you are, then it is morally unjustifiable to consider a homosexual person as incapable of contributing to the common good just because of their sexuality.</p>
<p>Under moderate communitarianism, simply having children is not enough to make you a moral person. It would not be moral to have children and abandon your responsibility to guide these children to acquire virtues that promote communality and human flourishing.</p>
<p>And there are other ways to replenish community. The moderate communitarian acknowledges that heterosexual sex is not the only way to reproduce. For example, there is surrogate parenthood and sperm donation for artificial insemination. Community and human life can also flourish through adopting children in need of parenting or supporting those in need. </p>
<p>A moral person, under this philosophy, is one who cherishes communal relationships and virtues, and whose conduct adds to the communal stock of good. Not bearing children, in itself, cannot count as immoral.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185536/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Odei Ajei does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Being gay in Africa can pose culturally specific challenges which the dominant, heterosexual culture may find difficult to accept.Martin Odei Ajei, Associate Professor of Philosophy , University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1825332022-06-10T14:59:31Z2022-06-10T14:59:31ZSustainable investment: is it worth the hype? Here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463994/original/file-20220518-15-g1re07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5120%2C2866&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Socially responsible investing is becoming more popular.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-home-sitting-on-couch-2068039649">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Supposedly sustainable investment funds make a staggering list of promises, including higher returns, lower risk, combatting climate change and even supporting diversity. And many believe them: investments in ESG (<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-criteria.asp">environmental, social and governance</a>) funds are on track to pass <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/company/press/esg-may-surpass-41-trillion-assets-in-2022-but-not-without-challenges-finds-bloomberg-intelligence/">£34 trillion</a> by the end of 2022, nearly double their £18.4 trillion in 2016. </p>
<p>But sustainable investing has also attracted strong criticism. Former BlackRock sustainable investing chief Tariq Fancy labelled ESG a “<a href="https://medium.com/@sosofancy/the-secret-diary-of-a-sustainable-investor-part-1-70b6987fa139">dangerous placebo</a>”, and the Wall Street Journal has published a week-long series of rebuttals to the trend, with their <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-sustainable-investment-craze-is-flawed-11642865789">opening piece</a> entitled “Why the Sustainable Investment Craze is Flawed.”</p>
<p>Whatever side you’re on, you have incentives to make your claims extreme. Asset managers promising that their ESG funds will save the world see new business flooding in, and are heralded as saviours of capitalism. Critics have similarly become famous by ordaining themselves as whistleblowers who’ve uncovered a financial scandal. </p>
<p>If you’re a first-time investor trying to decide where to put your money, it can be hard to know who to believe. So if we strip back the hyperbole and examine the evidence, is sustainable investing worth the hype? To answer that, we’ll consider the three objectives that investors have when buying ESG funds.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/five-must-read-novels-on-the-environment-and-climate-crisis-139437.com?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Five must-read novels on the environment and climate crisis</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-karl-marx-has-to-say-about-todays-environmental-problems-97479.com?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">What Karl Marx has to say about today’s environmental problems</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-your-reusable-coffee-cup-may-be-no-better-than-a-disposable-120949.com?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Why your reusable coffee cup may be no better than a disposable</a></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Does sustainable investment make more money?</h2>
<p>The first objective is, unsurprisingly, financial. By investing in sustainable companies, you’ll increase your returns, and by shunning unsustainable ones, you’ll reduce risk. Industries like electric cars are the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-future-ban-on-gas-powered-cars-work-an-economist-explains-150590">future of transport</a>, while dumping fossil fuel companies means you’re immune to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-eu-carbon-tax-wrong-rate-could-wreck-net-zero-goals-but-right-rate-can-help-worlds-poor-161463">carbon tax</a>. </p>
<p>There’s evidence that certain dimensions of ESG pay off. One of <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/03/28-years-of-stock-market-data-shows-a-link-between-employee-satisfaction-and-long-term-value">my studies</a> finds that companies with high employee satisfaction, a “social” dimension, deliver shareholder returns that beat their peers by 2.3%-3.8% per year over a 28-year period. Other research finds higher returns for companies with superior <a href="https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/what-is-project-management/what-is-governance">governance</a> and those that link CEO pay to <a href="https://alexedmans.com/blog/executive-pay/higher-stock-returns-when-ceos-own-more-shares/">performance</a>. </p>
<p>But ESG is plagued by <a href="https://theconversation.com/confirmation-bias-a-psychological-phenomenon-that-helps-explain-why-pundits-got-it-wrong-68781">confirmation bias</a>. Since we want to believe that ethical companies perform better, we latch onto studies that assert this, even if the evidence isn’t that strong. </p>
<p>This highlights how the financial case for sustainability hinges on which ESG dimensions you consider. Every day, attention-grabbing articles <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/04/yes-investing-in-esg-pays-off">insist</a> that “investing in ESG pays off”. But to argue about whether ESG helps or hinders returns is as fruitless as asking whether food is good or bad for you – it depends on the food. </p>
<h2>Does sustainable investment change company behaviour?</h2>
<p>The second objective is the fund’s impact on company behaviour. <a href="https://gofossilfree.org/divestment/what-is-fossil-fuel-divestment/">Divestment campaigns</a> aim to encourage shareholders to sell the stock of certain companies and deter new investors from buying it. By <a href="https://theconversation.com/fossil-fuel-divestment-will-increase-carbon-emissions-not-lower-them-heres-why-126392">divesting</a> (say) fossil fuel companies, the argument goes, we deprive them of capital and stop them creating more pollution. </p>
<p>But investor boycotts don’t starve a company of funds, because you can only sell if someone else buys. They’re very different from <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-one-woman-pulled-off-the-first-consumer-boycott-and-helped-inspire-the-british-to-abolish-slavery-140313">customer boycotts</a>, which do strip a company of revenue.</p>
<p>Perhaps divestment doesn’t pull the plug on a company immediately, but doesn’t it make it harder for it to sell shares in the future? Not necessarily. <a href="https://www.climate-transparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Brown-to-Green-Report-2017_web.pdf">“Brown” companies</a> like fossil fuels and tobacco aren’t raising much capital to begin with – they’re in yesterday’s industries with few growth opportunities. And evidence suggests that the cost of raising capital has <a href="https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/Rtx8C9p13TN1LmGUEy-3B?domain=nber.org">little effect</a> on company expansion. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protest signs against fossil fuels cover a red pylon" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463295/original/file-20220516-11-2zzqx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463295/original/file-20220516-11-2zzqx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463295/original/file-20220516-11-2zzqx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463295/original/file-20220516-11-2zzqx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463295/original/file-20220516-11-2zzqx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463295/original/file-20220516-11-2zzqx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463295/original/file-20220516-11-2zzqx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Consumer anger at fossil fuel exploitation is growing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/23569605421">John Englart/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The stock price might matter for many other reasons than the cost of capital. Even if a company isn’t raising capital, a low price worsens the CEO’s reputation and demotivates employees. But if so, my <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4093518">research</a> suggests that the best strategy is actually tilting (leaning away from a “brown” sector but still being willing to own companies leading on ESG in that sector), not exclusion (shunning that industry outright). </p>
<p>If a fossil fuel company knows it will be divested whatever it does, there’s no incentive for it to develop <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-energy-innovations-could-transform-how-we-mitigate-climate-change-and-save-money-in-the-process-5-essential-reads-180076">clean energy</a>. But if its shares will be bought if it’s leading its sector in sustainability, this motivates it to clean up its act by investing more heavily in cutting emissions. </p>
<p>Many accuse ESG funds with stakes in brown industries of hypocrisy, and praise those that won’t touch a troubled sector like oil, but the reality is far more nuanced. And owning brown companies is the only way to hold them to account. The investment firm Engine No. 1 famously got three climate-friendly directors <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/business/exxon-mobil-engine-no1-activist.html">appointed</a> to Exxon’s board because it held shares in the company. </p>
<p>Claiming you’re a true sustainable investor because you only invest in green companies is arguably like a doctor crowing that all her patients are healthy – when it’s a doctor’s job to treat the sick.</p>
<h2>Is sustainable investment the right thing to do?</h2>
<p>The final motive is moral: you believe it’s morally right to invest in certain companies. For example, even if diverse firms don’t perform better, it’s reasonable to invest in them as an <a href="https://medium.com/@alex.edmans/is-there-really-a-business-case-for-diversity-c58ef67ebffa">expression</a> of your values. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three people of colour sit at a table, with one person speaking" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463291/original/file-20220516-24-m1srgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463291/original/file-20220516-24-m1srgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463291/original/file-20220516-24-m1srgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463291/original/file-20220516-24-m1srgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463291/original/file-20220516-24-m1srgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463291/original/file-20220516-24-m1srgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463291/original/file-20220516-24-m1srgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diversity is a dimension of ESG.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wocintechchat/25721113570">WOC In Tech Chat/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But identifying “moral” companies is difficult, because many key dimensions of morality are difficult to observe. A company could put minorities on its board to check the diversity box, but <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2019/09/15/the-dangers-of-mistaking-diversity-for-inclusion-in-the-workplace/?sh=7f7ea8744d86">do nothing</a> to create an inclusive culture.</p>
<p>So is sustainable investing worth the hype? It does have the potential to improve performance, but only if you focus on particular dimensions. It can change company behaviour, but through tilting and engagement rather than exclusion. ESG is neither the panacea that advocates allege, nor the scandal that detractors declare. But shades of grey get lost in the shadows if we only look for black and white.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Edmans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Environmental, social and governance investment funds claim to help save the planet and better society, but the reality is more complex.Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance, London Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1799322022-04-06T12:25:41Z2022-04-06T12:25:41ZHow should Dostoevsky and Tolstoy be read during Russia’s war against Ukraine?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456171/original/file-20220404-15-noq6es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C258%2C2510%2C1656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in Moscow.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-jogs-past-a-monument-to-russian-writer-leo-tolstoy-news-photo/1237069295?adppopup=true">Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As someone who teaches Russian literature, I can’t help but process the world through the country’s novels, stories, poems and plays, even at a time when <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/12/1086282867/a-russian-pianists-shows-are-canceled-even-though-he-condemns-the-war-in-ukraine">Russian cultural productions are being canceled around the world</a>. </p>
<p>With the Russian army <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-atrocities.html">perpetrating devastating violence in Ukraine</a> – which includes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-civilian-deaths.html">the slaughter of civilians in Bucha</a> – the discussion of what to do with Russian literature has naturally arisen.</p>
<p>I’m not worried that truly valuable art can ever be canceled. Enduring works of literature are enduring, in part, because they are capacious enough to be read critically against the vicissitudes of the present.</p>
<p>You could make this argument about any great work of Russian literature, <a href="https://slavic.ku.edu/ani-kokobobo">but as a scholar of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky</a>, I will stick with Russia’s most famous literary exports.</p>
<p>After World War II, German critic Theodore Adorno described the Holocaust as a profound blow to Western culture and philosophy, even going so far <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Can_One_Live_After_Auschwitz/nMd67tJAwuEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Theodore+Adorno,+Can+One+Live+After+Auschwitz%3F:+A+Philosophical+Reader,&printsec=frontcover">as to question</a> the very ability of human beings to “live after Auschwitz.” </p>
<p>This idea, born of the very specific context of the Holocaust, shouldn’t be haphazardly applied to the present moment. But following Adorno’s moral lead, I wonder whether – after the brutal shelling of the city of Mariupol, after the horrors on the streets of Bucha, along with atrocities committed in Kharkiv, Mykolaev, Kyiv and many more – the indiscriminate violence ought to change how readers approach Russia’s great authors. </p>
<h2>Confronting suffering with clear eyes</h2>
<p>Upon learning that Russian writer <a href="https://www.neh.gov/article/ivan-turgenev-was-distrusted-left-and-right">Ivan Turgenev</a> had looked away at the last minute when witnessing the execution of a man, Dostoevsky <a href="http://dostoevskiy-lit.ru/dostoevskiy/pisma-dostoevskogo/dostoevskij-strahovu-11-23-iyunya-1870.htm?fbclid=IwAR2ESTC-fe_znD0yqCgAcc9l3O311MHksjzoUZyG60qSzB7x2qZELV7BC4s">made his own position clear</a>: “[A] human being living on the surface of the earth has no right to turn away and ignore what is happening on earth, and there are higher moral imperatives for this.” </p>
<p>Seeing the rubble of a theater in Mariupol, hearing of Mariupol citizens starving because of Russian <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/world/europe/mariupol-ukraine-russia-war-food-water.html">airstrikes</a>, I wonder what Dostoevsky – who specifically focused his piercing moral eye on the question of the <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/brothers-karamazov/oclc/319669">suffering of children</a> in his 1880 novel “The Brothers Karamazov” – would say in response to the Russian army’s bombing a theater where children were sheltering. The word “children” <a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/03/17/mariupol-ukraine-children-russia">was spelled out</a> on the pavement outside the theater in large type so it could be seen from the sky. There was no misunderstanding of who was there. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Vintage photograph of man with beard seated." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456207/original/file-20220404-24-r4aqce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456207/original/file-20220404-24-r4aqce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456207/original/file-20220404-24-r4aqce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456207/original/file-20220404-24-r4aqce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456207/original/file-20220404-24-r4aqce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456207/original/file-20220404-24-r4aqce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456207/original/file-20220404-24-r4aqce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People have ‘no right to turn away and ignore what is happening on earth,’ Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fyodor-dostoevsky-russian-novelist-c1860-c1881-dostoevsky-news-photo/464426915?adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ivan Karamazov, the central protagonist in “The Brothers Karamazov,” is far more focused on questions of moral accountability than Christian acceptance or forgiveness and reconciliation. In conversation, Ivan routinely brings up examples of children’s being harmed, imploring the other characters to recognize the atrocities in their midst. He is determined to seek retribution.</p>
<p>Surely the intentional shelling of children in Mariupol is something Dostoevsky couldn’t possibly look away from either. Could he possibly defend a vision of Russian morality while seeing innocent civilians – men, women and children – lying on the streets of Bucha? </p>
<p>At the same time, nor should readers look away from the unseemliness of Dostoevsky and his sense of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dostoevsky-in-context/DC34ECA1110F3078AF95872B9C8BF95B">Russian exceptionalism</a>. These dogmatic ideas about Russian greatness and Russia’s messianic mission are connected to the broader ideology that has fueled Russia’s past colonial mission, and current Russian foreign politics on violent display in Ukraine.</p>
<p>Yet Dostoevsky was also a great humanist thinker who tied this vision of Russian greatness to Russian suffering and faith. Seeing the spiritual value of human suffering was perhaps a natural outcome for a man <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/31/books/how-siberia-concentrated-his-mind.html">sent to a labor camp in Siberia for five years</a> for simply participating in a glorified socialist book club. Dostoevsky grew out of his suffering, but, arguably, not to a place where he could accept state-sponsored terror.</p>
<p>Would an author who, in his 1866 novel “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/42242/crime-and-punishment-by-fyodor-dostoevsky/">Crime and Punishment</a>,” explains in excruciating detail the toll of murder on the murderer – who explains that when someone takes a life, they kill part of themselves – possibly accept Putin’s vision of Russia? Warts and all, would Russia’s greatest metaphysical rebel have recoiled and rebelled against Russian violence in Ukraine? </p>
<p>I hope that he would, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/05/eminent-writers-urge-russian-speakers-to-tell-truth-of-war-in-ukraine">many contemporary Russian writers have</a>. But the dogmas of the Kremlin are pervasive, <a href="https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1510950346742509570">and many Russians accept them</a>. Many Russians look away. </p>
<h2>Tolstoy’s path to pacifism</h2>
<p>No writer captures warfare in Russia more poignantly than Tolstoy, a former soldier turned Russia’s most famous pacifist. In his last work, “<a href="https://www.swarthmore.edu/muslim-russia/leo-tolstoys-hadji-murat">Hadji Murat</a>,” which scrutinizes Russia’s <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/From_Conquest_to_Deportation/O19gDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Russia+north+caucasus+empire&printsec=frontcover">colonial exploits</a> in North Caucasus, Tolstoy showed how senseless Russian violence toward a Chechen village caused instant hatred of Russians.</p>
<p>Tolstoy’s greatest work about Russian warfare, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/208646/war-and-peace-by-leo-tolstoy-a-new-translation-by-richard-pevear-and-larissa-volokhonsky/">War and Peace</a>,” is a novel that Russians have <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300198164/leningrad-blockade-1941-1944/">traditionally read</a> during great wars, including World War II. In “War and Peace,” Tolstoy contends that the morale of the Russian military is the key to victory. The battles most likely to succeed are defensive ones, in which soldiers understand why they are fighting and what they are fighting to protect: their home.</p>
<p>Even then, he’s able to convey the harrowing experiences of young Russian soldiers coming into direct confrontation with the instruments of death and destruction on the battlefield. They disappear into the crowd of their battalion, but even a single loss is devastating for the families awaiting their safe return.</p>
<p>After publishing “War and Peace,” Tolstoy publicly denounced many Russian military campaigns. The last part of his 1878 novel “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1399/1399-h/1399-h.htm">Anna Karenina</a>” originally <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Architecture_of_Anna_Karenina/7ihRwQ7Q9AYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=part+eight+Anna+Karenina+katkov&pg=PA30&printsec=frontcover">wasn’t published</a> because it criticized Russia’s actions in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Russo-Turkish-wars">the Russo-Turkish war</a>. Tolstoy’s alter ego in that novel, Konstantin Levin, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Anna_Karenina/W4r7lF_MSMYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22The+people+sacrifice+and+are+always+prepared+to+sacrifice+themselves+for+their+soul,+not+for+murder,%22&pg=PT924&printsec=frontcover">calls</a> the Russian intervention in the war “murder” and thinks it is inappropriate that Russian people are dragged into it.</p>
<p>“The people sacrifice and are always prepared to sacrifice themselves for their soul, not for murder,” he says. </p>
<p>In 1904, Tolstoy penned a public letter denouncing <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-russo-japanese-war">the Russo-Japanese War</a>, which <a href="https://institutedd.org/blog/posts/echoes-of-the-past-ukraine-the-russo-japanese-war-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-21">has sometimes been compared</a> with Russia’s war in Ukraine.</p>
<p>“Again war,” he wrote. “Again sufferings, necessary to nobody, utterly uncalled for; again fraud, again the universal stupefaction and brutalization of men.” One can almost hear him shouting “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27189/27189-h/27189-h.htm">Bethink Yourselves</a>,” the title of that essay, to his countrymen now. </p>
<p>In one of his most famous pacifist writings, 1900’s “<a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/tolstoy/1900/thou-shalt-not-kill.html">Thou Shalt Not Kill</a>,” Tolstoy presciently diagnosed the problem of today’s Russia. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The misery of nations is caused not by particular persons, but by the particular order of Society under which the people are so bound up together that they find themselves all in the power of a few men, or more often in the power of one single man: a man so perverted by his unnatural position as arbiter of the fate and lives of millions, that he is always in an unhealthy state, and always suffers more or less from a mania of self-aggrandizement.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The importance of action</h2>
<p>If Dostoevsky would insist that one not look away, it is fair to say that Tolstoy would contend that people must act upon what they see.</p>
<p>During the <a href="http://people.loyno.edu/%7Ehistory/journal/1994-5/Lilly.htm">Russian famine</a> of 1891 to 1892, he <a href="https://press.uottawa.ca/leo-tolstoy-in-conversation.html">started soup kitchens</a> to help his countrymen who were starving and had been abandoned by the Russian government. He worked to help Russian soldiers evade the draft in the Russian empire, visiting and supporting jailed soldiers who did not wish to fight. In 1899 he sold his last novel, “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1938/1938-h/1938-h.htm">Resurrection</a>,” to <a href="https://press.uottawa.ca/leo-tolstoy-and-the-canadian-doukhobors.html">help a Russian Christian sect</a>, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dukhobor">Doukhobors</a>, emigrate to Canada so they would not need to fight in the Russian army.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man hunches over group of children, patting one on the back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456195/original/file-20220404-16429-qqn7t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456195/original/file-20220404-16429-qqn7t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456195/original/file-20220404-16429-qqn7t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456195/original/file-20220404-16429-qqn7t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456195/original/file-20220404-16429-qqn7t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456195/original/file-20220404-16429-qqn7t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456195/original/file-20220404-16429-qqn7t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toward the end of his life, Tolstoy worked tirelessly to alleviate poverty and protest war.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/leo-tolstoy-with-village-children-russian-writer-1828-1910-news-photo/588181320?adppopup=true">Culture Club/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These writers have little to do with the current war. They cannot expunge or mitigate the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine. But they’re embedded on some level within the Russian cultural fabric, and how their books are still read matters. Not because Russian literature can explain any of what is happening, because it cannot. But because, as Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan <a href="https://www.eurozine.com/rockets-and-russian-culture/">wrote in March 2022</a>, Russia’s war in Ukraine marked a defeat for Russia’s great humanist tradition.</p>
<p>As this culture copes with a Russian army that has indiscriminately bombed and massacred Ukrainians, Russia’s great authors can and should be read critically, with one urgent question in mind: how to stop the violence. Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny <a href="https://twitter.com/navalny/status/1503801236881133575?s=20&t=haDdXcQUdGCP9K-rXMIWnw">noted</a> during his <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ce56e0bc-8d5b-4b67-9c4c-354458c31540">March 2022 trial</a> that Tolstoy urged his countrymen to fight both despotism and war because one enables the other.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1503801236881133575"}"></div></p>
<p>And Ukrainian artist Alevtina Kakhidze cited “War and Peace” in a February 2022 entry in <a href="http://www.alevtinakakhidze.com/drawings.html">her graphic diary</a>. </p>
<p>“I’ve read your f—ing literature,” she wrote. “But looks like Putin did not, and you have forgotten.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ani Kokobobo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If Dostoevsky insists that one cannot shy away from horror and tragedy, Tolstoy would contend that people must act upon what they see.Ani Kokobobo, Associate Professor of Russian Literature, University of KansasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1787012022-03-14T12:21:41Z2022-03-14T12:21:41ZThe promise and folly of war – why do leaders enter conflict assuming victory is assured?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451699/original/file-20220312-20-1nbmy6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C223%2C4125%2C2521&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">V is for victory? Or vanquished? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/russian-president-vladimir-putin-speaks-during-his-press-news-photo/1233489401?adppopup=true">Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amid a staunch and passionate defense that has slowed the Russian advance to Kiev and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/02/united-nations-russia-ukraine-vote">global condemnation</a>, Vladimir Putin’s motivation for invading has been subject to speculation: Just what does he hope to achieve by war in Ukraine?</p>
<p>Some have argued that Putin was responding to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine">NATO expansion</a> or was driven by a compelling sense of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/2/23/22945781/russia-ukraine-putin-speech-transcript-february-22">Russian nationalism</a>. Others maintain he saw an opportunity to revive Cold War <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/world/europe/ukraine-russia-eastern-europe.html">Soviet influence</a> in Eastern Europe. Still others claim he is simply <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/2/putins-imperial-delusions-will-haunt-russia">delusional</a>, an oligarch divorced from reality.</p>
<p>But what if Putin’s decision to invade was based partly on a commonly held assumption that offensive wars of choice, more often than not, will deliver?</p>
<p>It’s worth evaluating if this war is as much about <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-crossroads-europe-and-russia">local and regional questions</a> over who controls the eastern Ukraine Donbas region as it is about an unquestioning faith that using armed force is the surest path to achieving one’s political aims. </p>
<p>Some U.S. foreign policy analysts, like the University of Chicago’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-john-mearsheimer-blames-the-us-for-the-crisis-in-ukraine">John Mearsheimer</a>, contend that American support of NATO’s eastward expansion is just as important in explaining the current crisis in Ukraine.</p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://history.sdsu.edu/people/daddis">military historian</a> who served in the U.S. Army for 26 years, I believe a more fundamental question is why policymakers, not just in Russia, have so much faith in war when even small miscalculations can lead so easily to disaster.</p>
<h2>War’s promise</h2>
<p>War’s promise has enticed political and military leaders for millenia. The Athenian historian <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Landmark_Thucydides/pjt3ZGU61wIC?hl=en&gbpv=1">Thucydides</a> spoke of Greek city-states motivated to war by honor and profit – as well as fear of their enemies.</p>
<p>Roughly 2,200 years later, America’s <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/whirlwind-9781620401729/">Founding Fathers</a> saw war as the surest way to break from British imperial control, to forge a new identity free from external influence and to create a sovereign nation. It would take a major civil war less than 100 years later to decide – though surely not settle – similar questions for African Americans enslaved by those same revolutionaries and their descendants.</p>
<p>The spoils of war can be great: independence, increased power, and land and resources.</p>
<p>And yet for every military success, the historical record offers ample instances that should give pause. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_First_Total_War/Q7hTNQAACAAJ?hl=en">Napoleon</a>, for example, may have been on the precipice of near total European control in the early 1800s. But the same instrument of mass armies that brought him to such heights assured his downfall when wielded by a coalition of rival continental powers.</p>
<p>In two world wars a century later, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/germany-hitler-and-world-war-ii/890B562782C3A8161FDB65EA51E1BF3C">German leaders</a> envisioned a new world order delivered by grand military victories. The results, however, left tens of millions dead across the globe and a twice-defeated Germany seeking redemption and relevance during the Cold War.</p>
<p>During those post-World War II decades, French military forces would face defeat in <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/dien-bien-phu#:%7E:text=On%20May%207%2C%201954%2C%20the,pulled%20out%20of%20the%20region">Indochina</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Algeria/3efpuozCiWYC?hl=en">Algeria</a>, the Americans a similar fate in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/opinion/ken-burns-vietnam-lessons.html">South Vietnam</a>, and the Soviets in <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-abstract/11/4/46/13115/Decision-Making-and-the-Soviet-War-in-Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>. Wagering on war clearly wasn’t always a safe bet.</p>
<h2>The lure of armed victory</h2>
<p>What makes war seemingly worth these inescapable risks? Perhaps it is the conviction that armed victory is the ultimate decider within any international political arena.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807859582/a-failed-empire/">Cold War era</a>, Soviet leaders from Josef Stalin to Leonid Brezhnev relied on war, and the threat of war, to compete globally with the United States. In practical terms, brutal Soviet military incursions into <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469667485/hungarys-cold-war/">Hungary</a> in 1956 and <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739143063/The-Prague-Spring-and-the-Warsaw-Pact-Invasion-of-Czechoslovakia-in-1968">Czechoslovakia</a> in 1968 seemed the most efficient means of keeping Eastern European satellites within the Warsaw Pact orbit. It appears that Putin reviewed his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/24/putin-military-success-ukraine-invasion-riskiest-yet/">recent successes</a> in Chechnya, Georgia and Syria as a harbinger of victory in Ukraine.</p>
<p>But flexing military muscles comes at a cost. The placement of Soviet missiles in <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393540819">Cuba</a> in the early 1960s brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The costs of maintaining an enormous Cold War army and navy enfeebled an already unstable <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469630175/the-struggle-to-save-the-soviet-economy/">Soviet economy</a>. And, without question, the long war in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Afgantsy/q9doAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1">Afghanistan</a> contributed to the ultimate demise of the Soviet empire as the Cold War itself drew to its close.</p>
<h2>Motivations for war</h2>
<p>So, what perspectives can we gain from this devotion to war’s promise?</p>
<p>First, the moral aspects of choosing war matter. As philosopher Michael Walzer contends, there often is a thin line between offensive wars of choice and criminal <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Just-Unjust-Wars-Historical-Illustrations/dp/0465052711/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FE4634JGUHTP&keywords=Walzer+just+war&qid=1646603938&sprefix=walzer+just+war%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1">acts of aggression</a>. I believe more Americans need to spend time considering where these lines may be drawn; there’s a great deal of <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/76408/afghanistan-war-obama-bacevich">moral illiteracy</a> about the causes of America’s wars and its conduct in fighting them.</p>
<p>Writing about the justness of the U.S. war in Iraq, journalist Matt Peterson wrote in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/iraq-war-ethics/556448/">The Atlantic</a> that “There’s a broader sense of moral confusion about the conduct of America’s wars.” Putin’s assault on Ukraine serves as a reminder that people should examine more deeply their nation’s stated reasons – and stated justifications – for going to war.</p>
<p>The assumption that war is a transformative force that engenders political and social change also has not always proved true. When the George W. Bush administration decided to invade Iraq in 2003, key advisers saw an opportunity to <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/10192/limits-us-military-capability">transform Iraqi governance and society</a>. Yet local leaders proved far more resistant to external change than these policymakers foresaw, which was also the case in the Afghan and Vietnam wars. In Ukraine, Putin seems also to have miscalculated the strength of local opposition.</p>
<h2>The costs of war</h2>
<p>Indeed, many modern conflicts have illustrated that victory is not quickly and cheaply achieved. At the end of his presidency, <a href="https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/evan-thomas/ikes-bluff/9780316224161/">Dwight D. Eisenhower</a> counseled about the hidden costs of a military-industrial complex feeding an enduring state of war. His fears appear to have been realized. The <a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2021/ProfitsOfWar">Costs of War</a> project at Brown University calculated that the Pentagon has spent “over $14 trillion since the start of the war in Afghanistan, with one-third to one-half of the total going to military contractors.” That war <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-business-afghanistan-43d8f53b35e80ec18c130cd683e1a38f">killed</a> at least 47,000 Afghan civilians and more than 6,000 American service members and contractors.</p>
<p>All this raises a reasonable question over whether the benefits of these wars have been worth the tremendous financial and human costs.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>As the world follows the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine, I believe it important to consider the enduring, yet faulty promise of war.</p>
<p>Athenian history might be a good place to start. As <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Landmark_Thucydides/pjt3ZGU61wIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=common%20mistake%20in%20war">Thucydides</a> cautioned, “It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory A. Daddis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A military historian and U.S. Army veteran explains how wars are not easy to win – something political leaders often forget when looking at the calculus of conflict.Gregory A. Daddis, Professor and USS Midway Chair in Modern U.S. Military History, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1756932022-01-31T16:02:06Z2022-01-31T16:02:06ZHow Extinction Rebellion can make climate action successful without antagonising the public<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443142/original/file-20220128-17-nqcgzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2048%2C1361&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Extinction Rebellion are known for their disruptive protests.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthrkac/51062699738">Matt Hrkac/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion (XR) recently released its <a href="https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2022/01/23/xr-uk-strategy-2022/">2022 strategy</a> for fighting the climate crisis, and it looks like the organisation is planning to cut back on antagonising the public this year.</p>
<p>Last year, XR-led protests in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/01/extinction-rebellion-plan-two-weeks-of-disruption-as-parliament-returns">central London</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/extinction-rebellion-roadblock-protest-arrest-b1840789.html">across the UK</a> led to <a href="https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2021/08/uk-extinction-rebellion-group-plans-disruptive-protests-in-london-aug-23-sept-6">disruption</a>, arrests and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/19/continue-fight-extinction-rebellion-prosecuted-protesters">prosecutions</a>. But in 2022, XR wants to engage with the public based on mutual understanding. </p>
<p>It’s also doubling down on highlighting the need to end the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/essay/why-are-fossil-fuels-so-hard-to-quit/">fossil fuel economy</a>. This includes stopping <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/fossil-fuel-divestment">fossil fuel investments</a>, ending new licensing for oil and gas production, and halting subsidies granted to the fossil fuel industry.</p>
<p>Both objectives are challenging. They are also inherently intertwined. Many people still perceive fossil fuels as <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/19/natural-gas-viewed-more-positively-than-other-fossil-fuels-across-20-global-publics/">indispensable</a> to their daily existence, necessary for powering their homes and transporting them around. Demanding that governments simply turn off the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/03/cop26-fossil-fuels">carbon tap</a>” may produce the same antagonism that XR wishes to move away from. </p>
<p>One way for XR to potentially achieve both of these objectives is to focus less on pressuring governments to end the fossil fuel economy, and more on stigmatising the fossil fuel industry.</p>
<p>As our research has found, <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2018.0615">stigmatisation</a> has already harmed the fossil fuel industry greatly. Just consider the success of the fossil fuel divestment movement, which has resulted in over 1,500 institutions – with assets of almost <a href="https://divestmentdatabase.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DivestInvestReport2021.pdf">£30 trillion</a> – committing to divest from fossil fuels since 2012. This movement was even cited by the fossil fuel company <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/04d2f948-0149-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62">Peabody Energy</a> when it filed for bankruptcy. </p>
<p>Likewise, governments including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/science/norway-in-push-against-climate-change-will-divest-from-coal.html">Norway</a> and <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/01/26/irish-lawmakers-vote-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels/">Ireland</a>, who’ve proposed laws banning investing public funds into fossil fuels, have highlighted the divestment movement as their motivation.</p>
<p>The divestment movement’s end goal is very similar to XR’s – to end the use of fossil fuels – but it aims to do so primarily by convincing the public that the fossil fuel industry is bad. This could be a better tack for XR to take.</p>
<p>Research has, in detail, illustrated how best to vilify corporations. Examples include the successful shaming of industries such as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40397611">tobacco</a>, <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2010.0599?journalCode=amj">weapons</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0001839219851501">cannabis</a>, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Stigma-and-the-Shaping-of-the-Pornography-Industry/Voss/p/book/9780367867966">pornography</a> and <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2015.0365">mass tourism</a>. We’ve drawn three main principles from this research that XR could use.</p>
<h2>A good source</h2>
<p>To attack a group, corporation or industry, those trying to stigmatise them must be viewed as moral or good. This is a difficult one for XR, which has historically prided itself on being <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/extinction-rebellion-protests-uk-climate-crisis-b1912418.html">disliked</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Extinction Rebellion poster reading 'Climate change = Mass murder'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443151/original/file-20220128-15-7ecpur.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443151/original/file-20220128-15-7ecpur.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443151/original/file-20220128-15-7ecpur.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443151/original/file-20220128-15-7ecpur.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443151/original/file-20220128-15-7ecpur.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443151/original/file-20220128-15-7ecpur.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443151/original/file-20220128-15-7ecpur.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much of XR’s campaign imagery features links to death and destruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Climate_change_%3D_mass_murder,_2018_(cropped).jpg">David Holt/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not only are XR’s actions controversial, but its language is also often negative. XR frequently associates itself with images <a href="https://extinctionrebellion.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/XR_DeadPlanet-poster.pdf">related to death</a>, such as the skulls that feature prominently in its campaigns.</p>
<p>To change this, XR must connect deeply with the public on an emotional level: preferably by associating itself with historic moral and civic struggles. For instance, XR underplays its remarkable similarities with the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p076b4x5">suffragette movement</a>. It would help its cause by highlighting the links between itself and the women who fought against oppression. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2018.0615">Our research</a> has shown that climate activists boosted their own perceived morality by demonstrating support for their cause from figures that fought during civil rights struggles. For example, a leader of the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Bill McKibben, associated student activists with apartheid fighter Desmond Tutu, <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/5/29/a-letter-not-a-check/">writing</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Fossil fuel companies] are rogues … students know all this – they understand the grave importance of this battle. They know that heroes of the past, like Desmond Tutu, have joined their voices to the call. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A “bad” target</h2>
<p>The targets of any stigmatisation campaign need to be clearly framed as possessing fundamental flaws that are virtually impossible to eradicate. Instead of associating itself with negative imagery, XR’s targets should be intrinsically linked to at least one of what we call the four Ds – destruction, disease, deception and death. </p>
<p>In our study of <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2018.0615">fossil fuel</a> divestment, a student activist explained the importance of properly assigning blame:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People need someone to blame, like an enemy. It’s the fossil fuel industry … It’s very important that people don’t think it’s their fault. If they do, they won’t want to put up a fight. They will look at themselves and think they should stop driving, and maybe recycle more. This is … total nonsense.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The power of language</h2>
<p>Direct, non-violent action to encourage policy change won’t be enough to dismantle the fossil fuel industry’s grip. Instead, XR activists can draw from widely understood negative associations to change people’s perception of the fossil fuel industry from a provider of energy needs to a deviant destroyer of the planet.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters against fossil fuel use outside the White House" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438256/original/file-20211217-21-qb8p2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438256/original/file-20211217-21-qb8p2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438256/original/file-20211217-21-qb8p2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438256/original/file-20211217-21-qb8p2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438256/original/file-20211217-21-qb8p2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438256/original/file-20211217-21-qb8p2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438256/original/file-20211217-21-qb8p2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests against the fossil fuel industry have framed it as dangerous and immoral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7172510014">350.org/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most powerful linguistic device to create stigmatising associations is <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-analogy">analogy</a>. Analogies – such as “her eyes are as blue as the sea” – work by making the unfamiliar familiar, by linking an unknown concept (the eyes of someone you’ve never met) to a well-known one (the colour of the sea).</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2018.0615">Our study</a> found that climate activists often used analogies to compare the fossil fuel industry with the tobacco industry:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Tobacco companies and fossil fuel companies … both sell highly dangerous products. In a way, the campaigns that stigmatised smoking, especially in the US and increasing in Europe, have done the work for us. We all know smoking is a disgusting habit, so why isn’t burning fossil fuels? It’s a no-brainer.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This comparison tarnishes the fossil fuel industry with stigma related to the tobacco industry: namely that their products cause disease and death, and that, like tobacco, the fossil fuel industry knows about the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332221002335">harm</a> their products cause yet manipulate the public to keep selling them. </p>
<p>Overall, XR’s 2022 strategy reflects a turning point for the organisation. However, maintaining previous tactics – mass disruption and civil disobedience – risks rekindling antagonism. Instead, XR should work on making the public consider fossil fuels as deadly as tobacco.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 10,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Extinction Rebellion’s 2022 climate action strategy needs to focus on stigmatising the fossil fuel industry if it’s to be successful.George Ferns, Lecturer in Organisation Studies and Sustainability, Cardiff UniversityAliette Lambert, Lecturer in Marketing, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1726622022-01-06T15:29:30Z2022-01-06T15:29:30ZAfrica can use great power rivalry to its benefit: Here is how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436610/original/file-20211209-136652-1fr1bvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Senegalese Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall in Dakar, Senegal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Andrew Harnik /pool/AFP/via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Geopolitical competition between the United States and China is taking central stage in global affairs. Growing tensions and rivalry between the two are worsening in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/dont-make-us-choose-southeast-asia-in-the-throes-of-us-china-rivalry/">South East Asia</a>, the <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/vietnam-asean-and-the-us-china-rivalry-in-the-indo-pacific/">Indo-Pacific</a>, the <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/coming-us-china-cold-war-view-gulf">Gulf</a> and <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/latin-america-shouldnt-be-pawn-us-china-rivalry">Latin America</a>. </p>
<p>US President Biden has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-issues-directive-countering-china-offers-few-details-2021-06-09/">identified countering China</a> as one of the main strategic priorities of his foreign policy. This <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/major-power-rivalry-africa">rivalry</a> is also playing out in Africa. </p>
<p>Former US secretaries of state Mike Pompeo and Hillary Clinton have often warned African leaders of the pitfalls of engaging with Russia and China. US officials are also dissuading African governments from <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/major-power-rivalry-africa">relying on Chinese telecommunications leader Huawei</a> for security reasons. </p>
<p>Great power rivalry in Africa has been well <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/major-power-rivalry-africa">documented</a>. But there’s another angle to consider – how can African countries use the rivalry to their advantage? </p>
<p>I explore this question in a <a href="https://afripoli.org/zero-sum-benefitting-from-great-power-rivalry-in-africa">recent article</a>. </p>
<p>I argue that African governments should avoid the zero-sum game, especially when dealing with US-China rivalry. They should adopt measures that strategically play rivals against each other. They should also implement long-term strategies and domestic policies for dealing with strategic partners like China.</p>
<h2>Avoid the zero-sum game</h2>
<p>China’s engagement with Africa is often presented <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/23526/mike-pompeos-africa-trip-is-about-china-not-africa/">as a spectre</a> by US officials during meetings with African leaders. In the past, both Republican and Democrat secretaries of state have warned of the dangers presented by China. The recent trip by Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State, suggested a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-china-antony-blinken-nigeria-ae944eaf8e5ecfbb3661651fce69784e">rhetorical shift</a>. Nevertheless, indirect criticism of China was still present. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/china-africa-to-avoid-falling-into-zero-sum-trap/">argue</a> that the US is attempting to put on a zero-sum game, disrupt China-Africa cooperation, and exclusively advance American interests in Africa.</p>
<p>In response, African leaders have stipulated that they don’t want to be used as pawns in a proxy rivalry. <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/african-leaders-question-us-position-on-china-at-investment-event-98347">Their main strategic priority</a> is partnership diversification.</p>
<p>This makes sense. African governments should avoid restricting their strategies to those of a mutually exclusive zero-sum game. African economies are facing a crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. They need several partnerships and should exploit the silver linings presented by great power rivalry. <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-05-21/competition-can-be-good-developing-world">As Branko Milanovic</a>, an economist at City University of New York, says, those who once played the US and Soviet Union against each other during the Cold War could do the same now with the US and China.</p>
<h2>Play one rival against the other</h2>
<p>African countries should be seeking to exploit rivalries to their advantage.</p>
<p>Here are some examples. </p>
<p>Indian and Turkish contractors compete with China for contracts in Africa. In Guinea, rivalry largely takes place between China and Russia in the mining sector. Negotiators there found <a href="https://resourcegovernance.org/blog/tips-african-negotiators-doing-deals-china-rebalancing-asymmetries">a silver lining</a> in pitting both parties against each other.</p>
<p>Chinese negotiators were keener to <a href="https://resourcegovernance.org/blog/tips-african-negotiators-doing-deals-china-rebalancing-asymmetries">reevaluate the clauses</a> of their contracts, and to comply with requests when the Guinean government played the “Russia card”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-negotiate-infrastructure-deals-with-china-four-things-african-governments-need-to-get-right-109116">How to negotiate infrastructure deals with China: four things African governments need to get right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The strategy of playing one rival against the other also proved advantageous to Ethiopian negotiators in the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/63e0b8d0-34ed-4b9d-add6-67973c7f0838">allotment of the first telecom licenses</a> in 2021.</p>
<p>By requiring new operators to build their own infrastructure or lease it from the state company (<a href="https://www.ethiotelecom.et/">Ethio telecom</a>) instead of third-party tower operators, the Ethiopian government selectively limited the number of contenders by prioritising its national interests. This enabled them to circumvent final bids between the MTN/China-backed consortium and the US backed <a href="https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/home-banner/vodafone-safaricom-beat-mtn-to-ethiopia-licence">Safaricom-Vodafone company</a>. </p>
<h2>Implement long-term strategies</h2>
<p>African governments should determine how offers from rival partners can best align with their national development priorities. <a href="https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/kandeh-yumkella-covid-19-has-helped-people-understand-the-vital-connection-between-energy-and-health">Kandeh Yumkellah</a>, a Sierra Leonian development economist and former Director of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, put it this way: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Africa needs all partners. We need to be smart and eclectic, picking what works for us depending on time and context.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To achieve this, I argue that five key measures are required: </p>
<p>Firstly, the “take-it-all” mentality of accepting short term, opportunistic offers should be avoided. Loans, grants and donations should fit African countries’ national development plans. They must also translate into projects that will directly affect people’s living standards.</p>
<p>Secondly, African governments should adopt more integrated and comprehensive policies. Senegal adopted a <a href="https://www.sec.gouv.sn/dossiers/plan-s%C3%A9n%C3%A9gal-emergent-pse">strategic plan</a> that included sector-specific priorities via a <a href="http://www.big.gouv.sn/index.php/2020/03/24/bureau-de-prospective-economique-bpe-premiere-evaluation-du-niveau-demergence-globale-du-senegal/">special unit</a> attached to the Presidency. Members of the unit selectively choose which foreign partners have the best potential to carry out these priorities.</p>
<p>Diversifying partners via a selective and <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2021/11/29/africa-china-summit-continues-in-dakar/">strategic approach</a> also allowed Senegal to be less dependent on old partnerships with France or their newer partnerships with China.</p>
<p>Thirdly, geopolitical rivalry is also taking place in other regions such as Latin America and Southeast Asia. <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/us-china-rivalries-what-matters-asean">Learning how some of them</a> deal with this may present an opportunity to enhance <a href="https://developmentreimagined.com/portfolio-posts/china-africa-to-africa-china/">the strategies of African governments</a>.</p>
<p>Fourth, a coherent strategy requires enhancing the capacity of African bureaucracies to deal with China, Russia, Turkey and India. This, by building an internal pool of experts with knowledge of their modus operandi, cultures and languages. In the short term, African leaders can rely on the expertise of former African students who were trained in the universities of these countries to provide expertise and language skills. </p>
<p>Fifth, African governments should take the best of both worlds by promoting <a href="https://www.onas.sn/actualites/actualites-onas/lancement-des-travaux-de-depollution-de-la-baie-de-hann-coup-denvoi-de-la">more trilateral or quadrilateral cooperation</a> between new and traditional partners. Examples are the joint infrastructure projects <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5652847de4b033f56d2bdc29/t/5fa956eef6d3991188800be2/1604933359644/PB+50+Pairault+French+Chinese+Business+Cooperation+Africa.pdf">carried out by Chinese and French enterprises</a>.</p>
<p>Bridging rivalry through various forms of collaboration mobilises additional pools of finance and avoids project duplication. Furthermore, African governments should take their own citizens’ opinions on this topic into account.</p>
<p><a href="https://afrobarometer.org/publications/ad489-africans-welcome-chinas-influence-maintain-democratic-aspirations">A recent survey by Afrobarometer</a>, the pan-African surveys institution, across 34 countries showed that 63% see China’s influence in Africa as positive. This is similar to the 60% who said so in the case of the US. </p>
<p>This suggests that US-China rivalry may not constitute an either-or dilemma for ordinary African citizens, but rather a win-win situation. It is up to African governments to use the benefits these rivalries present.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited version of an article that was initially published by the <a href="https://afripoli.org/zero-sum-benefitting-from-great-power-rivalry-in-africa">Africa Policy Research Institute</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172662/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Folashade Soule does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>African countries should adopt measures that strategically play rivals against each other. They should implement long-term strategies and domestic policies for dealing with strategic partners.Folashade Soule, Senior Research Associate, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1713042021-12-28T19:22:54Z2021-12-28T19:22:54ZHas the pandemic fundamentally changed our ethics?<p>Over the past two years, our lives have changed in unprecedented ways. In the face of the pandemic, we have been required to obey demanding new rules and accept new risks, making enormous changes to our daily lives. </p>
<p>These disruptions can challenge us to think differently about ethics – about what we owe each other. </p>
<p>As we head into the third year of the pandemic, debates continue to rage over the ethics of vaccine mandates, restrictions on civil liberties, the limits of government power and the inequitable distribution of vaccines globally.</p>
<p>With so much disagreement over questions like these, has the pandemic fundamentally changed the way we think about ethics?</p>
<h2>Ethics became more visible</h2>
<p>In daily life, ethical decision-making often isn’t front of mind. We can often just coast along.</p>
<p>But the pandemic changed all that. It highlighted our human inter-connectedness and the effects of our actions on others. It made us re-litigate the basic rules of life: whether we could work or study, where we could go, who we could visit.</p>
<p>Because the rules were being rewritten, we had to work out where we stood on all manner of questions: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>is it OK – or even obligatory – to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-questions-to-ask-yourself-before-you-dob-advice-for-adults-and-kids-from-an-ethicist-167789">dob</a>” on rule-breakers? </p></li>
<li><p>is it morally wrong to ignore <a href="https://theconversation.com/acting-selfishly-has-consequences-right-now-why-ethical-decision-making-is-imperative-in-the-coronavirus-crisis-134350">social distancing rules</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-refusing-the-covid-19-vaccine-isnt-just-immoral-its-un-american-165564">refuse a newly developed vaccine</a>? </p></li>
<li><p>how far can our freedoms be rightly restricted in the name of the public interest and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/has-the-pandemic-shown-the-unassailability-of-utilitarianism-%E2%80%94/13574254">the greater good</a>?</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-questions-to-ask-yourself-before-you-dob-advice-for-adults-and-kids-from-an-ethicist-167789">5 questions to ask yourself before you dob — advice for adults and kids, from an ethicist</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At times, politicians tried to downplay these ethically-loaded questions by insisting they were “just following the science”. But there is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/28/theres-no-such-thing-just-following-the-science-coronavirus-advice-political">no such thing</a>. Even where the science is incontrovertible, political decision-making is unavoidably informed by value judgements about fairness, life, rights, safety and freedom.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the pandemic made ethical thinking and discussion more common than ever — a change that might well outlast the virus itself. This might itself be a benefit, encouraging us to think more critically about our moral assumptions. </p>
<h2>Who to trust?</h2>
<p>Trust has always been morally important. However, the pandemic moved questions of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/28/theres-no-such-thing-just-following-the-science-coronavirus-advice-political">trust</a> to the very centre of everyday decision-making. </p>
<p>We all had to make judgments about <a href="https://theconversation.com/public-trust-in-the-governments-covid-response-is-slowly-eroding-heres-how-to-get-it-back-on-track-163722">government</a>, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/40/e2108576118">scientists</a>, <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/06/28/trust-in-the-media-has-increased-in-the-past-year">news and journalists</a>, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-pharmas-covid-19-reputation-boost-may-not-last-heres-why-162975">big pharma</a>”, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-is-prompting-more-people-to-head-to-trusted-mainstream-news-sites-for-information-new-research-164278">social media</a>. The stance we take on the trustworthiness of people we’ve never met turns out to be pivotal to the rules we will accept.</p>
<p>One good thing about trustworthiness is that it’s testable. Over time, evidence may confirm or refute the hypothesis that, say, the government is trustworthy about <a href="https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/enhancing-public-trust-in-covid-19-vaccination-the-role-of-governments-eae0ec5a/">vaccine health advice</a> but untrustworthy about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-04-27/covidsafe-contact-tracing-app-coronavirus-privacy-security/12186044">cyber privacy protections</a> in contract tracing apps. </p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, one common concern throughout the pandemic was the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-were-covid-19-vaccines-developed-too-quickly-to-be-safe">unprecedented speed</a> with which the vaccines were developed and approved. As the evidence for their safety and effectiveness continues to mount, quickly developed vaccines may be more readily trusted when the next health emergency strikes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A vaccination centre in the Czech Republic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434579/original/file-20211129-27-121nd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434579/original/file-20211129-27-121nd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434579/original/file-20211129-27-121nd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434579/original/file-20211129-27-121nd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434579/original/file-20211129-27-121nd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434579/original/file-20211129-27-121nd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434579/original/file-20211129-27-121nd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trust in vaccines has varied considerably around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ondrej Deml/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legitimacy, time and executive power</h2>
<p>When we’re thinking about the ethics of a law or rule, there are <a href="https://news.griffith.edu.au/2019/09/09/the-threats-and-promises-of-multidimensional-legitimacy/">lots of questions</a> we can ask. </p>
<p>Is it fair? Does it work? Were we consulted about it? Can we understand it? Does it treat us like adults? Is it enforced appropriately?</p>
<p>In the context of a pandemic, it turns out that delivering good answers to these questions requires a crucial resource: time. </p>
<p>The development of inclusive, informed, nuanced and fair rules is hard when swift responses are needed. It’s even more challenging when our understanding of the situation – and the situation itself – changes rapidly.</p>
<p>This doesn’t excuse shoddy political decision-making. But it does mean leaders can be forced to make hard decisions where there are no ethically sound alternatives on offer. When they do, the rest of us must cope with living in a deeply imperfect moral world. </p>
<p>All of this raises important questions for the future. Will we have become so inured to executive rule that <a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-draft-pandemic-law-is-missing-one-critical-element-stronger-oversight-of-the-governments-decisions-170623">governments feel confident</a> in restricting our liberties and resist relinquishing their power? </p>
<p>On a different front, given the enormous costs and disruptions governments have imposed on the public to combat the pandemic, is there now a clearer moral obligation to marshal similar resources to combat <a href="https://www.unpri.org/pri-blog/a-pandemic-was-near-inevitable-so-too-is-climate-driven-disruption/5830.article">slow-motion catastrophes</a> like climate change? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-be-truly-ethical-vaccine-mandates-must-be-about-more-than-just-lifting-jab-rates-169612">To be truly ethical, vaccine mandates must be about more than just lifting jab rates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ethics and expectations</h2>
<p>Expectations, in the form of predictions about the future, are rarely at the forefront of our ethical thinking.</p>
<p>Yet as the 18th century philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bentham/">Jeremy Bentham</a> argued, disruption is inherently ethically challenging because people build their lives around their expectations. We make decisions, investments and plans based on our expectations, and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3214302">adapt our preferences</a> around them. </p>
<p>When those expectations are violated, we can experience not only material losses, but losses to our autonomy and “<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-efficacy.html">self efficacy</a>” — or our perceived ability to navigate the world. </p>
<p>This plays out in several ways in the context of vaccine mandates. </p>
<p>For example, it’s not a crime to have strange beliefs and odd values, so long as you still follow the relevant rules. But this creates problems when a new type of regulation is imposed on an occupation. </p>
<p>A person with strong anti-vaccination beliefs (or even just vaccine hesitancy) arguably should never become a nurse or doctor. But they may well expect their views to be a non-issue if they are a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-10/unnamed-carlton-afl-player-refusing-to-take-covid-19-vaccine/100608030">footballer</a> or a <a href="https://www.gippslandtimes.com.au/news/2021/09/20/construction-workers-thursday-deadline-for-vaccination/">construction worker</a>. </p>
<p>While there are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/is-mandatory-covid-19-vaccination-ethical/13570672">powerful ethical reasons supporting vaccine mandates</a>, the shattering of people’s life expectations nevertheless carries profound costs. Some people may be removed from careers they built their lives around. Others may have lost the sense their future is able to be predicted, and their lives are in their control.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vaccine-passports-are-coming-but-are-they-ethical-167693">Vaccine passports are coming. But are they ethical?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>It’s possible current social shifts will “snap back” once the threat recedes. Emergency situations, like pandemics and war, can have their own logic, driven by high stakes and the sacrifices necessary to confront them.</p>
<p>Equally though, learned lessons and ingrained habits of thought can persist beyond the crucibles that forged them. Only time will tell which changes will endure — and whether those changes make our society better or worse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Breakey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through lockdowns, vaccine mandates and the spectre of mass death, the pandemic has uprooted our lives and challenged us to think differently about ethics. What might the future hold?Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law. President, Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics., Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1673862021-09-07T12:25:57Z2021-09-07T12:25:57ZEverything that’s wrong with sentencing a white supremacist to read Jane Austen and Charles Dickens<p>What do you do with a young man convicted for being in possession of a bomb-making manual? A count of possessing information likely to be useful for preparing an act of terror can carry a jail term of up to 15 years. But 21-year-old Ben John wasn’t sentenced to prison: he was sentenced to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-58397088">read English canonical literature</a>.</p>
<p>The judge in his case told him to go away and read books such as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The defendant was also told to “think about” Thomas Hardy and Anthony Trollope.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, many questioned why a young white man appears to have been treated very differently to countless young people with brown skin with similar convictions. John had been identified as a terror risk shortly after his 18th birthday. He was referred to the counter-terrorism programme Prevent but continued to harbour Nazi sympathies and extremist views about gay people, immigrants and liberals. He was found to have over 10,000 right-wing and terror-related files on his computer. Would he have avoided prison if his conviction was for extremist Islamic views?</p>
<p>Then comes the question of whether sentencing a criminal to reading the British canon can ever be a viable option.</p>
<p>There are programmes in the US where youth offenders are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13632752.2017.1287339">“sentenced to Shakespeare”</a>, which seem to be effective in reducing offending. But these operate in a group-therapy-like environment and involve giving high-status literature to young people who are likely to be <a href="https://literacytrust.org.uk/documents/122/2008_11_15_free_research_-_Literacy_changes_lives_2008__offending_behaviour_JYS9ScS.pdf">disengaged from schooling</a>. Their success may be more to do with changing how young people view themselves and their chances of success – both educationally and in life more generally. </p>
<p>Reading Dickens and Austen is not group therapy – and John was not engaged in criminal behaviour because of his lack of successful engagement with the education system. Before being arrested, he had been studying for a degree in criminology.</p>
<p>Another justification for John’s sentence could be the association between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.3.1.06dji">reading literary fiction and developing empathy</a>. However, a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-31295-008">recent study</a> has suggested that although such a programme could result in the person developing empathy, reading literary fiction may also result difficulty separating knowledge gained from real-life experience and knowledge gained from fiction. This is arguably not a risk worth taking with someone convicted of extremism. </p>
<p>When people argue that developing empathy is important in criminal rehabilitation, it is based on the assumption that empathy is central to developing morality, increasing sociability and decreasing aggression. But the relationship between empathy and morality is not a simple one. Empathy can, for example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.04.008">increase preference for members of your own group</a>, which is, again, not at all desirable among extremists who are known to already harbour prejudices against other groups of people.</p>
<h2>Moral literacy</h2>
<p>The association of canon literature with morality and moral improvement is longstanding. The poet Matthew Arnold talked of the canon as “the best that has been thought and said” when recommending a course of reading (“culture”) to improve the morality of the less-educated classes.</p>
<p>When he was education secretary, Michael Gove picked up on this in his reforms of the English GCSE. He argued in a <a href="https://www.michaelgove.com/news/michael-gove-speech-cambridge-university">speech in 2011</a> that citizens need to be “schooled in virtue” and that we can get this virtue from the classics: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whether its Austen’s understanding of personal morality, Dickens’ righteous indignation, Hardy’s stern pagan virtue, all of these authors have something rich to teach us which no other experience, other than intimate connection with their novels, can possibly match.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Notably, his list of authors features the same names as those endorsed by the judge in Ben John’s case. But it’s highly questionable whether the “morality” of the classics would challenge a white supremacist homophobic extremist. </p>
<p>These novels are the mainstay of an era in which the discipline of English literature was being created and taught across the British empire as a means of “<a href="https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/printheritage/detail/ec629c60-58e9-40c6-847e-43d191dada47.aspx">civilising</a>” the conquered peoples and imbuing them with a sense of the superiority of the British, using education as indoctrination. Can the same diet of reading be deployed to counter white supremacy now? </p>
<p>Dickens speaks to inequality and the mistreatment of the poor, but his concern for the liberal causes at home was utterly undermined by his <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3830260">racism and disdain</a> for non-white subjects of the empire abroad. Austen’s Mansfield Park may address slavery a little, but the lessons of Pride and Prejudice are largely about not trusting or marrying the wrong person. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A row of books by Charles Dickens" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419604/original/file-20210906-21-ar64gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419604/original/file-20210906-21-ar64gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419604/original/file-20210906-21-ar64gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419604/original/file-20210906-21-ar64gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419604/original/file-20210906-21-ar64gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419604/original/file-20210906-21-ar64gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419604/original/file-20210906-21-ar64gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dickens: much to teach us, but does any of it address extremist world views?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If we accept the reasoning for sentencing to literature at all, or if the aim is to educate, a much better list of books for an anti-gay white supremacist could be created with a moment’s thought. Perhaps the judge should also consider them – the Booker longlisted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/28/the-fortune-men-by-nadifa-mohamed-review-injustice-exposed">The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed</a>, or <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28668534-the-good-immigrant">The Good Immigrant</a>, or David Olusoga’s <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/david-olusoga/black-and-british/9781509837113">Black and British: a Forgotten History</a>. Or the new anthology on LGBTQ+ rights <a href="https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/we-can-do-better-new-book-gives-voice-lgbtq-experiences-around-world">We Can Do Better Than This</a> would be a good option, too – or Alan Hollinghurst’s <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/103/1032708/the-swimming-pool-library/9781784870317.html">Swimming Pool Library</a>, to name but a few.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Velda Elliott is affiliated with Lit in Colour, the Penguin Random House & Runnymede Trust campaign to diversify the English curriculum in schools. </span></em></p>Instead of a prison sentence for possessing bomb-making material, Ben John will be expected to read classic novels and report back to the judge about what he learns.Velda Elliott, Associate Professor of English and Literacy Education, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1623042021-09-01T18:55:09Z2021-09-01T18:55:09Z20 years of ‘forever’ wars have left a toll on US veterans returning to the question: ‘Did you kill?’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416537/original/file-20210817-18-1ws6h75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C41%2C3484%2C2284&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Every soldier has a different story.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/soldier-of-charlie-company-2-508-pir-second-platoon-second-news-photo/103229734?adppopup=true">Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Military service members returning from America’s “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/49387/the-forever-war-by-dexter-filkins/">forever</a>” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have often faced deeply personal questions about their experience.</p>
<p>As one veteran explained to me: “I’ve been asked, ‘Have you ever killed anyone in war? Are you messed up at all?’”</p>
<p>“I don’t take offense to any of that because I realize, we went somewhere, we were gone for a couple years, and now we’re back, and now no one knows how to talk to a person.”</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/MR-Book-Reviews/December-2018/Book-Review-006/">sense of estrangement</a> from the rest of the population is, in my experience, common among veterans. I interviewed 30 former military personnel between 2012 and 2018 for “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac-books/9781640120235/">After Combat: True War Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan</a>” – a book I coauthored with retired Army Col. Michael Gibler, who served as an infantry officer for 28 years, including deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>20 years after the 9/11 attacks and the start of the ensuing <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5902&context=faculty_scholarship">global war on terrorism</a>, I believe that civilians would benefit from hearing veterans’ stories. It can help provide an understanding of the experience of mortality among the men and women who served in America’s name. </p>
<h2>Looking the enemy in the eye</h2>
<p>Neither I nor my co-author asked veterans directly if they had killed, and every person we spoke with had a unique experience of combat. All 30 interviewees, aged between 20 and 55 and from a variety of different backgrounds, were guaranteed anonymity to allow them to talk freely with us about their experiences of killing in combat. Their names have been changed for this article.</p>
<p>Killing in contemporary war rarely has the clarity of combat portrayed in war movies or video games, where the opponent is visible and threatening. In the fictional scenario, it is clear when a life is threatened and how to fight for the survival of oneself or one’s unit. </p>
<p>“People think it’s like ‘Call of Duty,’” one veteran said, referring to the popular video game, or that “it’d be cool to do that.” However, even in a direct engagement, like an ambush, it may not be clear who you are shooting at – it could be a response to a muzzle flash in the distance or laying down covering fire, he explained.</p>
<p>Describing an incident in which three men attacked his unit, one veteran, Beau, recalled the moral clarity he felt while shooting at a visible combatant.</p>
<p>“I know that they’re bad because they’re shooting at me,” he said.</p>
<p>But in other firefights, the situation was less clear, and as Beau explained, “For every innocent person that dies, that’s five more terrorists. I need to get this right.”</p>
<p>Beau said he preferred to look an enemy combatant in the eye, even when his own life was in danger. He indicated that it confirmed his view that these were “bad” people intent on killing him first.</p>
<p>Many recruits like Beau go into combat believing that killing is necessary in conditions of war and believing also that the <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2001/10/05/just-war-tradition-and-the-new-war-on-terrorism/">wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were militarily and politically justified</a>. But they are still <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011000016666156?casa_token=iZT8Z12P0lYAAAAA%3Al6Yg0FPyxhJyqp_h8z-1kONaOo0DWhPWUpS_GkS08VioRRfL8a47n4m4NRN27azKGpJmDiTclA60MQM&">changed by having killed</a>.</p>
<p>One soldier shot back from his guard post when under fire from a nearby house. His unit entered the house to find a dead man with a warm rifle. But the guard was discomfited when congratulated on this kill by fellow soldiers. To his comrades, he had acted in self-defense and protected others from the shooter. But even in this situation of militarily justified killing, he felt he had crossed a line by taking a life.</p>
<p>Others expressed guilt for exposing civilians to danger. One veteran spoke of feeling responsible when a young informant was executed after providing crucial information to Americans.</p>
<p>“We found out that the family that was living there told the Taliban that that little boy ratted them out,” Robin recalled. “I found this out two days later, that they executed the little boy that I chose to bring into that compound.” </p>
<h2>‘No monster’</h2>
<p>While some veterans return from having killed in combat without suffering <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-moral-injury-in-veterans-77669">moral injury</a> or <a href="https://www.brainline.org/article/what-are-differences-between-pts-and-ptsd">post-traumatic stress</a>, others suffer enduring <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2018.1463582?casa_token=AwZTeLQv0WUAAAAA%3ANvDFFytQU71w7O9eTK55AVDXIRgVzH9n2Bn0zYNZDBeppoXPFQw3pQCPRtobjQGNBc6rPTMCSKGlKOI">impacts of killing</a>. Studies have shown that the act of killing in combat can cause “<a href="https://jmvh.org/article/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-and-killing-in-combat-a-review-of-existing-literature/">significant psychological distress</a>” and is associated with <a href="https://militaryfamilieslearningnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/jclp_22471_Rev2.pdf">elevated risks of PTSD, alcohol abuse</a> and <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2016/12/405231/killing-war-leaves-veterans-lasting-psychological-scars-study-finds">suicide</a> in veterans.</p>
<p>As former U.S. Army Lt. Col. <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lieutenant-colonel-dave-grossman/on-killing/9780316040938/">David Grossman</a> wrote in his book examining the psychological impact of killing, a “dead soldier takes his misery with him, the man who killed him must forever live and die with him.”</p>
<p>Reuben can attest to that. He fired on a vehicle accelerating into an Iraqi checkpoint. As the vehicle approached the checkpoint, he shot into and stopped the advancing automobile. Approaching it to investigate, the unit saw he had killed the driver. But he had also “splattered his head all over the driver’s child. Six years old. He was sitting in the passenger seat. The fifty caliber does a number on the human body. The man’s head was just gone. It was everywhere.”</p>
<p>Reuben has ruminated over that moment for many years, trying to reconcile how he had followed the standard protocol but with horrific results – and trying to convince himself, as he told us, that he is not a monster.</p>
<p>Most civilians will never <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15229303/">carry the burden of mortality that Reuben bears</a>.</p>
<p>As the 20th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/9-11-to-today-ways-we-have-changed">terrorist attacks of 9/11</a> and the inception of America’s global war on terror approached, the Biden administration withdrew the last remaining troops from Afghanistan. The military members returning from this conflict, and that in Iraq, will not all be traumatized by combat experience, and not all soldiers who deploy have killed. But those who have enter a moral space very few of us share or even particularly understand.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian Eide does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The act of killing in combat is associated with heightened risks of PTSD and suicide. A scholar interviewed 30 veterans about their common experiences.Marian Eide, Professor of English and Women's & Gender Studies, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645992021-08-26T01:47:32Z2021-08-26T01:47:32Z‘Do-gooders’, conservatives and reluctant recyclers: how personal morals can be harnessed for climate action<p>There’s no shortage of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/26/record-shattering-heat-becoming-much-more-likely-says-climate-study">evidence</a> pointing to the need to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2021/jul/26/the-great-barrier-reef-is-a-victim-of-climate-change-but-it-could-be-part-of-the-solution">act urgently</a> on climate change. Most recently, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-the-most-sobering-report-card-yet-on-climate-change-and-earths-future-heres-what-you-need-to-know-165395">confirmed</a> Earth has warmed 1.09°C since pre-industrial times and many changes, such as sea-level rise and glacier melt, cannot be stopped.</p>
<p>Clearly, emissions reduction efforts to date have fallen abysmally short. But why, when the argument in favour of climate action is so compelling? </p>
<p>Decisions about climate change require judging what’s important, and how the world should be now and in future. Therefore, climate change decisions are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-014-1323-9">inherently moral</a>. The rule applies whether the decision is being made by an individual deciding what <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/5/1704S/4596965?login=true">food</a> to eat, or national governments setting <a href="https://ukcop26.org/cop26-goals/">goals</a> at international climate negotiations.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343521000774">research</a> reviewed the most recent literature across the social and behavioural sciences to better understand the moral dimensions of climate decisions. We found some moral values, such as fairness, motivate action. Others, such as economic liberty, stoke inaction. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="graph with arrow leading upwards" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Those who prioritise economic liberty may be less willing to take climate action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Morals as climate motivators</h2>
<p>Our research uncovered a large body of research confirming people’s moral values are connected to their willingness to act on climate change.</p>
<p>Moral values are the yardstick through which we understand things to be right or wrong, good or bad. We develop personal moral values <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/environment-in-the-lives-of-children-and-families">through our families in childhood</a> and our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X18303322?via%3Dihub">social and cultural context</a>. </p>
<p>But which moral values best motivate personal actions? Our research documents <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0163852">a study</a> in the United States, which found the values of compassion and fairness were a strong predictor of someone’s willingness to act on climate change.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://moralfoundations.org">moral foundations theory</a>, the value of compassion relates to humans’ evolution as mammals with attachment systems and an ability to feel and dislike the pain of others. </p>
<p>Fairness relates to the evolutionary process of “<a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-16999-6_3598-1">reciprocal altruism</a>”. This describes a situation whereby an organism acts in a way that temporarily disadvantages itself while benefiting another, based on an expectation that the altruism will be reciprocated at a later time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ordinary-people-extraordinary-change-addressing-the-climate-emergency-through-quiet-activism-160548">Ordinary people, extraordinary change: addressing the climate emergency through 'quiet activism'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494415000201?casa_token=ti54dZZ0c9QAAAAA:oxAvuOGeVK2v30PIuo1Q2fs4jLCusQPT5VqAB8QuSV3MDU5YW7L4wTw8W5qZh2AttDaXRmni4w">a study</a> in Australia found people who put a lower value on fairness, compared to either the maintenance of social order or the right to economic freedom, were more likely to be sceptical about climate change. </p>
<p>People may also use moral “disengagement” to justify, and assuage guilt over, their own climate inaction. In other words, they convince themselves that ethical standards do not apply in a particular context. </p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajsp.12423#:%7E:text=Our%20results%20suggest%20that%20disengagement,reduced%20engagement%20in%20pro%2Denvironmental">longitudinal study</a> of 1,355 Australians showed over time, people who became more morally disengaged became more sceptical about climate change, were less likely to feel responsible and were less likely to act. </p>
<p>Our research found the moral values driving efforts to reduce emissions (mitigation) were different to those driving climate change adaptation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2017.1287624">Research in the United Kingdom</a> showed people emphasised the values of responsibility and respect for authorities, country and nature, when talking about mitigation. When evaluating adaptation options, they emphasised moral values such as protection from harm and fair distribution of economic costs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="people on crowd hold signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moral reasoning helps shape climate beliefs, including climate scepticism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Framing climate decisions</h2>
<p>How government and private climate decisions are framed and communicated affects who they resonate with, and whether they’re seen as legitimate.</p>
<p>Research suggests climate change could be made morally relevant to more people if official climate decisions appealed to moral values associated with right-wing political leanings.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797612449177">US study</a> found liberals interpreted climate change in moral terms related to harm and care, while conservatives did not. But when researchers reframed pro-environmental messages in terms of moral values that resonated with conservatives, such as defending the purity of nature, differences in the environmental attitudes of both groups narrowed. </p>
<p>Indeed, research shows moral reframing can change pro-environmental behaviours of different <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103116301056?via%3Dihub">political groups</a>, including <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/40/2/350/2911026?login=true">recycling habits</a>. </p>
<p>In the US, people were found to recycle more after the practice was reframed in moral terms that resonated with their political ideology. For conservatives, the messages appealed to their sense of civic duty and respect for authority. For liberals, the messages emphasised recycling as an act of fairness, care and reducing harm to others.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/communicating-climate-change-has-never-been-so-important-and-this-ipcc-report-pulls-no-punches-165252">Communicating climate change has never been so important, and this IPCC report pulls no punches</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="person opens lid of recycling bin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reframing of messages can help encourage habits such as recycling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>When moralising backfires</h2>
<p>Clearly, morals are central to decision-making about the environment. In some cases, this can extend to people adopting – or being seen to adopt – a social identity with moral associations such as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/22/zero-waste-millennial-bloggers-trash-greenhouse-gas-emissions">zero-wasters</a>”, “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/symb.312">voluntary simplifiers</a>” and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847817303054?via%3Dihub">cyclists</a>. </p>
<p>People may take on these identities overtly, such as by posting about their actions on social media. In other cases, a practice someone adopts, such as cycling to work, can be construed by others as a moral action.</p>
<p>Being seen to hold a social identity based on a set of morals may actually have unintended effects. Research has found so-called “<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02362/full">do-gooders</a>” can be perceived by others as irritating rather than inspiring. They may also trigger feelings of inadequacy in others who, as a self-defense mechanism, might then dismiss the sustainable choices of the “do-gooder”.</p>
<p>For example, sociologists have <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/josi.12366">theorised</a> that some non-vegans avoid eating a more plant-based diet because they don’t want to be associated with the social identity of veganism.</p>
<p>It makes sense, then, that gentle encouragement such as “meat-free Mondays” is likely <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/josi.12366">more effective</a> at reducing meat consumption than encouraging people to “go vegan” and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494421000451">eliminate</a> meat altogether. </p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Personal climate decisions come with a host of moral values and quandaries. Understanding and navigating this moral dimension will be critical in the years ahead.</p>
<p>When making climate-related decisions, governments should consider the moral values of citizens. This can be achieved through procedures like <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0591-9">deliberative democracy</a> and <a href="https://www.climateassembly.uk/">citizen’s forums</a>, in which everyday people are given the chance to discuss and debate the issues, and communicate to government what matters most to them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-the-most-sobering-report-card-yet-on-climate-change-and-earths-future-heres-what-you-need-to-know-165395">This is the most sobering report card yet on climate change and Earth's future. Here’s what you need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Lau is affiliated with WorldFish—an international, not for profit research organization and part of the CGIAR that seeks to deliver research for a more food secure world, particularly for societies most vulnerable women and men. This research was supported by the ARC Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, and the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Song receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Blythe receives funding from the Social Science Research Council (SSHRC).</span></em></p>Understanding the moral dimensions of climate decisions could help promote fairer and more effective climate actionJacqueline Lau, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook UniversityAndrew Song, Lecturer / ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow (DECRA), University of Technology SydneyJessica Blythe, Assistant Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.