Thursday, January 8, 2009

The fat lady never sings.


Morals and Ethics

Ever since women get wrapped up in their never ending desire to become thinner than they already are, they have been asking their husbands, boyfriends, sons, brothers, friends this question that is probably first asked by the first cavewoman after eating her mammoth steak. “Darling, do you think I look fat?” A wrong answer probably leads to the poor caveman being clubbed by his wife to death. Perhaps the survival of Cro-Magnum men over Neanderthal men is due to their ability to lie. Neanderthal men are all too bloody honest (Or dumb) and therefore, clubbed to extinction.

Today, modern man has faced great adversaries, conquering diseases, conquered continents, conquering space and distance. We created the atomic bomb, launched Satellites, invented laser weapons.

Yet time and time again, everyman, from presidents to the common blue-collar workers have been faced with the question they dread the most after “when are you going to marry me?” The reason could be that “Darling, do you think I look fat?” is in fact a question without any right answers at all. How a woman ask this question usually starts like this, she would be admiring herself in the mirror, while buying a new shirt or something, and she comes out and ask you if she looks fat. And she will add this “Baby, I want you to be totally honest with me.”

Now this is the tricky part.

I try to think of various scenarios that will happen for you.

1) Assuming that she is fat, you tell her the truth, she becomes unhappy, and is angry with you openly. This is still okay.
2) If you tell her the truth, she becomes unhappy, and will give you silence treatment all the way. This is tricky, I suggestion using chocolate sundaes to warm her up again.
3) She is fat, you tell her a lie and try to reassure her she isn’t fat. She doesn’t believe you and is angry because you won’t tell her the truth.
4) She is fat, you convince her she is thin, and happily, she decided to get the dress, and continue eating until she gains more weight or can’t fit into the dress, as she looks like a over-ripe tomato about to burst in it. She blames you for it also.
5) You convinced her that the dress makes everyone look chubby in it, she won’t be reassured also, and wonder if she should diet to make herself thinner. She forces you to eat less and diet with her.
6) She is thin, she looks good in the dress. If you are very very lucky, you would get through this stage without difficulty. Perhaps only 20% of men can get choice 6, but even then, you are not totally safe yet. She may think that you are lying, and the whole cycle begins again.



There is also this question we must ask ourselves, is it morally and ethically right to tell your girlfriend/wife/friends a lie? If so, who are you telling the lie for, for their sake, or to save your own skin?

Definition of morals and ethics to my understanding is that morals is understand what is right or wrong, while ethics is the study of morality. We all have a conscience and we learn morals, from our parents, friends, and society in the end. What I learned from my uncles and father is that sometimes it is better to tell your wife a white lie than to hear her nagging. Reason is actually quite simple, she will be happier without hearing the truth, and your ears will have peace. It makes life a bit more bearable. Morally, I guess it is okay.

According to Socrates, any person who knows what is truly right will automatically do it. While he correlated knowledge with virtue, he similarly equated virtue with happiness. The truly wise man will know what is right, do what is good and therefore be happy. Each individual has a core of underlying values that contribute to our system of beliefs, ideas and/or opinions. Integrity in the application of a value ensures its continuity and this continuity separates a value from beliefs, opinion and ideas. In this context a value (e.g., Truth or Equality or Greed) is the core from which we operate or react. It is likely that Plato believed that virtue was, in fact, a single thing, and that this enumeration was created by others in order to better define virtue. In Protagoras and Meno, he states that the separate virtues can't exist independently, and offers as evidence the contradictions of acting with wisdom (prudence), yet in an unjust way, or acting with bravery (fortitude), yet without wisdom (prudence). (This entire chunk here is taken from the internet)

In accordance with the previous paragraph, in layman’s terms, acting with wisdom but in an unjust manner, an example could be, you tell your wife that she is thin, to save your own skin. This is wisdom, but morally you are telling a lie, which also meant that you are lacking in “truthfulness”.

Acting with bravery yet without wisdom, is you telling your wife the truth, that her butt reminds you of national geographical channel while they are showcasing rhinos special that day. This is very brave of you indeed, sir, but you are bloody goddamn stupid.

If I had to say, I would be more inclined to state that ethically, you should be correct also, to prevent grief to both parties, but this is only my piece of view. :)





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