E26. "Snitch" - When doing a moral good, do the ends justify the means?
Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Discussions
English - September 07, 2020 02:00 - 56 minutes - 51.5 MB - ★★★★★ - 36 ratingsCourses Education Society & Culture Philosophy Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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STORY SUMMARY: A black pastor in New Orleans is trying to get a redevelopment project built for his poor community post Katrina. Things aren’t going well. A white person was robbed and beat up in the area, which scared off the banks from lending. The pastor goes to the local gang and pays them to keep white people safe. He also reaches out to another church group to help with protests. The white developer/partner comes and says he is going to make the project smaller and the church will get less. The pastor goes to the black mayor who also wants a cut of the development money for his re-election campaign. The pastor finally decides he’s had enough and calls the federal government to report corruption in the city.
DISCUSSION: Seems a very realistic portrayal of how things get done. There aren’t any clear good guys in this story, just people with codes that go with their social group. Which comes first, your code that pushes you into a group, or a group you get into that pushes their code on you? Maybe the pastor has finally decided to stop making moral compromises and live by better ethics, maybe not.
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