My father pointed me to this Douglas Kern article over at National Review. It's a good read. As usual, I would also like to poke a few holes in it, but one paragraph in particular is worth quoting:

Modern ethics is what’s left when trust has completely evaporated between leaders and the led. Whether it’s zero-tolerance school-violence policies that get kids arrested for drawing pictures of guns, draconian anti-pedophile policies that get priests bounced on the strength of an accusation, mandatory sentencing laws that put potheads in the slammer for life, or anti-touching school policies that outlaw hugs, the theme is the same: authority doesn’t trust you, you don’t trust authority, so let’s invent some rules that make no sense but sound good while eliminating any possibility that human discretion or common sense can penetrate our ethical paradise.

Bravo. Seriously, talk about hitting the nail on the head.

Oddly enough, my concern with this particular article is that it is sound in principle but weak in application. The article is a jab at Randy Cohen, who made a quasi-political donation in violation of the New York Times' "ethical" rules for their writers. But as Kern points out:

A real system for determining right and wrong requires commonly held first principles and leadership with the acknowledged authority to interpret and apply those principles.

Chicken, meet egg. I enjoyed Kern's comments, I think they are by and large right on the money, but he doesn't seem to see the problem with calling someone a hypocrite for violating the arbitrary "ethics" handed down by an institution with no acknowledged ethical authority. And seeing as how Kern is published on National Review, I doubt he would leap at the opportunity to anoint any media outlet, let alone the New York Times, as an ethical authority.

But that said (what can I say, there's always a catch right?), fun little article. I really do wish more people would take ethics seriously--not the way most people approach it now, which is to say, "you study ethics so you can justify whatever it is the CEO decides to do." Ethics has been a staple of philosophy for literally thousands of years. It's a rich field of study and there's a lot there to discuss. I appreciate Kern's recognition of that fact, even if it was just to poke fun at one of his leftist competitors in the columnist world.