Everyday Ethics

               For this weeks entry, I will deviate from the normal blog entry of comparing the past events to the present, and instead, look at how ethical dilemmas play a role in peoples lives, as well as my own. On that note, I will be writing about various writing processes I have encountered this quarter, and how ethics shape them. 

Killing and agency demonstrated in the Iliad (Tiepolo, Venice)

             Both early this year, and throughout the quarter, a heavy emphasis has been placed on agency, being the capacity for people to make autonomous decisions based on their own free will. Early on, we learned about how Homer's The Iliad demonstrated the capacity to act with agency, and absolute force, with the possibility of loosing all agency in the action of murder. The connection between agency and ethics is apparent, as autonomous decision must have a basis of action. One cannot act in an impactful manor without a prior understanding of what they are about to do, and that prior understanding is an internal, or externally instilled ethical code.

Theater Poster of Full Metal Jacket

         In addition to The Iliad, another work that focused on agency, and ethical implication, was Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The film centers around the basic training experience of Marines, and throughout there are examples of people becoming objects of force, as well as being so, and the ethics associated with that. In basic training, the men are subjected to intense physical activity, verbal, and mental abuse. The ethics of this are constantly debated by the men, but continue with training. The process itself, which entails standardized uniform, haircut, diet, sleep and wake time, is designed to start every man from a clean slate, and train them into becoming an effective soldier. The violation of these men's being is what really impacted me during this film, both in training and in battle. After these men are deployed, it is apparent that basic training has skewed their ethical compass, so to speak, as some commit acts of murder. Animal Mother, a member of the platoon deployed to Vietnam, shoots indiscriminately at what he believes to be Viet Cong, but are actually innocent rice farmers, in the field.
                Though thee are just two works that have impacted me this quarter, on the subject of ethics and action, a lot can be said about the course material we have covered. From the back and forth action of Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians, to information I have learned about Machiavelli, and his recommendations in The Prince, there has always been a place for me to expand my scope of ethics in the world.