In my opinion, there are no such things as “ethical dilemmas” because ethical behavior does not present us with just two choices – either this or that. Being ethical is not that simple – it’s an intertwined mesh of options presented to us with the decisions that we take not falling into the conventional brackets of right and wrong. Certain things may not be completely right and others not completely wrong. Moreover, between the two extremes, there could be a million different possibilities and the much touted “midway” which in this complex web, is so difficult to determine.

When you are in a position of authority where you are required to take “ethical” decisions day in and day out, you will therefore need to navigate this network carefully by taking informed decisions which are as close to the desired behaviour as possible. And this is not a mean task. When faced with such “ethical dilemmas”, I have seen some decision makers hesitate to take any decision at all by passing the buck, shooting from someone else’s shoulder or generally doing nothing at all till the situation escalates and blows out of proportion costing a lot of time, money and effort to eventually address it. The classic “a stitch in time saves nine” couldn’t be any truer in situations like these.

At other times, under the pretext of taking an ethical action, decision makers take decisions that are convenient for them rather than the ones that could have been closer to the truth. Such decisions are a classic example of highly unethical behaviour on the decision maker’s part which is way worse than the problems created by any perpetrators whose actions these decision makers are passing a judgement on.

Then there are the opportunists – the scavengers of society – who will not think twice about feeding off the carcasses thrown at them by the bad decision makers and thrive on these to create even more such opportunists out of unsuspecting individuals who could become the decision makers of tomorrow thus ensuring that this vicious cycle goes on.

And finally, the onlookers who are watching all this from a distance, sitting on a fence, or in today’s parlance, taking physical or mental videos with the intention of making them viral either on the social media or starting a chain of vile rumour mongering which further aids in burying the truth more than six feet under layers and layers of blatant lies.

It’s up to each one of us to decide in any such situation, which role we would want to adopt, because on the one side, it is fairly easy to do what is convenient, or do nothing at all. On the other side, doing what is right, is always difficult because things are not what they seem.

Quoting JRR Tolkien – All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.

Image by storyset on Freepik