The Perfect Humanoid Symbol, 24
In fact, aside from the ethics level of the smoker, which needs no further comment, the very existence and persistence of such a scourge indicate and prove the inadequacy of another ethics level, too: our own, as individuals, as a group, as a society. Ethics is the alignment of intentions, of actions, to a purpose. Whatever the purpose – good or bad, sensible or insane – a group with a high ethics is one whose members ensure their intentions and actions are aligned to that purpose; a group with a low ethics is one whose members don’t give a damn. In addition to this fact, though, another fact is that good purposes and high ethics tend to align: many things like politeness, education and commitment are taken for granted in a high ethics group, while in a low ethics one their absence is; committing to meet high standards is the norm in high ethics groups, committing to lower the standards is the norm in low ethics ones; bad behaviour in a low ethics group is met with shrugs indefinitely, while in a high ethics one it is met with immediate dissuasion. Some call it discipline versus apathy, some other totalitarian versus libertarian, fact is a high ethics group has a chance to achieve the purpose, while a low ethics one does not, regardless. Ethics is an inescapable requisite, the quality of purpose too, and the place of things like freedom, justice and well−being is in the second; survival requires both sensible purposes and high group ethics; a group lacking either one goes down the pan.
And then I ask you: what kind of individual can do that, can go that length of degradation and abuse? What kind of person is one who not only allows self to be addicted, but to be addicted to a poison, and even to commit all the filthy abuses demanded by the addiction? What kind of an individual can do such a thing, and do it as if it were nothing? Or, what kind of condition an individual capable of doing such a thing, and of doing it as if it was nothing, is in? Capable of such an unwillingness to confront, of such self−harm, of such agreeing to be subjected to extortion, of such agreeing to be made effect? One who gave up one’s common sense even long before one’s wisdom, and humanity for that matter, and to that extent?
