Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
blind eyes, helps us to understand our neighbor, and to help him in
the best way. Are the rich justified in living in luxury? Of all the
problems that loyalty to our fellows involves, none is acuter, to the
conscientious man, than that concerning the degree of luxury he may
allow himself. It is strictly things in the world is limited; the more
I have, the less others have. How can a good man be content to spend
unnecessary sums upon himself and his own family, when within arm's
reach men and women and children are being stunted mentally and morally,
are living in dirt and squalor, are succumbing to disease, are actually
dying, for lack of the comfort and opportunity that his superfluous
wealth could give? "Wherever we may live, if we draw a circle around
us of a hundred thousand [sic], or a thousand, or even of ten miles'
circumference, and look at the lives of those men and women who are
inside our circle, we shall find half- starved children, old people,
pregnant women, sick and weak persons, all working beyond their strength,
with neither food nor rest enough to support them, and so dying before
their time."[Footnote: Tolstoy, What Shall We Do Then? chap. xxvi.]
It is only a lack of imagination and sympathy, or an actual ignorance
of conditions, that can permit so many really kind-hearted people to
spend so much money upon clothes, amusements, elaborate dinners, and
a lot of other superfluities, in a world so full of desperate need.
It would be well if every citizen could be compelled to do a little
charity-visiting, or something of the sort, that he might see with
his own eyes the cramping and demoralizing conditions under which,
for sheer lack of money, so many worthy poor, under the present crude
social organization, must live. It is the segregation of the well to
do in their separate quarters that fosters their shameless callousness,
and leads, in the rich, "to that flagrant exhibition of great wealth
which almost frightens those who know the destitution of the poor."
There is, however, a growing uneasiness among those who have, an
increasing sense of responsibility toward those who have not; there
are hopeful signs of a return to the sane ideal of the Greeks, who
deemed it vulgar and barbaric to spend money lavishly on self. The
compunctions of the rich are indicated, on the one hand, by generous
donations made to all sorts of causes, and on the other hand, by the
arguments which are now thought necessary to justify the selfish use
of money. These arguments we may cursorily discuss.
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