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Solutions to corruption

August 3, 2008  - Dale

Yesterday I felt as though I was living in two different worlds. And yet the two worlds seemed quite similar. As though a person living in one would feel quite at home in the other.

One of the worlds is that of Noah, Abraham and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Stories of ambition, incredulity, scepticism about the existence of righteous people. Stories of a world and a city overtaken by corruption. They are stories from the ancient world, and yet they seemed like the same kind of stories that were told in the conversation I had with friends last night about modern day morality and corruption.

Are there any righteous people? How can endemic corruption and immorality be changed? Is the Sodom and Gomorrah solution the only one that works? Did it work? What about the Noah solution? Or the Babel solution?

Today’s paper quoted a leading corruption expert as saying that a recent sentence to do with bribery should have been four times as great as it was. No doubt many agreed. And yet our modern conversations and stories recount endless examples of human avarice and greed.

Some say it is a problem of law. Of integrity among those who administer the law. And while that may be true, there is a more fundamental issue. We could call it a problem of morality. Of ethics perhaps. One person I was speaking to suggested that the most important thing was for the mothers to teach their children to be honest, and to work for money, not to steal or extort it.

But on what basis would mothers teach such morality? Is it a morality of punishment? Do this so you won’t be caught? I don’t think my friend thought that. That is just the opposite side of, Do it if you think you won’t get caught. Perhaps it should be taught because it is socially beneficial? Maybe it is, but most people are unwilling to put aside their own interests in favour of the good of the society.

Maybe behaviour like this just makes a better human being. That is a good argument – if you want to be a better human being, or of you want your children to be good human beings.

On the other hand, perhaps the Abraham solution is best. It was certainly mother-taught. Like the other ancient solutions, this one admits that the problem is essentially God’s problem. It differs from the others in that this involves humans paying attention to a promise rather than a threat.

It involves them living in the presence of God and being blameless as far as God is concerned. In the belief that the promise of God is that he himself will bless them by being with them, and by his pardon.

Dale

Comments

I think the Indonesian mothers should be taught to teach their kids that if they do the right thing, then the right thing will happen to them, ie: the money or reward will always come, they do not need to be corrupt for the sake of putting money into their pockets.

Posted by Paul on Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 07:16:51

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