Is Cheating Bad For Society?

They are icons. Etched in stone. Principals to live by.

Honor. Integrity. Honesty.

But sadly, society is in love with dishonesty, dishonor, lying, and cheating. “Everyone has cheated at some point,” a child just told me.

Why is the prevalent course of action the course that is corrupt? If it’s not the banks or politicians doing something crooked, it’s the car dealer stealing you blind on your trade-in or some hacker infecting your computer for your credit card information.

Why is it so common, and thus desirable, to cheat and steal from others instead of putting that energy towards honest labor or efforts?

Every company has a “Code of Ethics”. Every company has a waiver titled “intellectual property rights”.

If people were naturally honest, why would they need to mention their version of ethics or worry if a worker would sell vital company info to a rival? And why would the rival give a crap? Why wouldn’t they just work harder, out merchandise, out advertise, and frankly…outsell the competition?

Is this just lip service? Honor? Ethics? Integrity?

America is at a cross roads. Many people say “Unleash the free markets!” Yet they forget why regulations came into being to begin with.

A company’s mission is to maximize profit for their shareholders. There is no higher purpose. Industries used child labor, unsafe environments, etc.

When industries first sprang up, people moved en Mass to find work. Entire cities were born or grew around industrial plants. Some corporations treated their workers with kid gloves, some used them as fodder, with plenty more—they reasoned—waiting to take someone’s spot.

We can’t go back to those days where industries could be totally unfettered and rules be damned. They have proven as recently as the subprime mortgage catastrophe that they cannot be trusted to do the prudent thing without some sort of oversight.

Cheating in America has become rampant. But is it really any different than other times in history? Is that question in itself an excuse to condone the behavior and dismiss the trend as nothing other than normal? Is there a reason why we can’t – or shouldn’t – strive for honest dealings in all endeavors?

We tell our kids “Honesty is the best policy”, yet we turn the other cheek when people and institutions abuse our trust. Kids see how we handle situations, they absorb like sponges, our literal “ethics policy”. They see how ethical we are. How honorable are we?

So it starts, like everything, in the home. If rich get by skimping on taxes or paying off people to get their way, well, that’s how Jr. will behave. If the poor resort to Meth and the drug trade instead of education, that’s how Jr. will behave. If businesses hire illegals to save on labor, so will jr.
That’s a generalization, ofcourse. Kids now have far more avenues of influence. They are no longer captives in the home. They have almost unlimited sources of information and a lot of those are counter-productive. Parents influence is negated by Ipads, Ipods, videos, computers, TV, radio, etc. No longer is it Dad, Mom and the Bible.

The majority of people are resigned to their fate because that is what ‘fate’ deals them. They will not take the harder road because it is just that, hard. They will, like water, pursue the path of least resistance. They will go after the ‘easy money’, the ‘inside trade’, the tip or the ‘sure thing’ because they want to maximize their profit too.

So, is cheating good for society? One has to say that despite all of the scandals and the disastrous events associated with our Republics past, we have continued to progress as an apparently fairly honest society. The local people, the ones at the market, the handyman, they all succeed due to reputation and word of mouth advertising. They can’t cheat their customers overtly. Markups? Overselling? Well now, that’s just good old American Capitalism.

So what’s the answer? Becoming monks?

We strive to give our kids a better life. We look for ways to give them an upper hand. We also try to show them how to out work, out dress, and out impress their competition when trying to land a job. We give them tools for success. And one they have latched on to is cheating.
How do you undo what has been wrought on society since the 60's?

Why do you think, God and Country were so prevalent in schools? Instill fear of God and Love of Country. Simple mental conditioning. And without a higher cause, or a higher power to collectively help keep order and the fabric of societal stability, we now see what has happened when you remove such influences from children for 2 generations.

The very fabric of society is, and has been pointed out repeatedly, is fraying from the neglect and ignorance of those wishing to "buck the system" and defeat the "Man".

Well, now one of them is in charge. The Genie is out of the bottle, corruption is rampant and lines of 'proper behavior' are now erased.

No.... no, cheating is not good for society. Like lying, it always leads to bigger cheating. Cheating in society can be tolerated -- or absorbed -- whenever it happens on the periphery, in back rooms. But now, with the emergence of instant news, information, and the transformation of the speed of knowledge gathering, a minor infraction of cheating is now plastered on a blog or news site causing bigger ripples throughout society than it would have normally been accustomed to.

Now, this is the generation where they've grown up with Monica Lewinski, Abu Grahab, The Dem's cheating in Fla and Minn, the outright lies and hatred towards Bush, the continued lying of O throughout his campaign and presidency. They don't know of a Honorable high official. They have seen the steroid scandal, the questionable attacks on Lance Armstrong, the congress calling our soldiers Nazis...

No, not very inspirational stuff.... and all absorbed by an entire generation. And we'll suffer for it well into the future.

Todd Reece