A Lesson in Ethics

The disbarment and disgrace of Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong is making headlines and I'm sure the three falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players are very relieved to have been completely exonerated. However, in all the hoopla, I think an important point is being missed: If the lacrosse players hadn't been getting drunk at a party with a hired stripper then the girl couldn't have accused them of rape.

In his book "Introduction to Scientology Ethics", L. Ron Hubbard says:

"Ethics actually consists of rationality toward the highest level of survival for the individual, the future race, the group, mankind and the other dynamics taken up collectively. Ethics are reason."

I don't want this to sound preachy or prudish, but the simple fact is that if those three students had been thinking and behaving ethically they wouldn't have been at such a party. Put yourself in an iffy position and you are asking for trouble. Their decision to be there, as we have seen, ended up in a year of hell for them. If they had been thinking ethically, they could have still had a party and a barrel of laughs but without the possibility of false accusations, arrest and very nearly having their lives ruined.

Right now, the ethical standards of this society are so low that the concept most teenagers have of college is that it's a place you go to get drunk and have a good time and many adults think this is "harmless" and "doesn't hurt anyone," probably because they did the same thing themselves. They don't seem able to think it through and see what sort of an effect such behavior has on themselves, their families and their future. It takes an extreme example like that of the three Duke University lacrosse players to highlight what can happen.