The Rock Ethics Institute Fellows Seminar met earlier this week to discuss the issue of global responsibility. The readings that provided the basis for the discussion were Iris Marion Young's "Responsibility and Global Justice: A Social Connection Model", Andrew Kuper's "Global Poverty Relief: More than Charity" and Peter Singer's "Poverty, Facts, and Political Philosophy". The following summary of the discussion was provided by Cori Wong:
The following discussion focused largely on the possibility that this lack of moral motivation was rooted to an inadequate conception of other structures that are already in place which dissuade people from donating ten dollars or ten percent of their salaries and which make even thoughtful, green, and fair-trade consumption ethically suspect. In other words, the ethically problematic structures of concern might not only be that sweatshop laborers undergo horrible abuses and that fashionista consumers are implicated in these relationships and processes of exchange, but also that established cultural values and lifestyles are also in need of transformation. Whereas Singer did not seem to give adequate attention to overarching structures in general, the values that undergird practices like following seasonal fashion trends, buying and consuming material goods (even "morally good" goods that are produced in presumably ethical ways), and which support the belief that one has a right to hoard one's hard earned money and not give it to others who need it are not dramatically challenged in Kuper's and Young's call for structural changes. Furthermore, it was noted that the assumption that economic development is the best way to support the flourishing of others seems short-sighted, especially if and when the economic trade structures that are imposed on developing countries are the same structures that led to the growth of (often ethically reprehensible) multi-national corporations. We briefly mentioned that there are also considerations to be made regarding other structural problems, such as the overuse of natural resources and environmental degradation. The group repeatedly returned to the idea that perhaps something like a shift in lifestyle was also in order--the creation of an ethos, the development of a richer notion of the good, the cultivation of a different embodiment of social values to challenge the background assumptions that ground our culture. In such a lifestyle shift, individual actions might be more highly valued, more impactful, and still ethically required. Examples of individual actions that account for unjust structural processes and then try to change them could include the devaluation of material goods, withdrawing from particular elements of the system, and activism and social involvement to further change the systems in question. It was also noted that the social connection model might be helpful for facilitating some of these changes by cultivating a sense of collective responsibility, where external pressures from others might compel more disinclined individuals to act responsibly.
