What if we were ethical?

By “we” I mean my tribes, kind, ilk and generation: American, white, Christian, male, middle class, contemporary.

By “ethical” I mean honest, respectful, just, restrained, considerate, kind, not criminal.

I want us to be more ethical.  I get a thrill when I see or hear of ethical or virtuous acts.  I feel shame when I consider the people that I have failed or abused and when I consider the crimes that my tribes have committed – against non-white foreigners, against non-white American citizens, against foreign peoples, against non-Christians, against our descendants.

We are much more sensitive to harm to our tribe (Pearl Harbor, 9/11) than to harm done by us to other tribes – genocide of native Americans, theft of Mexican territories, abuse of southern neighbors.  Until recently, conquest and exploitation were noble pursuits.

Today I want to consider the counterfactual reality, if America had avoided its many post-war crimes.  What if we had not bombed and poisoned Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and their neighbors?  What if we had not interfered in the struggles of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Israel, Lybia, etc?  I believe that those actions prevented their maturation, corrupted our leaders and sullied our reputation.  All of our post-war leaders are guilty of this, including my favorites.  I can not see how those crimes have improved our lives.

These foreign actions appear to have been directed by mega-rich arms dealers for their profit.  Greed is insatiable.

The counterfactual is, of course, the impossible, since events of one moment follow inevitably from those of the preceding moment.  Yet I wish otherwise.  I wish we were ethical.

Then there is the question of my generation's over-exploitation of resources and environmental destruction, including global warming.  Can we treat future generations more ethically?