Ethics is complicated

Supplemental Ethics has always been a paradox for me. The solution to ethical issues always seems to either to punish the system/medium, or to punish the individual. My previous post argues the ethics of contemporary communication — a medium, — and I seem to place blame on the system rather than the person. The reason I find this to be a paradox is because I find myself to be on the more conservative side, and more individualistic on ethical issues. For example, as far as gun rights go, I blame the individual/oppressor instead of the system (guns). Another example is that I believe that people should be responsible for their financial and personal success, however they are ample reasons and arguments for the contrary.

Ethics, especially in today’s society, can be incredibly complex and blurry in the sight of morality, and there is certainly no single answer that can be applied to every situation. So long as there are dishonest and/or malicious individuals in society, there are always loopholes and mediums through which they can do bad things to good people. In some situations, simply punishing individuals isn’t going to prevent more bad things from happening to good people, and the same goes for punishing the system. Ethics can be incredibly complicated, but the only way that ethics can be improved is through precedent.