Ex-development ethics

A recent comment on this blog highlighted the importance of grounding international development work in social justice principles. I think very few development practitioners would disagree with this. But let’s take this a step further.

Think about the following scenario: Every day at work and in life you are doing your personal best. You are a model of integrity, support causes you believe in, and make daily choices that reflect your (or your religion/faith’s) highest values. So far, it seems that you are acting paragon of ethical behavior. But there is more to the story.

While you may be doing your very best, you are actually working within a larger structure that maintains and perpetuates an unjust status quo.

For instance, let’s say your work in “international development” and you have to write a background section of a project document for a rural development project. After you finish the chapter, you learn that this chapter helped justify the passage of a multimillion dollar project that will fund the expansion cattle-raising among large landowners in the Amazon Rainforest. Now, do you still think you still acting ethically when you were simply “doing your best” to write your section of the document? Here we have an ethical dilemma.

To answer this question, I will invoke a simplified version of the ancient wisdom of my favorite philosopher, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, also known as RaMCHaL, who wrote a book called Mesillat Yesharim or Path of the Just. In this book, which is a foundation text for the Musar [Ethics] Movement, RaMCHaL elaborates a practice of individual character development. This model guides individuals through a process of refining their character by spending time working on--through study, prayer, meditation and action--a series of different traits or attributes, in a quest for ethical/spiritual improvement. A person’s “success” in this process is evaluated by how the person’s actions impact others. If, for instance, a person is working on improving his/her “patience” and this leads to a more peaceful and productive interaction with family or work colleagues, then this person is measurably progressing along the path of spiritual development.

Anyway, let’s return to the ethical dilemma. This situation might fall under the attribute of “vigilance” a key attribute in Luzzatto’s framework of spiritual/ethical development. "Vigilance,” in this case, means that you are responsible not only for your actions, but also for knowing the context in which they are being used, and considering their likely implications for other people. So, if you don’t know how the fruit of your labor is being applied in the world, you should find out. To act ethically, one must be as vigilant and aware as possible of all his/her actions’ implications.

If you are a Musar purist, you might note that RaMCHaL's framework is meant to be studied alongside of Jewish Law (Torah & Talmud). Then again, I imagine their are not many Musar purists working in international development.

The point is, as Luzzatto suggested about 267 years ago, maybe we all need to pay more attention to developing our sense of ethics. It seems that these attributes are particularly important if we are to engage meaningfully to combat poverty and injustice--the most intransigent problems in the world.

This post might seem somewhat esoteric. However, I want to use this space to delve into issues of ethical and psychological development, as I believe these are critical elements of social justice work that are too often left unexplored.