What it Means to be an Ethical Person
Ethic, it is the actions that are deemed right by an individual or a group in association to moral responsibility. According to the definition of the word ethic, it can be different from group to group, and even person to person. Thus it seems that the definition of what is ‘right’ is different to everyone. How does one know which
‘right’ is the correct one to follow? To some, personal experience deems what is morally responsible while others believe it is what society as a whole deems is right.
Does the laws of the United States of America take into consideration that what is wrong to one group of people is seen as right to another group of people? Ethics is not something that can be defined. It is more of a concept on how life and situations should be handled.
If an American eats at a restaurant, they are expected to leave a tip for the person who served them. Now if the situation was moved to Vietnam, then leaving a tip is considered an insult to the server’s status in society. What the example points out is that people who have different backgrounds have different ethics. Even if one were to compare two individuals with identical backgrounds, the two individuals would at some point have different ideas on what is right and wrong. Being different and thinking different is part of being human, it is the factor that helped mold the millions of years of development of mankind.
How one decides on what is right and wrong is by both what one is taught and experiences. Learning the basis of ethics is usually taught by the authoritive figure in an individual’s childhood, but the authoritive figure usually bases what to teach is right and wrong by referencing the law. So essentially it is society molding

Sison what is right and wrong. What if what the government says is right is wrong in the
2 eyes of an individual or even a whole group? People have the option to petition to get the law changed, but if a majority is taught what the government set was right and wrong then it is only expected that the majority will oppose the change. It is understandable that the government sets laws that are meant to protect the public from any danger, especially the people that have opposite ideas of ethics than the government’s. That said there a number of laws that are largely redundant and even unethical to some people, but only so much can be done.
On the note of ideas that are truly wrong by anyone’s standard, there are people who set out to hurt other people. So the government has made it illegal to cause any bodily harm to any person, which both works and fails in our society. The judicial system also plays a part in ethics. The concept of the judicial system is to show that an individual has done a ‘wrong’ action to a ‘group of peers’, the jury, and the product of this system is to either prove him or her guilty or innocent. How it has been working for the past hundreds of years has been highly unethical to society’s eyes, from bribes to falsified evidence. It is not heard of that a person was wrongly accused and also sent to prison to later be proven innocent after said person has already served out the punishment meant for another. So if our government runs the judicial system, then that makes the government hypocrites.
Government, especially politics, has been closely related to unethical practices for hundreds of years now, and close to nothing has been done to make the system fairer to everyone. As appalling the thought, these unethical practices are done in America, in Mexico, in Japan, in Brazil, in essentially every country.

Sison
Corruption is like small chips in a smart phone’s screen. The owner knows it is
3 there, but does not do anything to fix it. There is also the small population of owners who cannot afford to fix the chips since the expense is out of their reach for little, ignorable chips. While citizens of these countries have the ability to stand up and fight corruption, it is simply not important enough to stray from the normal routine of life, or they are opposed by the corrupt politicians in power.
Governments are meant to protect citizens, but if they perform unethical practices such as corruption, then how can the citizens trust the government?
Even though ethics differs from person to person, it is at least safe to say there are unspoken guidelines to follow. Mostly it is things like be fair to all, do not physically harm anyone, be respectful, things they teach to 5 year-olds in kindergarten. If one was to really think about it, humans act based on numerous unspoken guidelines. Most of the population act respectful to others, do not cause excessive noise in public, smile and nod if one does not hear the other, keep hand to oneself, and many more. But, are these guidelines from an ancient instinct of humans, or is it implanted into the minds of the young to sub-consciously follow when they have grown up? In all reality it is very hard to tell, the only way to tell is to have a human grow up in solitary. Problem is that all humans raised in solitary go mad and cannot cope with living in society. So one will never know the real human reactions, only the ones that society deems as ethical. That said, do society a favor and only display truly just ethics for others to follow.