This isn’t the post I was planning on writing this week, but it’s the one you’re getting. In light of the many, many news cycles this past week which have been taken up by the videos of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin dancing at a party, I’ve decided to comment on the scandal – or rather scandals – here. There is, indeed, scandalous behavior being displayed, although it is not on the part of PM Marin or anyone else in the videos.
(more…)Tag: politics
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Ethics: Intention versus consequence
When getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar, public officials tend to offer their good intentions as a defense. I don’t understand why we keep accepting such defenses. Who cares that your intention was to ensure proper tax planning? You still lied about whether or not you were domiciled somewhere else. I don’t see a valid argument that your so-called “good intentions” – an appeal to the ethics of your intentions, rather than the ethics of your actions – is relevant at all. It is certainly not a mitigating circumstance.
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