We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Ethics

Artificial Intelligence, transhumanism and technology will easily take over the world because people never think about ethics while doing whatever job they have that supports all this insanity. Ethics? Are you kidding? Who gives a crap about ethics? We don’t need no stinkin’ ethics.

Most people don’t seem to give a rat’s ass about what is going on in Ukraine, or Israel and Gaza. It is just business as usual. They certainly don’t care about what is happening to art, or even romance and love. They undoubtedly don’t give a second thought to their job supporting the decimation of the human race. If it makes them a nickel, then forget it. What do you expect a person to do? Starve?

(No, dear reader, I am not talking about you or many like us. You know who I am speaking of.)

Now, don’t get me wrong, people do seem to think about things like foreign wars, inflation, riots in various places, but they do not think about the real reasons for any of these things. If they have been led to believe (which they have) that any of these inconveniences has to do with racism, homophobia or transphobia, hate for some out of favor foreign leader, climate change, or Trump’s antics and his wanton destruction of democracy (which few people in the world can even define) then of course their ears perk up and they spew out a bunch of hate sound bites. But other than that, forget it.

I doubt if anyone out there would be happy with a job that is directly racist, or was directly anti-trans or anti-homosexual. There are plenty of people out there spending their days making money in some business that is directly responsible for climate change, pollution, or the destruction of humanity with Big-Foot-sized carbon footprints. But because the whole climate change nonsense is so hard to put a clear finger on, most people have to look sideways to see if what they are doing is actually promoting the very thing they lie awake at night worrying about.

The real things that are problems, the things that are unethical, they don’t even see. And I would suspect that even if they did see them, they would do nothing about their contribution to them. They have to eat, right?

Hey, I am probably just as guilty as the next guy with a lot of this stuff. I am not one to severely limit my quality of life just because everyone else on this side of the fence is doing so. Well, to a point, maybe, but mostly not. My bad, truly.

However, the attention I do give to ethics has lost 90% of the people in my life I thought were friends. I have lost very close family members, and I probably have lost many clients due to my shrew status and standing up for what I believe is truth. Most definitely, it has been uncomfortable—and probably set to get even more uncomfortable as time goes on—but there are many hills that I will not die on, and even though I am not in a business that supports “unethical practices” (well, not at least the part I am engaged with). I have a feeling that if I were, it would take quite a bit to choose the route guaranteeing my starvation. You can bet your bippy, though, that I know what is right and wrong—at least most of the time—and that I do follow my conscience. I don’t think I ignore ethics entirely.

It isn’t so much people’s conscious actions that bug me. I know a lot of young people who are trying to get out of their parents’ house, who have worked hard in school to create a career for themselves, and who may be working for some questionable entity. I would not expect them to throw all of that away because they got a job at Pfizer or Moderna. It is, in fact, the attitude I am referring to here. They don’t have a clue as to what is going on. They wouldn’t know the difference between ethics and immoral behaviour. The world has taught them not to care. To look after themselves first. To follow the rules or they will be cast off and denigrated. Morals and ethics only get in the way. Morals and ethics are there for suckers, for people who don’t want to succeed. They are unattainable ideals.

Remember the musical The Man of La Mancha? Here was a story about a man, Don Quixote, who lived the honourable life. Nothing mattered to him unless it supported his goal to be an honourable man. What makes him an honourable man is his unyielding commitment to his principles, even in the face of ridicule, failure, and physical hardship. His honour stems not from societal recognition, but from his internal code of conduct, which prioritizes courage, compassion, and integrity above personal gain or safety.

He willingly sacrifices his comfort and reputation to uphold his vision of a just world, as seen in his readiness to battle imagined giants or defend Aldonza’s (the prostitute) honour against all who demean her.

Don Quixote’s refusal to compromise his ideals, even when confronted with the “realities” of a cynical world, underscores his moral strength. His belief that one person’s steadfast dedication to righteousness can inspire others—as it does with Aldonza and Sancho (his sidekick)—as it elevates him as a figure of profound ethical conviction, making his seemingly mad pursuit a testament to the transformative power of living with honour and purpose.

All gone, folks. All gone. Maybe this dedication to righteousness has never really been a part of most people’s lives, but I feel that with the younger folks just entering adulthood, there isn’t much of it there. Am I being too negative about this? Maybe so. People do seem to still have a sense of decency and ethics in some areas, in these particular areas, maybe more so than ever.

I think people are kinder to animals (the ones they see as animals, not the ones they eat), to the environment (directly), even to fellow humans if they believe they are being wronged by discrimination against race, sex, ethnicity, or personal wants and identifications such as what gender they wish to be or what pronouns they wish to be called. Are these things a presentation of ethics?

Maybe. But are they really founded on an authentic and accurate metric? Yes, in some cases.

I know when I was a kid, back in the ’60s, it definitely was an ethical issue to welcome black people into your home, neighbourhood, and friend circle. Racial discrimination was an everyday experience. And although us white folks certainly could not even begin to understand what the black community had endured for 200 years in the United States, we had some idea of it, and could obviously, and personally, empathize with their plight.

The sort of ethics dealing with bigotry today, I think, is a tad different. It is more of a “taught” ethic, something that most people do not even partially understand. This is the point I think I am trying to make. The ethics and morals of Don Quixote are founded on a knowingness of righteous justice—in his heart. It is similar to the Ancient Egyptian concept of ma’at, which is about living in alignment with the universal order—truthful, just, and balanced—to sustain the harmony of both earth and cosmos.

We humans know innately what is right and wrong, and if we choose to, we live by this righteous reality. I believe people are being taught to ignore this inner sense of right from wrong. We are taught a whole new set of ethical standards. Most of these are similar to the whacked ethic of being kind to animals, yet killing them in a harshly cruel manner in order to eat them.

We don’t see the meaning behind the ethic because it doesn’t come from the heart, but rather from the head—a “taught head”—communicated by you know who—the agenda, with all of the intentions we know the agenda to have.

Todd Hayen PhD is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here

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