Post-2nd Debate

I want to clarify what I was trying to say in part of my closing statement, because I think it is important. First, I will restate what the Compartmentalizationists' argument was, and then I will respond to it.

The argument began with the argument that the belief that all morality is intertwined and inseparable will lead to increased media scrutiny. I actually think this part of the argument is true. We all know the media is generally anxious to report on politicians' private lives, and if the public held to the view that all morality is interconnected it would be easy for the media to use this as license to examine every embarrassing and sensational aspect of each official's life. The media feeds on attention, and these are exactly the sorts of things that easily capture and hold the public eye. However, the Compartmentalization side's argument did not stop here. Instead, they went on to say that because of this tendency one could not subscribe to the argument of the Unity of Virtues.

First of all, these are unrelated things. One cannot argue that the belief something is true is unwarranted because it produces bad side-effects. We were arguing whether or not private vice can be an indication of one's public performance. This is an argument of what is true, not what is practical. If one sort of morality bleeds over into another, it doesn't matter what the media will do. The media doesn't enter into it at all. It is either true or it isn't.

That wasn't the point that was trying to be made, but it is what was said, and therefore it needed to be clarified. But I understand what the Compartmentalists were trying to say. They were trying to say that the practical implications would be difficult if it was universally accepted that one virtue indicated another, because the media would have a hey-day and use it as an excuse to report anything and everything that would gain readership..that is, even more than it does today. While I agree that this is the case, I strongly disagree that the solution is to throw out the idea of the Unity of Virtues altogether. The solution to a problem like this is not to adopt whichever philosophy is practically convenient. If something is true, it should be acknowledged as true even if the consequences are challenging. Therefore, the solution to predatory media would not be for all of us to deny that types of morality are connected (unless, of course, we firmly believed in Compartmentalization). Instead, the solution would be to make every effort to focus the media on those ethical problems which were of greatest significance.

In other words, the solution to a predatory media is not to remove all incentive for it to be predatory (i.e. change everything else but the media); it is to fix the media itself. The Compartmentalists' suggestion, in my opinion, was backward. The confusion seems natural enough, but it has to be addressed because when this kind of thinking is carried farther it produces the Blame Complex we see so often in America. It is the line of flawed logic that leads people to blame McDonalds for obesity. The real problem is not fast food; it is a lack of self-control on the part of the people who eat fast food. Eating one hamburger will not make someone chronically obese. Not being able to stop eating hamburgers will. This kind of blame game goes on in a multitude of different ways in our society, and each time it distracts people from the real problem by focusing on something related, but not fundamental. In our case, the real problem is not a belief in the Unity of Virtues; it is the media's tendency to exploit that belief in order to report anything that will turn a profit, regardless of its responsibility to provide accurate, relevant and vital information to the public.

The media is predatory in many respects, yet to say that the solution to this problem is to adjust ourselves is a misstep. Instead, we should examine the evidence and determine for ourselves whether or not private and public morality are related. Only after this can we address the media's role and make an effort to fix it.