Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Has ‘Doing the Wrong Thing’ Become the Easier Option?

Ray Petersen
Ray Petersen
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Why is it that so many people in the world today make bad, and wrong decisions? For everything we do, every action we all take, we only have to ask ourselves one of two questions, before implementing the activity we are considering. Really, they are the same question, but it comes in two simple, easy to use formats.


First. Is this a good thing that I will do, or a bad thing? Confused? Don’t be, it’s really very easy! Will I hurt someone else, or deprive someone else, or increase the probability of someone else being hurt or deprived? Don’t do it!


Second, we have the same question, in another format. Is this the right thing to do, or is it the wrong thing to do, this thing I will do? If it is the right thing to do, then do it. But, if it’s the wrong thing to do, then absolutely, definitely, unequivocally, do not do it!


It seems too many people in our world today are prepared to do the bad thing, or the wrong thing, in spite of knowing that they don’t have any, moral, ethical, or humanitarian reason for doing so. It’s not being smart, sharp, clever or quick. It’s about being arrogant, dismissive, pretentious, egotistical, smug, vain, conceited, insolent, and full of self-importance. It’s neither admirable, nor attractive!


So why do so many people do wrong, and do bad things? What are the reasons that people will ignore the very things that their parents require of them in their home? Why will they contradict their religious environment and guidance, whether it is Islamic, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist? Why say or do wrong, when to do right is so… good!


The clever, or smart type of label is only attached to you, by you, or worthless and weak individuals who would associate with a loser, because they are not strong enough to be associated with someone who is strong enough to resist the temptation and enticement, the lure of the ease of doing the wrong, or bad thing.


Dr Muel Kaptein, of the Rotterdam School of Management has published a list of 27 reasons why people do bad things in the business world. Among them, he says that calling bribery, ‘greasing the wheels’, and accounting fraud, ‘financial engineering’, reduces the act to a triviality, and does little harm.


But… no matter how petty the act, and how minor the harm, it is still wrong!


 


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