Once upon a time I enjoyed watching sports and in 1988, watched Carl Lewis in one of the most memorable races of all time. A race where he lost. I remember his face when they showed the replay as he glanced across the lanes in disbelief as Ben Johnson with his finger raised to the sky crossed the finish line, a few metres ahead. An era had ended.
Of course, not too long after it was discovered that Ben Johnson had more steroids in him than the chicken at a KFC. I remember my slightly older brother saying at the time. "He cheated but just think, no one in the world has ever run that fast before". Is that why Johnson did it?
Cheating is an interesting concept really and even more so when it is cheating to win. I, like many people, have cheated before and the reason was to pass a course at university that I didn't have time to perform the practical exercise. I wrote the report myself, it was just all fiction. That was an ethics class some 20 years ago. The worst thing was that I topped the class with that report and I felt ashamed at my own behavior. If I had got a middle grade, would I have felt the same?
It is an interesting question I think as I probably wouldn't have felt as lousy with a B or C grade but considering I took the top position it felt worse. The top position rightfully belonged to someone else and I had robbed them of it. That is the only time I remember cheating and although relatively insignificant now, it is something I have to live with.
I used to game a lot around the same time and I hated the cheating, hacking and glitching in games. Even on solo games I wouldn't dream of using a cheat code to get me through some difficulty as to do so would mean that any accomplishment wouldn't be mine. But, this of course doesn't seem to be a controlling factor for many online, they have their own personal ethics.
Just like Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, we have a hierarchy of moral positions where depending on the circumstances, a white lie or a stolen office pen doesn't classify as cheating the system. Some people pride themselves on their ability to find loopholes in systems without crossing the legal/social boundaries. Lawyers and good accountants. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that per se but, are those types of people more prone to cheating in other aspects of life or when conditions change?
Perhaps, with my example from university, getting a B or C wouldn't have crossed my boundary conditions, it would have been acceptable considering the circumstances but, the top grade crossed over into an area where it was no longer acceptable, my limits had been crossed.
It makes me wonder what happens if we could overlay our ethical hierarchies over each other would we find similarities or differences. What would we find on various behaviors if we could look at the moral profiles of each user here. I wonder if there would be predictable patterns of behavior based on their ethical disposition.
For example, if we could get a moral profile of a user running phishing scams, what would be the similarities and differences to other types of users? Would their be a lot of overlap between a bidbot user, a community leader, a circlejerk member, a project owner, content creator, plagiarist and all the other types of users and possible mixes? Of course, this is impossible to do accurately but there does seem to be similarities and overlaps between various groups.
Personally, I would one day love to really have significant stake here for a whole host of reasons. It would be great if that reality could come about but, what am I willing to do to get there? Well, I don't mind upvoting my content but, would I post 10 times a day and only upvote my content? I don't think so. Or at least, I would have to be in a pretty bad financial position in the real world to do so. Even if I could justify it, how would it make me feel?
Well, if I was forced by negative life situations I would have to suck it up and do it but, if I was a very high earner with a large wallet and was guaranteed to get large votes and support from others, would I still be able to justify posting and self-voting 10 times a day? What about vote trading on nothing content or something like that?
I wonder if it was possible to see the profiles how much difference there would be in moral positioning between the smallest scammers and the largest? I think there might be some overlaps but, I also think that the motivation would be somewhat different too. The smallest scammers might be doing it because they see no other choice (true or not) but for the ones that are already highly rewarded with fat wallets?
Many of the old torrent crowd I used to know are now above-board subscribers to services that provide the content. When they were struggling students, they could justify the risk and the moral position but as professionals who can now afford it, they can no longer justify it. However, I do know some who no matter their financial wealth, will still only pirate material. That is just an example topic but I think you can imagine others too.
For some, they lie, cheat and steal because they feel they must and for others, they lie, cheat and steal because they enjoy it or perhaps, it is just in their nature.
I don't think that once a cheater, always a cheater is the case at all unless the cheat does not learn, does not mature and instead remains ignorant of the harm they may cause. Even to the harm they do themselves. For me, the feeling I got when I topped that class was enough of a lesson to not only not do it again, but to spend a great deal of time thinking through my own morals, ethics and potential to improve various aspects of life. There is no teacher as good as experience as they say.
But, it seems that for some people, no matter the signposts, the call-outs, the warnings, the near-misses and being caught in the act; at the very next opportunity they are right back to their personal average ways. I wonder if it is from a lack of moral maturity or are they just so emotionally compelled they become slaves to the process?
I don't know, but I think that it is interesting to watch all of the various behaviors (including my own) and seeing how each little mouse runs the maze of this thing we call life. I wonder for those who have 'made it' by cheating, stealing and harming others, do they feel accomplished and like winners or, do they have regrets?
Maybe they feel nothing or perhaps it makes them feel good.
Some late night Saturday thoughts.
Taraz
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