All of the corruption and incompetence in government,
is proof on its face that "the law" is inadequate
to prevent corruption and incompetence in government.
Clearly there is a need for higher standards of conduct and
competence than the law provides.
But when anyone brings up the need for a higher standard
of conduct than the law, like ethical standards of conduct,
the response is; you can't legislate ethics.
Nonsense.
If standards of conduct and competence called "statutes"
can be legislated, and accountability to those standards
can be provided,
then accountability to higher standards than the law,
can be legislated just as well.
The resistance is based on the specious argument that
"everyone" agrees on what "legal" means, but
"no one" agrees on what "ethical" means.
Au contraire;
every written code of ethics is proof that agreement can be had;
codes of ethics can be written.
One can simply point to a code that is already in existence, or
one can go through the process of writing their own.
It can be done. The proof is; it has been done.
All that is necessary to legislate ethics, is
- agreed upon standards of ethics, and
- provision for accountability to standards.
For example;
the leadership of the APS, by their own deliberate choice,
is not accountable to any standard of conduct higher than
the lowest standard of acceptable conduct; the law;
a standard easily ignored by those with lawyers, guns and
money.
If they really had any interest in holding themselves accountable
to a higher standard of conduct than the law, all they have to do,
is to point to the Student Code of Ethics,
and then provide for accountability to that code.
It isn't that ethics cannot be "legislated". Rather, it is;
they just don't want to be held accountable to a code of ethics.
It isn't how to hold the good ol' boys accountable for their
conduct and competence,
it's whether whether to hold good ol' boys accountable for
their conduct and competence.
And so far, their answer is, no.
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