ethics under oppressive structures
structural problems surround us, but we have to engage with these structures to live reasonably. It would be silly to say you have to be a hermit who never buys anything in order to critique your country’s economic system.
In fact, attempting to interact with a system in an ethical way opens up criticisms ala Copenhagen Ethics.
So how do we separate a reasonable level of unethical living from hypocrisy?
For example, my lab pays people to do microwork, and I believe that we pay people a fair wage. At the same time, I think that microwork is inherently problematic, along with the larger systems that it is a part of. Am I a hypocrite for thinking so, while continuing to encourage microwork? Should I cease interacting with microwork platforms altogether? Our microwork platform of choice (mechanical turk) allows us to set a good wage, but what if there are aspects of mturk that I don’t like and can’t control, is my only option to step away from mturk altogether? Are the problems of microwork useless to try and solve when there are larger structural problems of capitalism?
It's not necessarily hypocritical to be unethical in an unethical system
Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good, don’t let the need for structural change stop you from taking smaller steps.
