june 2005 > mosaic

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The Ethics Mosaic
This mosaic contains examples of how social entrepreneurs are developing ways for adults and youths to work together to create a more ethical, morally courageous, and empathetic society. It demonstrates that these solutions' collective impact is greater than the sum of their individual parts. Together, they have the potential for pushing society close to a tipping point beyond which it is fundamentally changed so that ethics become a primary guiding force for how we interact. This mosaic is meant to be used as a tool for making connections, creating synergies, identifying emerging trends and patterns, and finding and filling gaps.

Principles Factors	Developing awareness of oneself (an identity) and of the interconnectedness with others	Showing that people are more the same than different, and enabling people to find these common ideals, principles and language	Building skills in how to care, uphold values and make principled choices	Enabling self-permission to change oneself or one's circumstances
Fatalism	Constanza Ardila Galves Colombia	Ana Teresa Bernal Montañés Colombia Bongani Linda South Africa	Paul Hogan Sri Lanka	Hernando Roldan Colombia Glen Steyn South Africa
Ignorance of Consequences	Susan Steinman South Africa Lilian Liberman Mexico	Sister Cyril Mooney India	Mary Gordan Canada Nelsa Curbelo Ecuador
Otherness	Lesley Ann van Selm South Africa Susheela Bhan India	João Aurore Romão Brazil Sofyan Tan Indonesia Charles Maisel South Africa	Helena Balabanova Czech Republic Ricardo Hernandez Arellano Mexico	Magdaleno Rose Avila El Salvador
Value Extremism	Yayuk Rahanyu Indonesia	Eboo Patel USA	Andreas D'Souza India
Individualism	Ashraf Patel India	Mahmood Fadal South Africa	Myrna Wajsman-Lewis South Africa	Chibuzo Ekwekwuo Nigeria

This mosaic contains the names of individuals who are leading organizations with exemplary ideas for how adults and youths can work together to create a more ethical, morally courageous and empathetic society. They are organized in columns by four fundamental principles that have emerged from their work.
They also are organized by rows according to which of five factors — that help explain the absence of ethics, moral courage and emphathy in society — they impact more directly. The factors are:

Fatalism. There is a pervasive sense — from the jungles of Colombia to Wall Street — that individual actions are without overarching consequence. "I can't change things; it's always been this way." Steeped in a history of unethical behavior, people grow complacent and feel powerless to change it.

Ignorance of consequences. People often realize they are doing something they shouldn't, but they don't see the full implications of their actions and how others can be hurt by them. If they stop and think through how their actions hurt others, they are less likely to follow through with such actions.

Otherness. The less we know and understand other persons or groups, and the more they are "different" from us, the easier it is for us to act unethically toward them.

Values extremism. Throughout history, groups have pitted their values against each other. Rather than guiding ethical behavior, values often are used to justify unethical behavior — persecution, aggression, mistreatment. We see this today, with religious and political extremisms, among others. Rather than seeking common ground to work together, extremists hold themselves as "right" and opponents as "wrong", and use values as license for unconscionable behavior.

Individualism. There is a sense in our society of each person needing to look out for him/herself. When our sense of responsibility turns away from the community to only ourselves we are more likely to act irresponsibly toward the rest of the community.

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