Ethics according to young people

In this immense and filthy mud of the national ethical crisis, how is it that youth is seeing the ethics of today?

By ETCO
13/12/2022

 

"We do not want just food. We want life as life wants. ”

Food, Titans

 
By Gustavo Ungaro

In this immense and filthy mud of the national ethical crisis, how is it that youth is seeing the ethics of today?
What are the conducts considered contrary to the interest of the community, how are the behaviors perceived and how are the expectations of those who are entering maturity? And what is meant by “ethics” in times of liquid and post-truth modernity?

Interesting Datafolha survey carried out by the ETCO Institute has just collected the responses of more than a thousand Brazilians aged between 14 and 24: for them, ethics means respect for others (22%), being polite (12%), acting with moral conduct (5%), good character ( 4%) and honesty (4%).

The result resembles the sense of the old legal brocardos present in the Law courses, recited in Latin: alterum non laedere (not harming the other), honeste vivere (living honestly), suum Cuja que tribuere (give each one what is due to him) ).

90% of young people find Brazilian society unethical or unethical; 74% consider their friends unethical or unethical; 57% consider their own family to be unethical or unethical, and the same percentage, 57%, considers themselves to be unethical or unethical.

About the professions most associated with ethics, firefighters and teachers emerge, with politicians figuring the most distant from valued conduct. And what can we do to make Brazilian society more ethical? The most repeated responses were talking about ethics with friends and family, understanding what is public and of everyone's interest, thinking more about others and not just about their own interests.

To stimulate reflection on the consequences of human behavior and the importance of guiding principles and values, the website has just been launched, with support from the General Ombudsman and the Secretary of Education, www.eticaparajovens.com.br, with suggestions for practical activities to be carried out in classrooms, in order to stimulate reflection, debate and action, with a view to contributing so that each one can be the change that awaits the other, transforming reality and driving, each in its scope, another possible world, in a future that wants to be close.

* Gustavo Ungaro holds a Bachelor's and Master's in Law from USP, a Higher Education Professor, and is the Ombudsman of the State of São Paulo

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