Of the things one could connect to dishonesty, the
characteristic of being creative is probably the last we’d even consider. A study published in the Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology suggests that people who require more creativity in their
jobs are more likely to engage in underhanded behavior at work. It’s commonly
harmless or at least mitigated compared to tax fraud or such things, but the idea
is that those with a tendency to be inventive also can find ways to justify
their behavior. This is, however, highly correlation based. There are plenty of
creative people who most likely don’t behave like this and many who aren’t creative
that do. The inverse may be the case: doing immoral things may lead to more
creative thinking in the future by virtue of going outside expected norms and
laws. This could be a good thing, but the potential abuse still remains. If
being creative is a quality of any person, the more they have, there is a
higher chance they may have a habit of being unethical, even if it’s simple
things like skimping on a tip. These two
relations pose a question of how our ethical behavior is related to creativity
and vice versa. Are we ethical because we lack creativity or do we become more
creative by breaking ethical norms?
Ethics could conceivably emerge from our ignoring
creativity and seeing what is predictable and what is practical, benefitting
the whole instead of the parts. This is not to say we can’t appreciate
innovation, but it still has to be within boundaries of some sorts. Art schools
won’t let a student just go anywhere with their ventures, especially when
religion or politics are concerned. If you go too far with them, you’re
threatening stability and offending people. While the former might be grounds
for genuine ethical concerns, the latter is guaranteed with any endeavor in the
arts or just in conversations. Someone will find your opinions unbelievable and
strive to change your ways. So ethics, in this theory, serve as a safeguard
against people breaking out of the limitations society implicitly places upon
the arts, so as not to disrupt order. Of course there is the possibility that
this isn’t ethics so much as tradition, norms and mores, all of which are prone
to be shattered in one way or another and a common perspective is that these
don’t really hurt the common good, since they aren’t automatically galvanizing
people to action, but bringing things to the surface that were once hidden. In
that sense, creativity and ethics can coexist in this model, which is hopefully
what can be accomplished with the other.
Creativity may emerge from ignoring the mundane and
seeing things in a new light, breaking down boundaries and limits we put on
ourselves. In this context, creativity is more beneficial than ethics, at least
in the sense that new things can aid us with time and experimentation. Of
course with any such novelty, especially scientific discoveries, one should be
careful, which is applying a sort of ethics to the process. But to prohibit new
ideas because they threaten a status quo or the like under the guise of ethics
or morals is where such things as censorship arise from. This is where
creativity is good, but like ethics before, there is the potential for abuse in
creativity for its own sake instead of benefitting society with discoveries in
medicine, or even mere aesthetic appreciation in the arts. But to have some
kind of message behind our creations is important as well even if it is simply
observing something already presented by others. To put a new spin on it is
where imagination can bring new vigor and awe to life that we became accustomed
to. Those that are abnormal can many times have a view on things that is not
damaging, but actually edifying and building us up more by bringing together so
many myriad vantages and resulting impressions. This is not to say there isn’t
a point where we cut off the genius from the insane, of course. But the
potential for creativity’s abuse should not make us stifle it entirely for the
sake of security either.
Creativity and ethics can coexist, but it remains
difficult to focus entirely on one or the other without recognizing a need for
both depending on context and circumstance. Being creative might be a way
people justify their otherwise unethical actions or it might simply be a
consequence of the imagination going wild and people motivated by their
ingenuity to go outside the norm, which doesn’t always equal being immoral, but
heterodox at best. Creativity has potential for corruption, but is not evil in
itself. Ethics benefit us, as well as possessing potential for excess or
deficit as with any good thing. And immorality is sometimes only judged as
such, but is not necessarily evil at all, but merely pushing boundaries beyond
stiff and resistant traditions and normalcy. Fundamentally, equity and
moderation are necessary to maintaining a cohesive and dynamic whole person,
which includes both being civil to other human beings, but also realizing that
you can’t please everyone and someone at sometime is going to be offended by
you and there’s nothing that can be done except move forward. Until next time,
Namaste and aloha.
No comments:
Post a Comment