I’ve been working with a bad case of writer’s block for about a week now. I have an idea that I think is important but I’m having a hard time articulating it even to myself, and I’ve got a lot of fragments and false starts and not much else to show for it so far. I hope that if I can find a “hook” that the pieces will start to come together, and at the same time I explain myself to you I’ll also get a better grip on the topic myself. So far, no dice.
Part of what I’m trying to get at is the idea that practical ethics is hard (as opposed to theoretical ethics, which is also hard, but in an academic way) and that in spite of this, and in spite of how important it is, there seems to be little in the way of a culture that encourages ethical development or a discipline of ethical training and practice that people can dive in to in order to get better at it. People are largely on their own.
Which leads to some interesting experimentation. Lindsey Fox has decided to pay especially close attention to honesty and authenticity this year, by vowing to tell no lies — not even little white lies — all year, and documenting what she discovers at her blog, The Soulful Contrarian.
