You are a better man than me. It kind of goes along with another area that I think about from time to time. What is character? I used to firmly believe that it was what you did when you were by yourself - no, not that, lurkers - but I wonder if it's more comprised of what you do at all times?

>I teach a Sunday School class... and a few weeks ago one of the people in the class said something that really struck me - it came from her little 5 year old daughter. Seems the mom was yelling at someone - I forget the details - but her daughter asked her 'would you do that if Jesus were sitting next to you?'
>
>A big problem society faces today is the compartmentalized nature of the world. Think about the newspaper - we have the Business section, the Metro section, the World section, the Religion section, etc. Society says it is ok to act one way when you are at work, and another when you are here-or-there... then when you go to church on Sunday (or whatever day you go), you act 'religious'. We act differently given different situations - instead of following a moral/ethical set of rules regardless of the circumstances.
>
>Given your question... I would do nothing wrong. Because in everything I do, I use the same measuring stick. And it makes no difference whether or not I can 'get away with it'... because there is no such thing.
>
>>Driving to work today, I came to the realization that there are actually people inside these insidious hunks of metal that are constantly in my way. We would never act the way we do if we were all walking and could see each other's eyes instead of the "big black SUV,' or "little blue Miata," or (my Nemesis this morning) "idiot redneck in the rusted El Camino." We have the same situation on line as well. Sometimes we have a picture, but it's still "dorky guy with the tie," or "the one from that Edvard Munch painting," or "girl with the short hair." It got me wondering what people might do if they could definitely get away with it. If there was a situation - think Bill Murray in Groundhog Day - that you could not be caught or even punished for one particular act. Would it be stealing money? Shooting a politician? Raping a celebrity? Killing a spouse? Or would it be nothing? I would like to say my character is so noble that I would choose to do nothing, but I know that I would likely
>take
>> the money route. I would try to convince myself that it was ok, because I would choose a big faceless evil company - by my definition, of course - but it would be wrong, and I would probably do it anyways. Simply because I knew I could get away with it with no fear of retribution. This plays heavily into Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (http://web.utk.edu/~gwynne/maslow.HTM) and I think there would be utter chaos in the world if every person was given just one thing they could do without reprisal. I love individuals, but as humanity, I think we are greedy and self-absorbed and I would be surprised if even 1% of the population chose to do nothing. Of course, there is another discussion waiting in the wings of this topic called "What is right and what is wrong?" but we'll save that for another day...