Thursday, March 29, 2012

Take a Step Back


I want to another look at TCU's situation over the past semester and how when referencing the balance of means, everything plays out. 

In order to create balance in our lives we must follow a few basic rules, which lead us to life full of success. These rules are composed of balance of means, utilitarianism, veil of ignorance, universalized actions and cosmopolitianism. There are various situations in an individual’s life where these ethical guidelines may play out. With the guidelines, one may learn something new about themselves or learn a new way of life, which they had never experienced before. These ethical guidelines create a basis for making moral decisions.

A particular situation where Aristotle’s Balance of Mean concept presents itself in various situations throughout the world on daily basis. Aristotle’s theory on virtue ethics is one that does not see a person’s actions as a reflection of their ethics, but rather looks into the character of a person as the reason behind their ethics. His concept stats that there is a desirable middle ground between two extremes, one of excess and other of deficiency. Furthermore, Greeks believed there to be three “ingredients” to beauty: symmetry, proportion and harmony. These three “ingredients” are extremely relevant and play a large part in finding that middle ground of balance.

An example of Aristotle’s Balance of Mean theory has become extremely applicable for the students and community at TCU within the past few weeks. On February 15, 2012 at 5:30am there was a drug bust conducted by the TCU and Fort Worth Police officials in order to confiscate any drug dealers on or around the TCU campus. Seventeen students were arrested on drug related charges, all of whose names were published in local newspapers, including arrest warrants.  Later in the morning Chancellor Boschini and TCU representatives made public announcement about the situation. Chancellor Boschini addressed the situation with honor and grace as he discussed that TCU would not accept this sort of behavior and the zero tolerance policy would remain in effect. The drug bust reached national news and was featured in newspapers and television stories throughout the week. Even more so, the media continued to hassle and heckle TCU for its student’s misconduct. Various media stations were at the scene of the arrests on the early Wednesday morning, which caused a large disturbance among community members. Overall, when relating this case to of Aristotle’s Balance of Mean theory it displays the extreme of excess. The situation was blown to extreme proportions and heavily weighted on the TCU community. The desired middle ground would have been to handle each case individually but still keep students and community informed with a generalized statement. This would have created a balance in the situation allowing for the charged individuals to handle the media and public opinions at their own discretion. 

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