Kant, Well...

Kant had something he called the categorical imperative; something we just need to do always. He had a test, and most employment generally fails that test. We should always do things that are ends in themselves, not just a means to an end. Most employment is just a means to obtain money. If you doubt that, well just consider what you would do if you became a lottery winner... Most would not continue. So the concept of work fails Kant's test to ethical behavior. Now the question becomes is Kant's test right or is it the test that is wrong?

Kant had three tests; the first was reciprocity or universality. It is unclear to me at this point if he thought something needed to pass all three or just one of the three. If he thought it needed to pass all three, he is out to lunch, for there would be little left. A pass on one leaves little enough. 

Ideally we would all like to be doing something that we enjoy; it makes the time go fast. Few have that much. Even when we enjoy our jobs, there will be parts that suck and we do not enjoy. When the job changes, and the computer takes away the part we enjoy, we may need to make changes. Advancement may also take away the part we enjoy... now what? Oh well, in the end we just die. Pucker up, butter cup.

But Kant oversteps, I think. Oh well. Doing our duty, as long as our duty is ethical, is just fine. Perhaps.

Ethics needs to respond to the issues of the time. We live in an overpopulated time, so abortion, birth control, are right for survival. A hundred years ago, we were a species with issues, so these would have been wrong, even if they were possible at that time. Ethics are relative. It would therefore be unethical to provide fertility assistance, but what about vaccinations, and medical aid? We need to look at each ethical decision as a decision, there is nothing objective, all is subjective.

We need to tolerate others. We do not need to tolerate wrong beliefs, and teaching of hatred, or violence. That is what religions like Islam and Christianity do. We should be eliminating this as permitted behavior. But this is just opinion, and is this really the time; I think it is, for if not now, when?