Good and Bad Experiences Smoking in Public

[Douglas]

Some maybe. I usually choose to do what is correct, although I can and have opted for what I prefer. Unfortunately my chosen career didn't allow for such discretion in many decisions I was daily called upon to make.

Ah, but therein lies the rub. When you make the choice of what is correct it is precisely because what you wanted most at that moment was the correct thing.

 

[Douglas]

The choice was not stay home from work and relax or go to work as expected. The choice was to do the correct thing or not. You may have really really wanted to stay home and really really not want to go to work but that was not the choice you faced. The choice faced was ‘do the right thing or not’ and you wanted to do the right thing more than not.

 

[warren]

The choice faced was ‘do the right thing or not’ and you wanted to do the right thing more than not.

No choice to make, not even a consideration. I took an oath. No discretion allowed. No options. Giving one's word often means doing what we would otherwise opt not to do. Unless you want to make this discussion circular. I did make a choice when I took the oath. After that? The only choice is how to accomplish the chore with as little exposure as possible.

 

[Douglas]

No choice to make, not even a consideration. I took an oath. No discretion allowed. No choice to make. Giving one's word often means doing what we would otherwise opt not to do.

the key word there is ‘otherwise’. Yes, you might choose the other option if it didn’t violate your commitment to your oaths. That’s why I said ‘at the moment of choosing’. In your scenario, at the moment of choosing, those ’otherwise’ options aren’t on the table. However, your oath commitments are and you honor them because you want to honor them and don’t want to violate them. We always choose, at the moment of choosing, the thing we want the most given the actual choices on the table at that moment. It can’t be otherwise. It’s not your oath that is determinative, it’s your desire to keep your oath. You want to keep it therefore you (choose to) keep it.

 

[warren]

You want to keep it therefore you (choose to) keep it.

No choice involved I'm afraid. That decision was made years ago. One does what one must. I'm not a believer in situational ethics.

But, once again I find myself in a circular discussion. There simply is no internal discussion in these situations, simply no time, other than tactical choices. My choice was exercised when I took the oath. It's really very simple in my understanding. See what needs to be done and do it. Simple as that.