Consequences - Part One

What do you believe will be the consequences of last year's events on this year?

Perhaps you have the ability to infer likelihoods in a predictive way.

How do you assess the meaning of consequence in various contexts?

What do you know about the consequences of civility and incivility.

Welcome to Civility Today in a new year.

Does today imply a beginning or an ending for you, or neither, or both? 

How will you be making inferences this year, particularly in relation to causality?

What are your tacit assumptions for the year ahead?

Perhaps you assume you will continue to have access to Civility Today.

Perhaps you assume that logical consequences consistently apply in this part of the Internet. 

You are likely to be aware that genuine civility is not an expression of consequentialism.  Nor is it an expression of deontology or any other mechanistic obligation.  Even so, politeness is certainly a duty in most circumstances, except pointless ones.

Genuine civility is associated with virtue ethics.  Yet there have long been unintended consequences of genuinely virtuous behaviours, as there have for all behaviours viewed as a threat by unjustly powerful people.

Practitioners of pragmatic ethics often make the mistake of believing that societies improve through the practice of ethics.  The truth is otherwise.  Societies improve through the active prevention of corruption, hubris and other immoral practices.

Societies cannot improve morally while unjust individuals have the ability to gain or maintain positions of power, influence and/or authority. 

How do you intend to practice applied ethics this year, and why?

What will be your tactics for addressing injustice, and why?

How do you intend to encourage the normative social influence of genuine civility?

How will you examine political consequences, including those associated with landslide election wins?

What sort of knowledge are you seeking to gain this year, and why? 

Which skills do you intend to improve this year, in yourself and/or other people, and why?

If you are an Australian citizen, what do you think will be the consequences of that status for you this year?

Who, in Australia, has the ability to go into debt without averse consequences, and why?

Who, in Australia, has the ability to go into debt regardless of adverse consequences, and why?

Who, in Australia, has most difficulty in obtaining a loan under fair terms and conditions, and why?

Who, in Australia, has the most difficulty in obtaining a necessary income, and why?

Who, in Australia, has the most difficulty in obtaining the justice they are entitled to receive, and why?

Who can afford an education of their own preference in Australia, without going into debt?

Who can afford housing of their own preference in Australia, without going into debt?

Who can afford holidays of their own preference in Australia or overseas, without going into debt?

Who can afford legal services of their own preference in Australia, without going into debt?

Who can afford dental treatment of their own preference in Australia, without going into debt?

Who can afford spectacles of their own preference in Australia, without going into debt?

As a consequence of political, elitist and institutional hypocrisy, foreign journalists often must do the job Australian intellectuals and journalists are apparently prevented from doing.

What are intellectuals and journalists meant to do for democracy, particularly through the expression of suitable civility and suitable critiquing?

Sensitivity is associated with empathy, and with the measurement of consequences.

How sensitively do you attempt to express honest opinions?

What have been the consequences of your expressions of honesty, and for whom?

Civility and civilians continue to suffer as a consequence of corruption.

How did you express virtue in relation to an environment last year, and what were the consequences?

How honestly have you been investing in thoughtful discussions as a consequence of experiencing Civility Today over the past few months?