Will Ethics Become Just Another Outreach Program?

Last week, we initiated our local Superheroes podcast series. Like most Superheroes, Tamara Real, the President of The Arts Alliance, was uneasy with the status a2ethics.org had assigned her. She neither sought the cape nor wished for the prestige and the praise Superheroes are given by their communities. No worries, we told her. You have accomplished so much for the arts and for artists in the region. And especially during a time when the arts have increasingly been "economized" and issued political mandates to show why they are necessary and how it is that they add value, capital, open up new markets and contribute to the coffers of the public and private sectors.

And that is why we pronounced Tamara Real a Superhero. Because she has, in fact, done just that. She has, thrown out her cape (to change the Superhero metaphor to a sporting one for a moment), taken the bull (and now the bear market) by the horns and demonstrated that indeed the value of the arts to our local economy and to our area can be measured. Moreover, she has been able to show, along with help, the efforts and expertise of many others (in the Superhero tradition she would be the first to give a nod to her sidekicks)  that the arts' impact is greater than imagined. 

How? You need to do some research and reading. Try to include this research as one of your book club selections.  Let's face it. How many times can you read variations on The Kite Runner story? 

What is this research and reading? "The Economic Impact of Arts & Culture in Washtenaw County Report, " is one of them. A whole book shelf of value-added information can be found at: www.a2artsalliance.org/initiatives_culturalplan.asp. It is worth doing. Even if your book club rejects any suggestion you make in the future. Because it is part of our future. 

We want to learn from Tamara. She has taken a pragmatic approach to the arts, recognizing that accounting for the arts has now become an accountants' cause. Given her knowledge of art history, she knows that economics and art have been merged for many centuries.  And she has taken this knowledge and adapted well to the accountability and impact statement world.

But at the same time, we are worried about ethics. We worry that ethics has become subject to economic scrutiny and securitization tranching (Love that word!) like the arts, or even sport. It is not perceived to be a common good and beneficial to all, but instead is now just another niche market, similar to those for  scrapbookers, crafters and all the other wonderful fan groups that we would like to join but have to draw a line for in order to work on behalf of ethics talk.

Let me give you an example. When I talk to people about a2ethics.org or about ethics in general, everyone says, "Well, we certainly must have ethics. What would the world be like without ethics? "

So, everyone is always FOR ethics. They are ethics fans.

But then I say, "Okay, then would you give to a specific ethics initiative, project or center? They suddenly start to hedge. They say, "Well, we have roads to fix and bridges to repair. We have a broken health care system. Our children are scientifically illiterate." 

These same people, who can't imagine a world without ethics, have suddenly made ethics a throw-away, a dispensable and an expendable. If we were to put it in the language of the people who have to routinely defend and advocate for the arts, we might conclude that ethics is, after all, just a luxury good.  Or in the education world, that it is really an extra-curricular.

It's almost as if we can afford to be ethical in only good times. But over the past several years, the times for some have been more than good, and I can't see that they have been particularly attuned to ethical principles.

So, ethics has been relegated to becoming an interest group, a niche market with its own fan club and partisan supporters. As a result, like other arts groups and sports clubs, we are now compelled to answer these two questions for everyone:

         What are the economic benefits and what is the financial impact of ethics on our area economy?

         What is ethics good for anyway?

Like our first Superhero Tamara Real, we accept this challenge. Like her, we are determined that ethics will not become just another outreach program.