Oxymora: "Giant Shrimp." "Compassionate Conservative." "All Deliberate Haste." "Business Ethics..."

From the Department of Self-Evident Discoveries, via QuickHits, on the OpenLeft blog:

Are Business Executives Just More Apt to Be Unethical? (jeffbinnc)
(Shorter: Yup. The Ed.)

One big reason why business leaders so often act unethically is that, well, they're more apt to be unethical. (Well, they are inclined to have a different understanding of acting 'ethically," shall we say? The Ed.)

According to research conducted by Public Agenda, "When typical citizens talk about business ethics, they cite executives who enrich themselves while driving their companies into the ground. Protecting employees' jobs, they say, should be a top ethical priority. When executives talk about ethics, they are concerned about the damage recent scandals have done to business' reputation and the need to restore public trust."

Get that? What really matters most to business executives is the effect of their actions on public appearance, not genuine public well being.

There is a long history of debate over the issues comprising the discourse of "ethics."