Encyc talk:Conduct

Taboo or Not Taboo? That Is the Question.

In the Military, there is the notion of Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

Unbecoming Conduct may be a difficult notion to define or adjudge. Indeed, it's remarkably similar to a corresponding notion in Theology, in the sense of "doing the devil's work."

The gerund, BECOMING, is perhaps the closest word in English to being a pure translation of the Hebrew phrase, "Eheyah Asher Eheyah" which is the Name of God as revealed to Moses in the Burning Bush Story of Exodus.

Literally, "Eheyah Asher Eheyah" means "will be who/what will be." That's an awkward phrase when translated literally into English. In the first English bible, it was translated as "I am that I am," which mangles the tense and inserts a first person pronoun as the subject. That's why BECOMING is a better translation. Another translation is "Que Sera, Sera" ("What will be, will be.")

I prefer to add a few more words to frame the concept: The Divine Process of BECOMING Better All the Time.

What we want to do is to promote the The Divine Process of BECOMING Better All the Time and deprecate the unbecoming process of disintegration, decay, devolution, or regression to a less developed, less enlightened, or less empathetic state of being.

This is mainly a coaching or mentoring process, rather than a rule-making or rule-enforcing process.

We need a policy of promoting the process of BECOMING better all the time.

Moulton 12:15, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Yes but doesn't policy come from French, with the implied threat of "policing"? At least "rule" and "regulation" have a proper Latin origin. Auggie 12:27, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

• If the etymology of policy disturbs you, then I propose we go with "Best Practices" (after Peter Senge's notion). Are you familiar with the work of Peter Senge on The Fifth Discipline, Learning Organizations, and Ethical Best Practices? Moulton 12:43, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Not at all. But "best practices" sounds like a corporate buzzwords. Sorry to be so negative. It's just I keep picturing "violate a policy" vs. "break a rule" and at least some people take pride in breaking the rules, and can be habitual rule-breakers without getting fired from their jobs. I guess I'm arguing that "policy" implies more rather than less enforcement of an "else" clause. There's also the useful phrase "bend the rules". Auggie 12:57, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

• Ethical enterprises do strive for best practices, but Peter Senge focuses on "Learning Organizations" which may be any community, commercial or otherwise. Policies generally have more judgmental discretion in them than hard and fast rules, because policies typically call upon people to think and act in a conscientious manner. There are no hard and fast rules for conscientious thought or compassionate understanding of someone else's plight. Moulton 12:13, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Policy is ok. I tried some dictionaries and the etymology checks out through Latin and Greek, and seems to mean "system of government", related to polity. Rule and regulation come from ruler, the measuring straight-edge device. Laws, commandments, pillars all stink. I don't know. Going to take a break now. Auggie 13:11, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

• These are worthwhile philosophical issues to ponder, especially if one wants to avoid the kind of crumbling "pillars" and systemic dysfunctionality that plagues so many bureaucratic orgranizations. Epic failure is not a pretty sight (even though it's a fairly common one). Moulton 12:13, 30 September 2010 (UTC)