HW 6

1)  In the movie Invictus, Nelson Mandela’s leadership is an example of the power of an individual to enact social and cultural change in their environment.  From the beginning, Mandela was a person like no other.  One of the other characters expresses surprise at one point in the movie that Mandela spent 27 years in prison and came out wanting to forgive his opponents.  A large part of being a leader is knowing when to lead and push your opinion and when to give power to those around you.  While Mandela makes many of the executive decisions, such as choosing to desegregate his bodyguard command, he also yields to the power of the people, when he pleaded with the people to keep the Springboks and eventually won his way through a vote.  He ensured that his people played an active role in the fate of the country while still remaining the country’s driving force of change.

The second thing I learned from Mandela’s example was how to deal with conflict with civility.  From the beginning, Mandela faced massive opposition from apartheid era sympathizers.  To succeed politically, he had to find a way to make peace and compromise.  One of the first examples of conflict with civility was when a rugby spectator throws a cup at him during the first Springbok game.  Mandela doesn’t break stride or turn around, and simply walk back under the hood.  He even fools his newly appointed guard, who wonders how Mandela missed it, but his experienced guard insists that Mandela does see everything, but has made the wise choice.  There is nothing that he can do about it in the moment, so he elects to win their support through his actions in the long term and chooses to ignore the temporary negative reaction.

2)  One ethical dilemma that I encounter often deals with people showing up late when a group is scheduled to meet.  When a group of teenagers decide to meet, it’s almost a given that someone is going to show up late, or even just not show up at all.  They might have overslept, or have run out of battery on their phone, or a number of other things.  As a member of the group that is on time, it is hard to decide whether to wait for the person or leave without them, especially when they don’t communicate.  Though they are in the wrong for not being there on time, it is hard to just abandon them, and it feels wrong to do so.  Thus, the dilemma.

A second example is the one that I detailed in class about the organic farmer.  I find it an interesting dilemma because of the multiple solutions to the problem.  When faced with a bug infestation that will not be quelled by natural solutions, the farmer can choose between likely bankruptcy, and spraying with pesticides.  If the farmer sprays, they can risk not revealing that they sprayed in hopes that they can sell at organic prices and not get caught, or they can sell at regular prices and yield a minor profit.