While reading the book “ethics for the real world” by Ronald Howard & Clinton Korver, I came across these test questions for rationalization. If you wish to remove your “prudential-colored glasses” ask yourself these questions before judging or demeaning others:
Other- shoe test. How would you feel if the shoe were on the other foot?
- Front –page test. Would we think the same way if it were to be reported on the front page of the Wall Street Journal? Or the New York Times? Or USA Today? Or the paper our hometown friends read?
- Biased-language test.Would we feel similarly if we replaced our value-laden language–euphemisms and cacophemisms–with value-neutral language?
- Role-model test.Would we do the same if our action exemplified the behavior we would expect from our children?
- Loved-one test.Would we change our mind if the person on the receiving end of the ethical transgression were a loved one?
- Mother’s test.And the simplest of all” What would our mother think?
Excellent personal test for all of us in our current political and socially destructive climate.