Essay On Dirty Hands In Politics

Superior Essays
There is a lot of controversy whether or not dirty hands are necessary for politics and brings a dilemma if one should partake in it or not. The “dirty hands” issue arises when a political leader is forced to make a choice in order to do something morally wrong in order to bring about a greater good of some sort. When someone is forced to choose between supporting an important moral principle or to avoid some sort of disaster there can be a lot of questions that may come up. This is why dirty hand politicians are necessary for some political decisions. In a paper written by Michael Walzer “Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands”, he describes an issue that occurs with dirty hands. The issue arises when political actors finds that they must transgress one of their moral principles in order to accomplish what they see as the right and necessary action in order to accomplish a goal.
Walzer argues
…show more content…
The Obama years have accelerated the use of these systems and brought forth the dilemma where people working for the government started to question the authority and rights of the government for the people. This increase in data collection and these programs has led to some agents from these programs to go out in public and release information. The most recent figure is known as Edward Snowden. Due to Snowden’s leaks and many others starting to pop up, it has brought forth political obligation into question. More people are becoming aware of the practices that are occurring and thanks to his attempts governments around the world have started to show more of the information that they are collecting and what they are doing with it. This also includes what they have been doing

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Post 9/11 Privacy Rights: The Case Against Electronic Surveillance In response to concerns about terrorism after the attacks on September 11,2001, the government of the United States enacted new guidelines for conducting surveillance on the public. This paper will discuss the implementation of electronic surveillance as a tool to combat terrorism and will make the case against sweeping electronic surveillance of American citizens and others in this country. Various examples of increased surveillance along with decreasing privacy right will help the reader to conclude that these tactics have not reduced incidents of any type of crime, including terrorism. This paper will also discuss several types of electronic surveillance, including the collection of metadata from telephone records, which intruded on the private lives of citizens and did not increase their safety in any meaningful way.…

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are examples everywhere of people making empty promises, especially in politics. Scarcely a politician kicks off a campaign without promising to bring it to government; a few years later, more often than is healthy for our democracy, the politician slinks cravenly from office, having been lambasted by the press for lacking that self-same integrity; and then the press, in turn, is skewered for holding public figures to a measure of integrity that its own reporters, editors, producers, and most particularly, owners could not possibly meet.…

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Who, What, When, Where and Why am I Being Watched In George Orwell’s 1984 and Phillip K. Dick’s “Minority Report” the governments are obsessed with surveillance of their people in order to keep their control over their citizens. Thus their citizen’s privacy suffered to the point where it is nonexistent. With the assistance of technology, the governments are able to keep citizens oppressed and Orwell and Dick openly express their negative views on government surveillance. 1984 is a story written in the 1940s that shows what England would look in a totalitarian government.…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance. Plan: The government will curtail its surveillance by only viewing collected data by means of a warrant. Intro-After the NSA reported their first transparency avowal, the publisher Omicron Technology Limited stated, “The report said 19,212 "national security letters"—administrative subpoenas that allow the FBI to collect information without a warrant—were issued last year, containing 38,832 requests for information.” These unwarranted leaks are why this problem needs to be solved. That is why we stand resolved that “The United States federal government should substantially curtain its domestic surveillance.…

    • 1880 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Politics and ethics are two vital components of a functioning society. When these two components are carefully balanced a sate/society can remain organized and fair to its citizens. In a realistic society the idea of what political ethics and human nature consist of varies, but in an idealistic society political ethics and human nature possess a common ground. Political ethics and human nature were a mutual understanding at some point but as societies grew, citizens began to think as individuals instead of as a collective. As a result of this self-serving behavior, inequality and the mistreatment of others quickly followed.…

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “The Internet is a surveillance state”, which appeared on CNN.com on March 16, 2013, Bruce Schneier claims the government can see our every move on the internet. He goes on to state, “Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked at all times.” (55). He uses specific and persuasive examples from his work experience to share his thoughts and beliefs on a subject that not everyone is aware of, but the ones who do are usually chilled by it. This paper will analyze Schneier’s article from his view as an American security technologist, cryptologist, and author of “Liars and authors:…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Patriot Act Unethical

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Introduction In this paper, I will be talking about the act of congress called the Patriot Act which is officially called USA PATRIOT (an abbreviation of “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”). The act was a reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks perpetrated by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, as well as the anthrax attacks that happened soon after. The main concern of the act was to increase security, and in that increase of security, federal organizations and agency like the NSA (National Security Agency) were now allowed to survey citizens without warrants. Current Use…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    After the dramatic and horrible acts committed on September 11, 2001, the world was in shock. The magnitude of the terrorist attacks were nothing to be overlooked. The United States knew they had to find a way to keep the people calm and in a safe place. Forty-five days after the terrorist attacks on the nation, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act, acronym for the “ Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” Act. The acts primitive intentions wants to find and prosecute any terrorist suspect in any corner of the nation.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    After September 11, 2001, many things changed in the United States. Because of the potential for additional attacks on Americans here and abroad, the government started monitoring conversations on the Internet and on cell /telephones of citizen of the United States. This monitoring of electronic devises was without the knowledge or consent of the owners. The National Security Agency or NSA was very good at keeping their surveillance a secret from the public but all things done in the dark come to the light sooner or later. The NSA has completed all three branches of the U.S. Government and the American people to reexamine their positions on surveillance as the threat of terrorism increases.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With this collected data, the United States government can monitor internet users. These technological advancements, along with the rising fear of terrorism and international crime, has led to the surveillance of many innocent American citizens. The United States government can easily collect information about anyone, with little or no judicial supervision. For example, in 2008, the FBI sought out a robbery suspect, and, without a warrant, collected information on the suspect along with 180 other…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Virtue In Plato's Crito

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Just or unjust, good or bad, virtuous or vicious- Pablo López Yagüe The writings of Plato, Sandel, and Straus bridge centuries but all highlight the importance of political theory as the basis in providing a discourse for the reflection of life. Plato’s Crito focuses on reason by adapting the moral point of view on the affairs of justice and virtue, through the analysis of the human natural and the social contract. Sandel’s Doing the Right Thing deliberation on problems helps assess the difficulty of morality over individuals, society and the law in determining what is just and virtuous. However, Straus’ What is Political Philosophy considers the Socratic political philosophy thesis in an effort to restore rationalism, by criticizing positivism…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Privacy is not an option, and it shouldn't be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet,” stated Gary Kovacs the president of several software companies (Kovacs). However, since the implementation of the Patriot Act in 2001, the loss of American privacy is one of the many results of the new set of revised laws that have been rewritten to give the government more freedom in observing our electronic fingerprint (“Surveillance Under the Patriot Act”). In their hurry to act on the tragedy of 9/11, Congress passed the Act a mere 45 days of the event, with little to no debate. The result of it’s ratification, was a drastic change in the surveillance laws and restrictions of the federal government (“End Mass Surveillance Under the Patriot…

    • 1537 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Citizenfour Throughout the world, the government scrutinizes citizens without them knowing about it. Devices such as computers and cellphones are being hacked by the NSA and used to monitor everyone’s actions. The documentary, Citizenfour, reveals how the government has expanded its surveillance methods. The government’s secrecy of spying on peoples lives not only declines individual’s privacy, but their freedom as well.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Patriot Act reshaped the methods and collection techniques of government ordered surveillance (Welch, 2015). The Patriot Act enabled the government…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Recently the National Security Agency has been under fire since Edward Snowden released information about a secret program they have been conducting with major cell phone companies. Basically this program allowed the NSA to retain certain information from phone calls made across the country. When this information was released to the public many people began to worry about the information the government really had access to. They can obtain information including who is calling who, how long the call is, and what kind of device and service they are using to make the phone call. Controversy over this rose because it was understood that many people’s phone calls were being watched and put into a database and they had no idea that it was even happening.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics