Public law makers, private law breakers. Perhaps the only virtue that ever counted is the 11th commandment: Thou shalt not be caught. And once you are caught, lie as much as the judge will wear. Donations, free trips to Australia, sex and brown bags full of cash. While we cringe for the town planner's emailed sex messages - no throwing of first stones here - we marvel at the other comic book characters involved.
But there are much darker ethical issues at stake. The harmless word rendition has a sinister new meaning, and in the democracies that we feel we need to defend, we are now discussing in all earnest whether waterboarding is torture or not. So far the spell check doesn't accept it as one word, but soon it will.
Morality, ethics, virtue. I like the word virtue. It has an unapologetic sound to it in our time of moral relativity. Of course, you might find it a prissy sort of concept that smacks of religious fanaticism, cups of tea with the vicar or worse. But as you can see from my by-line, I'm somewhat engaged religiously. Virtue is big in Buddhism.
However, let us say that you are neither into karma, nor into divine judgment. Isn't it nonetheless of some interest how we define our actions ethically, what we actually base them on? Is virtue its own reward? And what does that mean exactly? Is doing the right thing only a kind of aesthetic pleasure? Is it just sleazy and yuck to be the camp commander of Abhu Graib who read up on holocaust memoirs to refine interrogation methods?
I think moral behaviour has almost become a kind of aristocratic luxury. Our Western spiritual traditions are full of doubt on the one hand, and in the grip of medieval absolutism on the other. It is no wonder that people are confused, and looking to Eastern religions for answers. HH Dalai Lama is famously compassionate, and not a pushover exactly when it comes to questions of ethics. That's attractive, but embracing an entire religion to get some clarity? Perhaps not.
So where do we stand if we don't want to go religious? First of all, if we were taught doing the right thing when we were little, we are already halfway up the mountain. It's not so hard teaching kids that harming others is bad, that lying is wrong, that stealing is unacceptable. I suspect that after decades of studying the Buddhist teachings it is still the example of my parents that made the strongest imprint on me. Where they were weak, I have had problems too, and had to train myself to act better.
Ethical behaviour, virtue, can be learned like a new language. At the basis of it is the idea of living harm-lessly, injuring neither our family, friends nor anyone with whom we come into contact. It also means living without harming animals or our environment, and strengthening our community so that it functions well. Others benefit through our moral behaviour, but we benefit too. Our mind becomes still and peaceful, quietly satisfied, joyful.
Learning and strengthening ethical behaviour makes for self conscious and clunky decisions at first. But these happen in our own mind, private deliberations which we need and should not share. Nothing is more boring than a good person being obvious about it. You may argue that virtue should be spontaneous. Yes. Wonderful when it happens. But how often are we truly good? Until it becomes second nature, we need to work at it. Small steps: shouting rather than hitting, then thinking angry thoughts rather than shouting.
And finally: not even thinking evil thoughts. Well, that's advanced!
Renate Ogilvie is a psychotherapist and teacher of Buddhist philosophy.