A deal in Paris demands moral leadership.
This is not to demand moral purity.
White, on the page, is sensitive, funny, highly learned, with a demanding moral compass and a spectacular mind.
A startling irony proceeds from his formulation, an irony confounding to the literal-minded and outrageous to those who demand moral consistency of the world.
This means, in concrete terms, no more seeking or demanding moral justifications, no more experiencing or trying to instill moral guilt, no more assuming or assigning moral responsibility, no more assessing moral desert or exacting just retribution, etc.
To demand moral perfection or to succumb in the face of seeming futility is to turn our backs on what can be achieved by acknowledging both the ideal and the limits of reality.
Even if paying a bribe encourages the perpetuation of bribery, it is unreasonable to demand moral purity from the victims of a corrupt system or to insist that they defer college until utopia arrives.
This is not because an absence of moral leadership provides cover for business complicity in human rights abuses; it is because the Khashoggi case is so blatant and so clearly demands moral courage and a principled response from leaders — in business as well as politics.
Slim's (1997) seminal paper acknowledged the demanding moral choices being faced by both humanitarian agencies and their staff and outlined guidelines for confronting these moral dilemmas.
Their primary touchstone must be their Oath of Office, which demands moral thought and action.
