Ethics in Language- Do you make Decisions or Judgements First?

Recently Australian Politicians have taken to making judgments rather than making decisions and then making a judgment on those decisions.  Are you following me?

Lately, this misuse of words has started to irritate me enormously. I want my Politicians, that is, the people I have helped (or not) elect to represent me in Parliament and the Governing of this great country of ours, to make decisions on my behalf first and then to make Judgments about those decisions.  Instead, they are making Judgments before decisions. 

What is a decision?

A decision is to make a choice about something. This choice could be between one or more actions or non-actions to take.  A decision means to decide about a choice between one or more options available. One must weigh up the pros and cons between the actions and to choose which action or not to take or implement. 

What is a Judgment?

A judgment is to form an opinion on those actions or non-actions taken about a decision that has been made. A judgment is formed on the result of those actions. Before anyone can make a judgement about something a decision must be made first.  

So for whatever reason the Australian Government is now making judgements before they are informing the general public (me) about the decisions they take. I prefer to hear/read about decisions and then leaving me to make a judgment about those decisions. 

  

In a democracy, all their decisions will be judged anyway at the next election. This is another great advantage of living in a real democracy. 

Do ethics in language really matter?

Everyone has their own opinion. We all decide for ourselves what we will, or won’t do. We can decide that ethics matter to us, or not, and that starts with our language. Language begins with thoughts in our heads so ethics can be a very subjective matter at any time – a choice between behaviors based on prior experience, personal integrity, emotional intelligence and a number of other characteristics. 

But in my opinion if we don’t start using ethics in our language, it means that we possibly may not be using a degree of integrity in our thinking or actions. Or worse still, that there are other factors impinging on a decision that the person notifying us about a judgement they have made isn’t telling us about the decisions they have had to make first.  As a believer in democracy, this is something that alarms me. 

Australia is not alone in this lack of ethics in language. The Journalist’s interviewing Politicians may call it “wriggle room” and the spin doctors call it putting the “best face on a matter”, but to a general populace of a democratic country, we simply call it dishonesty. Ethics must begin with language so we can make a decision and then judge whether that was the right decision or not.