Respectable, law abiding citizens… Moi?!

Yesterday I was discussing what constituted a ‘respectable job’ and responsible corporate citizenship, and of course that got me thinking too. What about us? It is always easy to spot the inconsistencies in others; we can sniff hypocrisy at 100 yards! But is there any slight odour emanating from us? Surely not!

But I wonder if you have ever:-

• Paid a workman cash to avoid the VAT?
• Failed to declare something on your tax return?
• Claimed something on expenses that wasn’t quite ‘kosher’?
• Taken home stationary from work?
• Driven faster than the speed limit?
• Parked illegally?
• Driven after a one too many drinks?
• Smoked anything illegal?
• Used unlicensed software?
• Failed to license your TV?

The list could go on forever! These perhaps seem victimless ‘crimes’, but if we examined them from another point of view then we might judge our actions differently.

“Judge not, that ye be not judged (Matthew 7:1).”

The fact is it is not only very easy to judge others too quickly and too harshly, and utter comments like “I’d never do anything like that!” but the fact is we do.. all the time; so if we would like others to “forgive us our trespasses” then perhaps we should do likewise… and we should do it first! Because Change can only start with me.

“We must become the change we want to see.” Mahatma Gandhi

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 08:01 and is filed under Values & Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.