Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Loyalty versus Noble Purposes

Scheherazade writes:

One of the persistently loveable snarky political lefties over at Bad Attitudes speculates that John Kerry might be privy to some of G.W. Bush's most private secrets, because they were in the same secret society at Yale. They see this access as an asset to the Democratic campaign, should the political debate sink to smear tactics (something they don't doubt will happen).

That gives me pause. If, hypothetically speaking of course, which is the only way these things could ever be discussed, I had been in a secret society while at Yale, would I use something I knew from those days to prevail over a political adversary, to achieve a cause I truly believed was Noble? I pose the question as though it's something to ponder but in fact it's not a dilemma to me, it's just a moral temptation. I wouldn't tell. No way. And I'd be a little bothered if either candidate did, even to win for an urgent, Higher Social Purpose, which no doubt everyone who is running thinks they have access to.

Lately Sherry has been broadening the scope of her blog to draw connections between the larger world and her personal and professional choices. It's made an already fabulous blog even better. Personally, I would find it difficult to resolve the moral issue she raises without having due regard for the consequences. One can imagine a cause sufficiently noble to justify betraying both group loyalties and personal confidences. On the other hand, the precise situation Sherry conjures up is further complicated by the introduction of self-interest. If Kerry is self-aware, he knows that his assessment of the nobility of his cause is inevitably tainted by the personal advantage to be gained from disclosure. Unfortunately, as former Delaware Chancellor Allen aptly noted, albeit in a rather different context, "human nature may incline even one acting in subjective good faith to rationalize as right that which is merely personally beneficial." City Capital Associates Ltd. Partnership v. Interco Inc., 551 A.2d 787, 796 (Del. Ch. 1988).