Ethics, communication as well as emotion play a critical role in ensuring commitment to social responsibility in the society. In essence, emotions, ethical decisions, and communication are interconnected and a balance of these aspects is needed in determining the social cohesion of the general society. Social interaction in the society is determined by these aspects and for people to interact effectively and in harmony with each other, they have to be ethical in their actions, making rational decisions in their day to day lives, practice to have effective communication, and also have the capacity to control emotions when interacting with each other or when communicating. In a circumstance whereby social contract has broken down, people tend not to make ethical decisions in activities they are involved in, their communication is not effective and they tend to be emotion and lacking the capacity to control their emotions. In the story, “speech sounds” by Butler, a number of scenes have been depicted portraying a social contract that has broken down in a certain dystopic society (Batler 1). This paper will, therefore, analyze the interrelationship between emotions; ethical decisions and communication are like in circumstances whereby social contract has ostensibly broken down.
Decision making is one of the pillars of social interaction. Therefore, making ethical decisions in communication is important in order to ensure an effective communication. An effective communication in social interaction depends on ethical decisions made during communication (Foxall et al. 4). The choice of words in a communication is critical and requires decision making. For people to relate well, ethical decision making needs to be incorporated during communication. However, in a society with a broken social contract, ethical decisions tend not to be applied in communication which leads to the choice of bad words or inappropriate words that impact other people’s emotions negatively. For instance, the two men that Rye observed in the bus having a disagreement who chanted at each other, mocking and intimidated themselves which eventually led to a fight (Batler 1). This demonstrates that failure to make ethical decisions and solve issues to have a peaceful communication in order to address the dispute between people is likely to result in an emotional impact that leads to fights especially in such a society with a broken social contract.
In a society with a broken social contract like the one depicted in the story, interactions tend to be emotional especially during communication most often. When one becomes emotional, it impacts their ability to make ethical decisions. Especially for a society with a broken social contract, emotions tend to negatively impact ethical decisions made by the individuals involved in certain circumstances (Kahane et al.). Decisions made during situations such as when two people are having a disagreement tend to be bad and unethical decisions. They tend to be insulting each other as they use inappropriate words when communicating (Batler 2). Such kinds of communication affect the emotion of the individuals involved in the disagreement which eventually leads to fighting just like the two men in the bus broke into a fight.
An effective communication, ethical decision making, and emotion help in ensuring social cohesion and integration among different people in society. A society with a broken social contract tends to be full of confusions. This is because communication is such a society is mostly inappropriate as more unethical words are often used (Batler 5). People in such a society tend to disrespect each other and whenever they are involved in a communication their conversations often lead to negative emotional impacts since their conversations tend to be very negative. Moreover, ethical decisions are not applied in such societies since ethics are significantly ignored as they tend to approach every situation unethically.
Ethics are very important in every society including such a dystopic society described in the story and also in every activity in our day to day lives. Ethics is the pillar of social cohesion that ensures effective and peaceful interaction. In fact, ethics is very important especially for dystopic societies as it will help such societies to reform and be peaceful and safe. In essence, ethics is a code of conduct that guides people on how to behave in different circumstances (Kahane et al. 194). Therefore, it is therefore important to have ethics in our societies to act as guidelines of individual conduct of people in society. Ethics makes people behave in a good and appropriate way. It helps people to make ethical decisions that are rational which improve interaction. Ethical decisions lead to effective communication which also results in positive emotional impact. Applying ethics to our societies creates peace and harmony leading to a safe and healthy environment to live in since people behaves in an ethical manner; ethical decisions are made in every situation and issues and disagreements are handled in a peaceful and ethical manner (Westermarck 12). The dystopic society in the story requires ethics to be significantly applied to their society. The society is depicted to be so rowdy, not to be peaceful and not safe as people seem to take the law into their hands and attack each other whenever they come to a disagreement. This society requires ethics in order to shape the way the people in this society relate and how they handle issues and disagreements. Ethics create a positive impact on society’s interaction.
Essentially, the Utilitarian theory of ethics should be applied in our society in order to meet the well-being of the general society. Societies require the best and therefore the utilitarian theory enables the society to reap and benefit a lot out of it. Peace and stability within society are critical. Using the utilitarian theory, application of ethics will enable this society to develop a system and culture of approaching issues ethically and an orderly manner which promotes peace and order (Kahane et al. 196). Moreover, people will be able to learn how to conduct themselves peacefully, get to learn how to avoid trouble and as well develop the ability to make rational and ethical decisions and also develop the ability to control their emotions. Self-control is critical in ensuring that peace is achieved in society. Since the utilitarian theory aims at producing the best positive impact to the society, it is important to apply ethics to the society so that every individual in the society can have the capacity of making ethical decisions, effective communication and as well be able to control their emotions (Foxall et al. 3). This will lead to peace, order and a mutual correlation and cohesion among different people in society. Therefore ethics is important and should be imparted in every society especially in this dystopic society so as to restore peace and order as well as establish self-responsible citizens who relate and interact effectively and handle issues in a proper and acceptable manner.
To sum up, it is evident that ethical decision making, emotions, and communication are interconnected and have a strong relationship in social interaction. In essence, ethical decision making impacts communications determining the effectiveness of the communication as it involves the choice of words to use in the conversation which also affect the individuals’ emotions either positively or negatively. However, in a society with a broken social contract, it is evident that ethical decision making, emotions, and communication actually relates to one another. In a society with a broken social contract, ethics and morals are significantly ignored and people tend to behave in an unethical and immoral manner. Ethics is not applied in their day to day activities and therefore their interaction is as well negatively affected. As a result, ethical decisions are not made which affects their communication as their conversation is based on unethical decision thus leading to use of inappropriate words and communication which leads to their emotional impact that eventually leads to fights. Literally, such a society with a broken social contract lacks ethical decision making, emotions and communication and that explains why such societies are rowdy, full of confusion and disputes. The society in the story “speech sounds” is rowdy, full of fights and confusion as issues and misunderstanding are approached unethically. Ethics is lacking in this society and the lack of ethical decision making, the ability to control emotions and inability to have effective communication as well as the relationship among these aspects have been portrayed in the story. Therefore, ethical decision making, emotions, and communication depend on each other since one aspect leads to another.