I don’t work for them because I chose not to, but honestly, work for them, don’t work for them, it’s not like they’ll lack for employees. If you write that line of code that eventually blows up a hospital or someone else does, it will still happen. You’re not going to stop them by turning down job offers. You’re going to need to change politics.
This argument is deeply flawed, and I’ve heard engineers working on arms projects using it to justify what they’re doing. That, and the “I just build it, it’s not me pulling the trigger” are trotted out to soothe dying moral consciences all the time. There are far too many bright minds being used to create death and suffering.
The fact that by partaking in this industry, you form a critical part of the decision and event chain that leads to bad people killing innocent people is important, morally, and completely unchanged by whether it not someone else will do it. So it does matter if you turn that job down, and not just for your own conscience.
If enough people turn down these jobs then that will change politics. And those that do choose to take them need to face up to their responsibility in enabling and perpetuating horror.
If you turn them down, that reduces their talent pool.
If you turn them down you are no longer responsible for the suffering caused by their products.
If enough people turn them down they will have to reassess their approach.
Ultimately, doing something evil just because you decide someone else would do it if you didn’t, so you might as well benefit doesn’t make it any less evil of you to do that thing. In fact, it makes it worse.
It will still happen is a bit of a fallacy. It’s one less person doing that job but I agree that one person won’t make a meaningful change
However the thing that changes is that if you reject that job you reduced by 100% your direct contribution to people killing missiles. Someone else will design that missile but at least you won’t have to live with the guilt that you did
Now, if it’s between that and a much worse life, I won’t blame anyone. But it’s a choice that everyone has to make for themselves. Personally I have possibility to reject those offers, and so I do.
I don’t work for them because I chose not to, but honestly, work for them, don’t work for them, it’s not like they’ll lack for employees. If you write that line of code that eventually blows up a hospital or someone else does, it will still happen. You’re not going to stop them by turning down job offers. You’re going to need to change politics.
This argument is deeply flawed, and I’ve heard engineers working on arms projects using it to justify what they’re doing. That, and the “I just build it, it’s not me pulling the trigger” are trotted out to soothe dying moral consciences all the time. There are far too many bright minds being used to create death and suffering.
The fact that by partaking in this industry, you form a critical part of the decision and event chain that leads to bad people killing innocent people is important, morally, and completely unchanged by whether it not someone else will do it. So it does matter if you turn that job down, and not just for your own conscience. If enough people turn down these jobs then that will change politics. And those that do choose to take them need to face up to their responsibility in enabling and perpetuating horror.
Direct me to the flaw.
Will someone passing them up make ANY difference to what they’re doing?
The flaw is explained in what I just said.
Ultimately, doing something evil just because you decide someone else would do it if you didn’t, so you might as well benefit doesn’t make it any less evil of you to do that thing. In fact, it makes it worse.
It will still happen is a bit of a fallacy. It’s one less person doing that job but I agree that one person won’t make a meaningful change
However the thing that changes is that if you reject that job you reduced by 100% your direct contribution to people killing missiles. Someone else will design that missile but at least you won’t have to live with the guilt that you did
Now, if it’s between that and a much worse life, I won’t blame anyone. But it’s a choice that everyone has to make for themselves. Personally I have possibility to reject those offers, and so I do.
I totally agree, not taking the job can mean a HUGE thing to you. It just won’t affect the company whatsoever.
I don’t do it because I don’t like it. I worked for DOD years ago, on non-dangerous stuff but it wasn’t something I wanted to personally support.
When does a company decide to recruit? It’s when current employees can’t handle the workload and/or move projects ahead on schedule.
Not being recruited increases the hiring cycle time and means the development falls further behind schedule.
It’s not nothing.
They aren’t immune to supply and demand, the job market is the agreegate of us all deciding what we will put up with to stay alive.