But if you are going to do one of those jobs, perhaps you should know how much of a bastard you might be expected to be to do it.

I know you are saying: “Mark, just because people work for multinationals, it doesn’t make them bad people, does it?” Well, yes. It could do. Let me give you an example.

A friend of mine is a comedian and his name is Simon Bligh. A while ago he was asked to do a benefit show to raise money for one of the big cancer charities. Being the nice guy that he is, he agreed then put it out of mind until a few days before. But when Simon turned up, he discovered this comedy evening, to raise money to fight cancer, was organised by British Aerospace (now BAE Systems), one of the world’s biggest arms companies.

A moral dilemma

Indeed, not only were BAE organising the benefit, it was being held in their plant, probably not far away from where missiles were filled with deadly explosives. Truly a moral dilemma, and not one dissimilar to something many people reading The Ethical Careers Guide may be faced with.

Should Simon walk away from the fundraiser, because he morally objected to the dirty business of arms sales, or should he think of all that lovely cash he would raise to help combat cancer? Moreover, should he bring BAE lots of positive publicity into the bargain?

Retribution

“So, I did the gig,” said Simon in innocent Liverpudlian tones. “I went on, and just called them all a bunch of bastards. Raised a load of cash, then came back on stage with a BAE chap to hand over one of those big cheques. So I got another chance to call them a bunch of bastards.”

Afterwards, when Simon got backstage, one of the head honchos at the arms firm followed him, completely red in the face. “You’ll never work for British Aerospace again!”

What did Simon do? “I called him a bastard too. Then went home. The cancer charity got its cash, I got thrown out of an arms company. Fair enough.”

Good people doing bad work

The ironic thing was that these BAE staff, who spend their lives making weapons, also wanted to do something good in the world. In fact, they were probably all polite and well mannered. Kind to animals, that sort of thing. Many in the arms business have families and children, they go to church or mosques. Some of them will train hard to run marathons for local hospices, and we will cheer them as they run past dressed up as Liquorice Allsorts.

They’re not bad people. But the work they do is. BAE provided the Hawk jets to Indonesia that were used to repress the people of East Timor. BAE has paid bribes to government officials throughout the Middle East, undermining democracy and accountability. They have armed dictators and undemocratic regimes, keeping them in power. (Ironic since it was BAE bombs falling over Iraq, in Bush and Blair’s war to overthrow a dictatorial, undemocratic regime).

The choice is yours

Like my mate Simon, we all have a choice in what job we take. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good person or a bad person, if you work for arms companies, multinational oil conglomerates and most big pharmaceutical firms, you will be doing harm. And that doesn’t sound like an ethical career to me.