Reader Jim Weaver came up with an especially deflating and insulting Comment of the Day by taking literally my lament, in the post about the twin winning, then being denied, a cash prize while masquerading as his brother, that I was disappointed that after almost a decade of my ethics commentary that the public was still ethically out to lunch.

His comment:

“Did you really think that this blog would make a difference in America’s ethics? Is that really why you write this thing? If so, then you should be depressed because you are sadly deluded. 99.99% of the country has never heard of you or read your blog.

“I thought you wrote it to get attention and to try to drum up business for your training company. Just exactly how many readers do you have anyway?”

Jim has been infected by the cynicism and distorted values of 21st Century America, I fear. I started on-line commentary about ethics because I felt it was needed, not as a marketing ploy. I know something about marketing, having served as marketing director and having had to do a lot of it in other capacities, and writing a broad, eclectic ethics site like Ethics Alarms or The Ethics Scoreboard, its predecessor, makes little marketing sense. The bulk of my work is in the field of legal ethics, which is only an occasional topic here, and most of the rest of my professional work is in the field of business and workplace ethics. If my on-line opinions have brought me a single dollar of business, I don’t know about it. That was never the objective.

The objective was and is to establish a dialogue about ethics, and to help people be more aware of the ethical content in matters involving all activities and pursuits across the culture, and better able to analyze them. It was not to become famous; are you kidding?  Nobody becomes famous talking about ethics. Nor have I ever believed that I, by sheer persuasiveness and brilliance, could make a change in the country’s ethical culture. I do believe , however, that I can be part of a cultural shift, along with many others in this field and other fields, as well as the many ethical and wise citizens who reinforce ethical values in our society by their words and conduct every day.

And I know that ideas, particularly ideas vividly and persuasively expressed, can have transformative power by serving as catalysts for exchanges of views, debates and publications in the media, in classrooms, and at dinner tables.

In less than two years, Ethics Alarms has had its small victories. It helped a small theater company in Missoula, Montana being picked on by prominent media commentators for being faithful to a the spirit of a 19th Century Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. It was widely cited as one of the only legal ethics commentators not dismissing out of hand the suggestion that a judge who withheld the truth of his domestic arrangement until after ruling in favor of gay marriage had crossed ethical boundaries. Various posts have been reprinted and used in college courses and church discussion groups, and occasionally I start a trend—for example, I wrote the first essay praising umpire Jim Joyce for his integrity after he botched a call at first base that cost a pitcher a no-hitter. And I am regularly ripped off by, or rather inspire, more prominent commentators. And that’s fine by me.

Since Ethics Alarms was launched in late October, 2009, there have been 1,869 posts, which is a lot. There have been over 460,000 views of those posts, not counting spam, and traffic continues to increase. It has few competitors: there are not many ethics blogs, and fewer yet that comment on as wide a variety of topics as this one. Usually it is on the first page of the Google rankings.

Most important of all, the blog has developed a group of perceptive and passionate commenters, who add value and content every day.

I’m sorry Jim equates fame and notoriety with substance and worth; I know that’s how most of  the Kardashian Age thinks, but I don’t.  Yes, I am frustrated that ethics is so often forgotten or misrepresented in the public square, but I know I am doing my part to try to improve matters. All it takes, sometimes, is one good idea that cuts through all the fog and nonsense, and that idea can change everything. I’m putting a lot of them out there, every day, seven days a week.

Maybe, some day, one will be good enough.