The Term “Ethical” Jewelry Is Divisive by Steve Gerencser
Introduction:
Guest blogger and bench jeweler, Steve Gerencser returns to fairjewelry.org to post this insightful comment: The phrase “ethical jewelry” is divisive because, “somehow the people not following the newest trend are somehow unethical.” ~Marc
The use of the word, “ethical”, put forth in the Madison Dialogue to describe what is being attempted in the jewelry sector, is divisive. The implication for those of us who are not producing “ethical” jewelry is that somehow the people not following the newest trend are somehow unethical.
Many of us are working very hard to do the right thing to the best of our ability. By using the ethical tag it becomes nearly impossible to incorporate it in to our daily use at the showroom level because of the implied negative that it places on everything else that doesn’t get the “ethical” label. There is almost no way to evolve from being “unethical” to ethical without at the very least implying that we were in fact evil until we adopted the new term.
In addition, what is ethical to one person is unethical to another. There can never be an objective criteria for using this word in context to jewelry. There are levels of rationalization that go along with every ethical decision. Some people have decided that all diamonds are evil and now refuse to buy any at all. Yet, is taking away the only revenue source from a poor nation in an effort be ethical, unethical? Where will these people go to work? How will they feed their families? Is denying them any income at all unethical?
While it is easy to get behind “green” it is much harder to get behind “ethical”. With green we can demonstrate an ongoing process of recycling and greater awareness of how what we do affects the environment around us and we continue to evolve as a people learning to be more responsible.
It’s too late to go back and start looking at a more inclusive name than one that excludes so many people. Names like “responsible” or even “fair” might have been better.
While the term “ethical” was meant to be an example of the best that can be done, it instead serves as a divisive word that will keep it from gaining widespread adoption among a great many honest and ethical jewelers.
“Ethical” and “unethical” imply a deliberate act of good and evil when that really isn’t the case at most levels in the industry. Unfortunately, I think that this will cause a serious split and factionalize the entire process of moving toward a more responsible way for our industry to interact with the world around it.
