Out There help: Hey, any philosophers out there? - Help.com

What you need help with?

“I bring only what I carry with me”

Do you need assistance?

M1Kare wrote:
Yes
I need to understand how whistle blowing isn’t an example of egoism

When one is a whistleblower one try to make people aware of something that is wrong in one way or another.
Egoism would require to only look out for oneself and one would not make any fuzz about anything as one would not care about what happens to the rest.

In many cases, ego may play a role, but if you were to see something horrible happening and “whistle blowing” was the way you could see to stop it, it doesn’t have to have anything to do with ego.

el.so wrote:
In many cases, ego may play a role, but if you were to see something horrible happening and “whistle blowing” was the way you could see to stop it, it doesn’t have to have anything to do with ego.

I’m not fully agree with the conclusion, that “it doesn’t have to have anything to do with ego”.
It has, even very much! But not in the sense of egoism (which is the selfish part of ego) but in the meaning of to be rightly proud of having done a good and brave action.

The expression of “altruistic helpers” was all the while entirely wrong. Nobody acts “for nothing” in a helpful way, even not Mother Theresa or other charity workers – or all the helpers at help.com. They all do it to become at least a good feeling about the helpful action done and the positive reaction of people in need of help. But this is NOT egoism. It’s just a merited result which brightens up a bit the helper’s life. ;-)

M1Kare wrote:
Whistle blowing is an example of utilitarianism correct?
but how?

Yes it is.
See the view of Griffin about Whistle Blowing and Utilitarianism:
http://anton_eclipse.tripod.com/utili…

Basics of Utilitarianism:
Stuart Mill himself:
http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm

And:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitar…

I was a whistleblower involving a very serious national security matter that happened about ten years ago. I also worked for a college that was supporting people here illegally involved in this event. It ruined my life and my health. I have PTSD and agoraphobia now and these illnesses are nearly impossible to battle.

I stayed at work for 5 years and helped high level government officials by giving them information. I also was used by a newspaper reporter as a source and he fed me a bunch of BS, caused me to break up with my boyfriend and when he got a promotion because of me, stopped helping me. After the story blew over, no one cared except me. And this, again, was involving a major national security event about ten years ago. I am home disabled, too sick to leave my house, and lost the ability to be close to anyone or trust anyone.

Here are my recommendations: Do not say a single word to anyone at work. They already know. For all you know, the CEO may be a drunk and hired his drunk friends. I went all the way to the president of my college and he did not care. People resigned over this. People were fired and demoted. But, my life was the one that was ruined just for doing the right thing. They acted as if they wanted to be helpful and follow the laws. But they didn’t. They waited until the “story” was over and then they began giving me bad evaluations. I live in a state close to Nebraska. They have very similar whistleblower laws. Good luck getting an attorney to help you. They do not win these cases because most people just do not care. I had an attorney tell me “let me know when they fire you and THEN we can do something.” I lived through abuse and hell for years and then when they fired me after building up a false negative employment history for two years, he said, “Oh you didn’t have a contract. Sorry.” I could not sleep, I lot weight, I had to have my home watched by the police for months. This was a very big deal and NO ONE CARED.

My best advice: Contact OSHA and anonymously report safety issues involving intoxicated people operating heavy machinery. Then, AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THEING: Get out of there. Start applying for new jobs now. Try to get to another campus. Try to get to another college or university in the area. Try to apply for other state jobs. But, get out now. Keep your references intact. After you have another job, THEN start contacting more federal and state agencies if you want to do the right thing. But, get yourself out. I had heard of PTSD. But I had no idea that it is a terror that will take over your mind and ruin your life.

The laws in this country are not helpful to working people. And by the time your employer is finished with you, their high dollar attorney will make it look like you were the worst employee in the world and they will fool any jury. And your fellow employees will scatter like rats. I commend you for your courage thus far. It takes a different kind of person to want people to do the right thing. But, unfortunately, most people do not do the right thing and they don’t care if you do….not in this type of environment.

Do not tell anyone what you are doing at all at work. Not even someone you think is your best friend. Speak to no one else. Get another job and/or report this information to the authorities.

Whistleblowers have NO ego at all. We don’t even think of anything but saving lives or preventing a horrific thing from happening. We lose EVERYTHING for doing the right thing.