2025: A Global Test of Ethics

TEHRAN (Iran News) Today’s world faces a range of paradoxes. Humanity’s sensitivity to ethical issues has risen to unprecedented levels: attention to animal rights, environmental protection, children’s welfare, gender equality, reducing disparities in living standards, condemning discrimination, scrutinizing corruption, addressing inequalities in healthcare, education and welfare, combating poverty, and questioning the accumulation of wealth.

Yet, the gap between words and actions — along with the relentless struggle for survival in many regions — has led to the routine violation of ethical principles.

One measure of global ethics is the level of corruption in the public sector. While some countries have reported improvements, others still face entrenched, systemic, and even critical levels of corruption.

Human rights indicators reveal a stark duality: progress in some areas such as women’s rights, and regression in others, including racial discrimination, genocide, suppression of free speech, and persistent double standards.

The Global Peace Index has declined due to rising violence and conflict — often driven by colonial-era interests and the use of force to secure gains.

Social trust — the confidence people have in one another and in international institutions — is also on the decline, leaving many areas visibly weakened.

In the realm of discourse and mutual respect, particularly in social media and digital spaces, there has been an ongoing trend of deterioration and polarization.

However, participation in charitable and volunteer activities has remained stable or even increased in many countries, as public expectations of ethical behavior from organizations and individuals continue to rise.

Globalization has helped turn principles such as human rights and environmental sustainability into dominant global narratives. While social media and digital platforms have empowered ordinary people to expose ethical violations and demand accountability, international and national laws have not consistently moved toward stronger protections for vulnerable groups.

Many large corporations fail to uphold ethical and environmental standards despite the importance of safeguarding their public reputations.

The widening gap between the rich and the poor has fueled incentives for unethical practices such as corruption and crime.

Political and social polarization has made respectful dialogue and the search for common ethical ground increasingly difficult. Meanwhile, technology — despite enabling greater transparency and collective oversight — has also been exploited for spreading disinformation and violating privacy.

Competition over scarce resources such as water and energy threatens to further erode ethical norms.

In conclusion, the global measurement of ethics appears to be rising, but the process is neither linear, uniform, nor rapid. The world is in the midst of a complex ethical transition, where growing awareness on one side is in constant conflict with mounting challenges on the other.

Ultimately, the answer to the question “What is the state of global ethics today?” depends largely on whose interests and which domains we choose to examine.