MORAL DILEMMAS #2

6/1/2013

10 Comments

 
Imagen
In  Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, HIGH AND LOW, (Japan, 1963), a wealthy executive named Kingo Gondo is in a struggle to gain control of a company called National Shoes. One faction wants the company to make cheap, low quality shoes for the impulse market while Gondo wants it to stick with sturdy but unfashionable shoes. Gondo believes that the long-term future of the company will be best served by well made shoes with modern styling, though this plan is unpopular because it means lower profits in the short term. He has secretly set up a leveraged buyout to gain control of the company, mortgaging all he has. That is, he has very little money but nobody knows this. 
Just as he is about to put his plan into action, he receives a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his son, Jun. Gondo is prepared to pay the ransom, but the call is dismissed as a prank when Jun comes in from playing outside. However, Jun's playmate, Shinichi, the child of Gondo's chauffeur, is missing and the kidnappers have mistakenly abducted him instead.

What would you do if you were in Gondo's place?
10 Comments
Tu Hoang
6/2/2013 09:50:03 am

It seems to be obvious that the kidnappers of Shinichi are the faction that are competing against Gondo.
And I think it should be obvious for Gondo, too and I also think that Gondo assumes that Shinichi was mistakenly abducted.
Now here is the situation if Gondo is continuing to complete his plan to buyout the share that he needs to control the company it is obvious that the kidnappers won´t do the same mistake again and abduct Jun.
But if they really would abduct Jun and Gondo would pay the ransom he would loose a big share of his money and he would not be abele to buyout the company.
This situation of love and family versus power and money.
If I would be Gondo I could do this I could run away and see how I would loose the control of my company. I could also continue my plan and see if they would try to kidnap Jun and if they would I could pay the ransom and loose my whole money which includes my house and everything materialistic in my life or I could let Jun be kidnapped and don´t care about it and get rich and successful.
To be honest I don´t have a idea what I would continue my plan and see if Jun would be kidnap. As faster I completed my plan as more power I would gain and could first protect my family and I could get rid of my competitors. It is a risky game were Gondo could win everything or loose everything but Gondo has also a third situation. If he would run away and take the money back he would save his family and could rescue a little bit of his money and could life a normal life.
But I am a person who loves risky games that is why I would choose to completed my plan and gain as much power as I can to protect everything that I have family and money.

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Felipe Mindermann
6/2/2013 02:30:32 pm

This is a question of power towards charity. Gondo would pay the money for his own son, as every father would, but is he ready to pay it for someone else and with this decision give up his dream of the company?
If I were in Gondos position, I would pay for the child. It is very ethical, and as he is not as rich as people think and others are against his perspective of a shoe company he will probably fail on his way. He should act like a good human, pay the money and start over somewhere else. Also he would not have to pay everything on his own as the real father would contribute something as well.

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Hanne Grotle Nore
6/4/2013 09:27:27 am

In this situation it would only seem right to me to pay the ransom for Shinichi. I am sure that Gondo is concerned with the child of his chauffeur´s child´s well-being. To get the child home safely is extensively more important than Gondo´s success. He is already cheating the system because he is a greedy man, and he should be more aware about the important things in life. This is a hopeless dilemma between greed and compassion for others. I do not think Gondo could live with himself is something happened to Shinichi, even if it is not his son.

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Evseeva Elena
6/5/2013 08:09:49 am

To me the situation seems obvious. On Gondo's place I would pay the kidnappers in order to get Shinichi back. It would be the right thing to do because no one should suffer from my mistakes and if someone does, i must do anything to help the situation. But this is what i would do on Gondo's place. Gondo seems to be a very greedy man who is seeking for his own benefit. He had a choice of saving a kid or just making his dream come true. Since his son is alright he could ignore the kidnapping of the other guy and do nothing for it or he could just escape. In any of those cases, it would be not moral but each of us is making our own choice depending on our values, morals, knowledge, reason etc.

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Saperthan Sivasuthan
6/5/2013 03:43:23 pm

If I were in Gondo’s place in this case, I would pay the kidnapper rather than trying to get success of my business, because it all depends on a life of a child. A life is more valuable than a success, and I will also define that you can try to gain the success later in your lifetime, but you wont never get back a life. If Gondo is trying to put that money into the business, he is making a wrong ethical decision, and I think that he knows his decision.

If I were in his position, I would rather try to help the driver to get back his son, and feel that you have done something really important for somebody, who going to feel thankful for you in his or her lifetime.

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Sabina Lenskaya
6/9/2013 06:27:06 am

The situation in which Gondo is put appeals to his dignity and on the contrary to his incentive to benefit himself. If I were on his place and, I would try to do everything I can in order to help chauffer to get his son back. If the kidnappers would find out whose son is the boy they actually captured, probably the bargain about the price to pay for them would be appropriate. However, as they need a certain amount of money they ask for they would try to kidnap Gondo’s son as well. Therefore, the situation shouldn’t be resolved without the help of police, but secretly. Gondo should find out what is the real plan of the kidnappers: to get the money or to crash his company, then he can make some decisions. He should not live the chauffer’s son in this situation. Yet, the money could be the only resolution, meaning the sacrifice of his aims in life and his social status. On one hand, the life of the servant’s child is not worth of the life of a businessman. Still any life is sacred, because money could be earned once again, but no one can get out of the grave. So, in order to make the right choice, Gondo needs to ask himself whether dignity or his own benefit is more important to him. He should try to find a decision to avoid any losses, for example with the help of friends or police. Still, all of the decisions involve risk and according to his priorities, Gondo needs to decide what to put under risk: dignity or the prosperity or even his own life. Paying money to the robbers and trying to catch them means to risk his money but not the dignity and life of the child. Refusing to pay means to put dignity under risk, but not the money. Anyways, he should intend to avoid any bad consequences, but win the life of the captured boy, his own dignity and prosperity out of this situation.

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Anmol Patel
6/14/2013 12:22:48 am

In this situation Gondo has to choose between power and love. Gondo plans to buyout the company to gain control over it and he wants to execute ideas according to him. Gondo thinks that selling fashionable shoes would be better than selling low quality shows for quick profit. Low quality cheap shows can show quick profit but it won’t last long. Gondo believes that fashionable shoes are low profit for short term but in future would be high profit and better for the company. The case clearly shows that Gondo has rivals as someone had planned to kidnap his son, but the kidnapers mistakenly abducted Gondo’s chauffeur’s son, Shinichi.Gondo has to decide between power and love as he knows that if he was going to continue to take over the company they kidnapers would not make the mistake again.

If I were in Gondo’s place I would certainly not choose between the two of them. As there would be a major loss both sides. If I choose would choose to back out from the company I would not be able to move forward and would not be able to earn that much money. And if I choose to take over the company and then my son would get kidnaped and I would lose all my money in getting him back and I would not be able to take over the company. It’s a tough decision, but I think I would keep my son safe and try to take over the company as fast as possible and destroy the competitors.

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Benjamin Oh
6/18/2013 02:40:46 am

If I were in Gondo's place in movie "High and Low," I'd rather choose to pay for the child of driver when the child got kidnapped by one who call to him. Gondo has to choose one between money(power) and morality. If he choose not to pay for the kid, then he would get succeed with his strategies in his business but the kid would be in trouble such as death. On the other hand, if he choose to pay, then he cannot take action into his plan so he would lose his power. Therefore, it means the life of kid is a substitute of his power.

I think we have to choose to save driver's son because life has bigger value than money does. If you lose money and power, it's temporary, which means you can gain again if you try hard. However, on the other hand, one individual has one life, which means that there is only one opportunity to keep it. Therefore, even though it's not his own life, he has to save the kid's life because life is more valuable than anything.

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Yuri Zheng
6/18/2013 09:59:21 am

If I were in Gondo’s place in this case, I would pay the kidnapper rather than trying to get success of my business, because that is a child's life, its really.I'd rather choose to pay for the child of driver when the child got kidnapped by one who call to him. . A life is more valuable than a success, and I will also define that you can try to gain the success later in your lifetime, but you wont never get back a life. If Gondo is trying to put that money into the business, he is making a wrong ethical decision, and I think that he knows his decision. If I'm on his position. I would rather than try to help the driver get his son back. That is really important for him also I can help someone and gain something.

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simon berry wang
6/18/2013 09:02:06 pm

First of all, I agree torture the criminal or the murder is the way to save the problem. From human psychology, the fear and their physical pain can make the person speak out truth easily. However, I believe other way will be more humanism, such as use his family members to contact him, teach his feeling, it will be more useful. His action comes from the feeling of unfair, people will get against, or extreme and unwise action from their dissatisfied for the world. So, why do not enlighten or comfort him, to make him feel the power of love and then try to save the problem palliative? It not only can help us save people this time, but also will avoid him will not do the same thing in the future.

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