The Business Ethics Blog

I came across this story in the on-line version of a rural Oklahoma newspaper: Cowboy culture still a model of ‘the right thing to do’

The story is about a panel discussion on business ethics, held at Price College of Busines, but a lot of the focus of the story is on the idea of “cowboy ethics,” and old-time cowboys as moral exemplars. (One of the panelists was James Owen, author of Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West. I have not read the book.)

My immediate reaction to the “cowboy ethics” idea was pretty negative, but now I think my initial reaction was wrong. Here’s why.

Part 1: What’s wrong with the idea of cowboy ethics
Two things struck me as wrong about the idea of cowboy ethics as a moral exemplar.
First, any attempt to harken back to a “golden era” of ethics is probably mistaken. There have always been bad people, and good folks have always struggled, and sometimes stumbled, with hard choices. So, surely, for every cowboy who was honest, upright, and morally courageous, there must have been others who were dishonest, mean, and devious. Ever seen a western that didn’t have a bad-guy? And don’t forget, if you’re picturing the cowboys of the mid-to-late 1800’s (which is when most cowboy movies seem to be set), the cowboys you’re picturing were probably sexist, racist, xenophobic and (Brokeback Mountain notwithstanding) homophobic. So, they weren’t necessarily the pinnacle of ethics.

Second, I worry about the idea of singling out members of one group, one occupation, as if they have (or had) some kind of formula, some sort of special access to moral truth. Sure, there are lots of good values held by cowboys. But the same is true for nurses, truckers, bankers, school-teachers, and so on. Why should we take our cues from cowboys, rather than from these others?

Part 2: What’s right about the idea of cowboy ethics
My initial skepticism about cowboy ethics was the result of thinking about real (old-time) cowboys, and what they were probably like. But of course that’s a mistake: the exemplars being pointed to are not real cowboys, but the heroic cowboys of the classic westerns. Heroes like those portrayed by John Wayne, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Clint Eastwood. At least, I reckon that’s the image most people picture when they hear the word “cowboy.” And those cowboys probably are pretty good moral exemplars. Sure there were the black-hats, but no one’s claiming all cowboys had good ethics. Though sometimes pretty flawed, the iconic cowboy — brave, hard-working, honest, compassionate, chivalrous — does stand out as a pretty inspiring figure.

And, when the goal is to motivate people, and show them an alternative vision of what it means to be a good person, the cowboy’s ability to inspire has got to count for something.