The author was already documenting the fact that ethics and choices involve far more than individuals in face-to-face encounters. By 1985, science and society understood that systems and institutional processes were the point of purchase and consequence of outcomes that matter. [cf 136]

Now of course, this important and scholarly work is overthrown. In the Putin Age, our world is now influenced by well-financed troll-factories obeying the orders of the plutocrats who pay them. The author's notion that "professionals, with authority", have power, is now overthrown. She writes, "With authority comes the power to define and construct reality." [137]

Imagine back then, when professionals had authority, an aura of virtue, competency, and trustworthiness. The structures of our society have systematically been attacked, and reduced to empty shells. Society is helpless to remedy the spectacle of power seized by offshore corporations who now own the Senate. What institutions of a great Republic remain?

Ethics?

Karen LeBacqz quotes Charles Prestwood: "If a group of scholars gathered to plan a means of creating a situation in which there would be maximum tension between self-role, role model, and role expectancy, they could devise no more effective structure than that which we find in the ministry today." [140]

So what is the "paradox of power"? Our dear author tries to see perplexity in the fact that experts and professionals often have to make sacrifices. Perhaps she gets to the point of noticing how information (data, wisdom, etc) begins to get pushed out as power is grabbed. Ultimately, no one tells a powerful ruler the truth.

This work provides an excellent review of Christian-oriented Ethics from a pre-Putin era when society could really count on "standards". ( )