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The Ethical Navigator

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Local sailing enthusiast, William H. Capitan, President Emeritus of Georgia Southwestern State University, is the author of The Ethical Navigator. While Dr. Capitan uses nautical terms throughout the book, it is not a work on yachting etiquette. Rather, sailing terms are used metaphorically to enable the reader to grasp concepts that might be "off putting".

The Ethical Navigator is about the contemporary worldwide crisis of moral authority that has produced school shootings (Columbine and Rockdale County), murderous children (Erik and Lyle Menendez) and child killers (Susan Smith) and the "I/Me" generation. Dr. Capitan examines what has caused this moral decline and the misguided steps to correct it, and most importantly he shows us how we can take steps to correct the situation.

This work is based on a series of lectures Dr. Capitan gave while teaching in the honors program at the University of Georgia. It attempts to provide an overview of the nature of morality for the lay person while at the same time cutting across the line of traditional academic disciplines. Drawing from such varied sources as ancient history and contemporary popular culture, The Ethical Navigator offers a refreshing and unique insight into the cause of modern-day society's moral chaos.

Most intriguingly the book examines present day misguided attempts to address moral decline by substituting religion, law, government, or mere ethnicity for moral authority. The reader should pay particular attention to the chapters dealing with these four substitutions. They should be read and reread and read again, not because they are confusing, but because they point out where we have gone wrong.

Today, people aren't sure what morality is! What is right and what is wrong? Is this to be determined by the government, the Constitution, the clergy; is it what your friends think or is it what you alone think? Obviously, everyone has gotten into the act and wants to tell the individual what to do and what to think. Are any of these egoists, legal hair splitters and politicians correct?

In Dr. Capitan's view, in order to recover our moral sense we have to see morality as essential to civilization with all other institutions based on that morality. The key word here is civilization, which is a collective concept. Civilization is not based on the individual, but rather, on all members of the group working together for the common good. Thus the author challenges the reader to interact positively with other members of society by working collectively to reverse the tendency to uproot individual freedom from the trust required to nurture it. Ane he shows how morality can be revived if individuals recognize that protecting this freedom and the quality of life it affords requires us to keep morality central to our lives.

This is a book that should be read by everyone----everyone who is interested in reestablishing moral authority. The book is easy reading and the author's theories provocative. This is a must read for the general reader and for students of law, religion, government and business. Reviewed by Kent M. Sole