Ethics -- the rules or standards governing the conduct by which a person or society lives and makes decisions.

Interestingly, one's ethics and a society's ethics appear to change given particular circumstances. Most every person I know manages to redefine his ethics, depending upon the circumstances he finds himself in.

Some think this is situational ethics. Actually, Joseph Fletcher's situational ethics asserts that decision-making should be based upon the circumstances of a particular situation and not upon fixed law. Because love is the only absolute, according to Fletcher, love should be the motive behind every decision.

Unfortunately, this kind of ethic makes an individual and society susceptible to insincere apologies and manipulators.

Consequently, we have become a society that believes when a guilty party simply says, "I'm sorry," the offense should be forgotten and life go on as if nothing ever happened.

A manipulative attorney, for example, might attempt to slip a piece of "evidence" into a hearing that should not have been submitted and then apologize for having done so, pleading ignorance. He thinks, however, his point has been made, although he has lied in the process of attempting to make another out to be a liar.

Manipulative people throw codes of conduct, ethics, out the window. They see manipulation as a way to get what they want, and so the end justifying the means becomes their "ethic."

Manipulators are insecure in their own abilities to do things right and, therefore, resort to doing things the only way they know how, turning and twisting the facts or situation to their benefit.

Dr. George Simon, in his book "In Sheep's Clothing," says that all of us have used manipulation at some point. He asserts, however, that does not make us all manipulators. Manipulators are, he says, those who habitually and aggressively manipulate. They become insincere propagators of unethical behavior.

Jack Rollins is the managing editor of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.