Cunningness equates to Smartness

When we see a person cutting into a line to get a movie or train ticket we get agitated and rightly so. But consider this incident: you and a group of friends go to a movie; one of your friends decides to go get tickets. Your friend cuts in line and gets the tickets in record time, what would you and your friends do? I am sure this has occurred to everyone some time or the other. Everyone these days commend such behavior if it benefits them, and frown on it if it is done by someone unrelated. This kind of hypocritical behavior has crept into our society to such a degree that cunning people are being treated as being smart.

Driving wildly without any civic sense, Earning money through unlawful means, Cheating on resumes, Lying to get jobs, are all condoned today by most families. The explanations given to these are generally inane such as "everyone else does it, so if we do it what is wrong", or outright ridiculous such as, "this is the order of the day, if you need to get ahead you have to do things like these".

It seems like ethics and morals are no longer considered important to be implemented in one's own life. These are being treated as futile virtues which slow people down. So they are being viewed as great things to preach to others so it ties them down and we can surge ahead of them!