 I've written before
about whistle-blowers. Yesterday, I actually met one, Cynthia Cooper,
the internal auditor at WorldCom who uncovered and relentlessly
investigated the company's three billion dollar fraud.
She's a
brilliant and powerful speaker, telling the astonishing story of
convoluted deceit, cover-up, intimidation and negligence bluntly and
factually. The stress and fame has of course changed her life, but
rather than allow the media to make this into a story of eccentric and
arrogant greed, she insisted that it be told as what it was: a story of
normal, average people who quietly, and terribly easily, crossed the
ethical line.
The reality is that WorldCom would probably have
gone bankrupt anyway, so the end result for its employees and investors
would likely have been the same even if the fraud had not been
unearthed. Some of the perpetrators were too proud to admit their
incompetence led to a huge corporation's demise. Some of them were
followed orders out of ignorance or blind faith. Some of them, like
gambling addicts, were convinced that with a little more of the same
unethical activity, things would turn around and they could repay the
debts and stop lying to themselves and the world. Most of them believed
no one would be hurt by their actions.
Read the news today
about all the people who made huge fortunes lending money irresponsibly
and recklessly to people who could only repay it if house prices kept
rising forever. Know that
among these millionaires there are more criminals hoping there is no
rare Cynthia Cooper to blow the whistle on them. When the US Fed
lowered interest rates 1/2% yesterday, they told the liars and cheats
and fraudsters "Relax, we'll give you a bit more time to get out from
under, to cover your tracks". To do it again. To get in even deeper.
But then as Greenspan's new book shows, the Fed are liars and cover-up
artists too.
Pride. Greed. Ego. Following orders. The desire to
get ahead. The sense that no one is really being hurt. That everyone
cheats or lies, so why shouldn't they. The fear to tell the terrible
truth and the impulse to get in even deeper in the faint hope of
getting out. Rationalization. Succumbing to temptation.
All
these things can lead us to lie and cheat. It's very human. So we
speed. We cheat on our exams, and then on our taxes, and then on our
spouses. It's not a crime if it's not discovered, is it? No one is hurt
by it (The Tragedy of the Commons argument). We can stop anytime. Everyone does it. It wasn't our fault.
But of course, it is our fault. We start down the slippery slope before we realize how slippery it is.
A
million movies and TV programs tell us what happens next, as comedy or
tragedy. Downfall. But we don't learn. We can't stop ourselves in time.
And
when we discover someone else doing it, do we blow the whistle? Do we
tell the teacher about the kids in the class cheating on the tests and
copying essay answers from the Internet? Do we tell the wronged spouse
about their cheating partner? Do we phone the tax authorities and rat
out our friends and neighbours? Do we phone the police to report
speeders?
So why should we be surprised that no one is willing
to blow the whistle on those a little further along the slippery slope
-- the corrupt businesspeople, politicians, regulators, and
celebrities? It's dangerous, and what's the point anyway? They can
bribe or buy their way out of trouble anyway, with the money they've
stolen from other criminal activities. They can get away with murder,
or invasion and destruction of a sovereign nation, or genocide, or
Bhopal, or Chernobyl, or Valdez, or the poisoning and desolation of the
planet enough to bring about the Sixth Great Extinction.
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
No
need to say what the answer is here. It's the answer to the Tragedy of
the Commons. It's all about taking responsibility. But it only works if
enough of us do it, and refuse to let others shirk it, and refuse to
let our commons be exploited.
We know what to do, and always have. But at some point in our
evolution, we forgot, or we just stopped doing it. Now we live with the
consequences. Now we do what we do.
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
