Vision, Past and Present
Years ago, I was flying east on a brilliant Winter morning. I looked down upon a gleaming city: white clouds crowned great structures glazed in fresh snow, set beside the deep blue of Lake Michigan. It was breathtaking.
Moments later, the pilot noted that we were flying over Gary, Indiana. The world looks very different from thirty thousand feet. With that awareness in mind, I have always been deeply skeptical of attempts to summarize a decade in 500 words or 90 seconds.
I am more than skeptical of a current trend, represented by one broadcaster’s characterization of the past ten years as, “the Madoff Decade.” I almost swerved off the road. First, scumbaggery, even epic scumbaggery, is nothing new. Swindling, corruption and abuses are as old as humanity. Further, criminals didn’t drive the current crisis, they merely punctuated it. While a great deal of value recently disappeared, the vast majority of losses were due to actions that were not illegal. (“When the interest rate on this loan jumps, you can just refinance! Real estate values always go up…”) Much suffering has resulted, but to focus too narrowly is to miss the lessons we might otherwise learn from our mistakes.
Most important, these events ought not define our lives, nor even a period of time. On Saturday I spoke to a Rotary leadership seminar. Multiple questions referred to “the abysmal state of ethics in this country.” I’m not buying that premise. In ethical terms, recent transgressions pale in comparison to longstanding wrongs like slavery and institutionalized racism. Even in strictly economic terms, it is worth noting that the recent crisis was most painful precisely because so many people are now invested in the economy as shareholders, and not solely as wage-earners. The exploitation of workers, while still present and always deplorable, is not business-as-usual, which was the case just a couple of generations ago. While we struggle with climate change today, thirty years ago it was hazardous to even touch the waters of the Potomac, the Schuylkill, or the Hudson at some landings. To characterize a decade in terms of a thief, or even an economic downturn, is to negate the progress that we have made.
This isn’t an idle matter of historical accuracy. If we believe that we are in the midst of moral decay, we are naturally inclined to act accordingly. We feel invited to lower our standards, and inhibited from trusting, even where trust is appropriate. I spend my days working with ethical leaders in business, health care, and public safety. I am consistently inspired by their stories, and know that they represent just the smallest sampling of excellence that exists in our business and civic communities. If we become obsessed with those who do wrong, we fail to learn from the true leaders among us.
One thing you can do today: nominate a great company for the Minnesota Business Ethics Awards. It takes five minutes; nominations are due January 29.
