Blog 2 - 64 Are we basically good or basically bad?
A colleague of mine attended a conference for middle management personnel. I don’t remember the topic, but the attendees were divided about equally between government and private sector people.
The organizers provided some preliminary activities to put the group at ease. One of these activities provides food for thought. They asked the conferees to look at two options, and then, without discussion, separate themselves into two different rooms depending on their personal answer.
The Question:
Are people basically good, but corrupted by society ,or are people basically bad and must be controlled by society?
My colleague reported that
almost all the private sector people chose the first option
(folk are basically good but are corrupted by society);
Almost all of the civil servants chose the other option
(people are basically bad and need to be controlled by society.
We’ll come back to that. Let’s set it in the middle of divided America - or even take a larger view: the divided world. Ask a wide sample of people anywhere in the world this question: is government a good thing or a bad thing? You’ll have a similar division between
1. those who see government unequivocally as an evil, restricting their personal freedoms and ambitions, Actually, they often don't express or even recognize the underlined motif.
Example: Corporate CEO’s and shareholders in western “democracies” (In America, for instance, they’re celebrating the President’s recent banking de-regulation. and other reductions of government powers). See previous blog.
2. those who see government as the focus of hope for their well-being.
Example: those Franklin Roosevelt referred to as “The Forgotten Man at the Bottom of the Economic Pyramid” (Roosevelt really meant it and did something about it, but no rational American expects the current President ever to actually do anything for the FMABOEP - least of all members of Congress.)
Obamacare, now…
Permit me to add a third, currently prominent, attitude:,
3. those who fear that their governments will seriously harm them.
Examples: critics of the governments in Mr. Erdogan’s Turkey, or Mr Duterte’s Philippines, or Mr. Bashar Al-Asad’s Syria. What do they have to fear (in these nominal democracies)?
It would be a better world if we could recognize that “the best of all possible worlds” is one on which most citizens were focussed on the common good . Repeat.
That means agreeing that both governments and private agents should not be primarily acquisitors but contributors.
And we might dream of persuading even some of our soulless citizens - the corporations - if civilized by governments, or, better, self-civilized.
You have to visualize it, then say it, to make it happen (before we destroy the lot of us).
So back to the conference: here’s the next level of question. How do you explain the conviction of private sector execs that we are all good but corrupted by others, and the public execs’ conviction that we are all bad and need to be restrained? Think about it. till next time.
