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There's no 'them' there
"Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong." -- Filmmaker Charles Ferguson, upon receiving the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
I have no idea what kinds of criminals are out there, although I have a feeling that certainly fraud exists everywhere, and I also "have a feeling" that the financial sector is way too politically connected to take much of a hit from government prosecutors.
But is my feeling any indication of whether people are guilty of a crime or not? The Wall Street Journal followed up with Ferguson:
If it were all in your hands, what actions would you like to see taken or who would you call to the stand?
It is not proper for me to say this individual or that individual but from what we know, I think that a very substantial fraction of the top management of most of the major financial institutions and the rating agencies involved in the bubble and the crisis. My sense would be that there should be dozens or even perhaps hundreds of senior financial executives in prison now. It certainly shouldn't be zero, that's for sure.
At this point I have some alarm bells ringing. It seems that if we are reasoning from feeling to reality -- what we feel should be reflected in reality. Since I've always felt I deserved a pony, and since I do not have one, a pony thief must be on the loose.
The sad fact of the matter is that in so many cases, there's no 'them' there.
One of the common patterns I see set up in groups of people is the "us versus them" pattern -- we are all in on this on one side, and those other guys are all together on that side.
This is such a natural part of human psychology that I doubt we'll ever be rid of it. I know when the United States was founded, the founders didn't really anticipate the rise of two major parties. After all, aren't we all Americans? They thought that folks would assemble in various micro--parties depending on the issue at hand.
Silly them.
Within just a few short years, the two major parties had formed and were tearing at each other's throat. Jefferson was the father of a half-breed and too aloof to lead. Jefferson assaulted Adams (who was then president, mind you) as a "repulsive pedant" and "a hideous hermaphroditical character."
Ah, the good old days.
If the Founding Fathers couldn't manage this devolution into us-versus-them, we are not any better. Wherever I go, I see management teams talking "those programming teams" or programming teams talking about "freaking marketing, man" or marketing talking about, well, whomever marketing talks about.
We want, we need, it is required that there is another human being in which to blame our problems on. We need this like birds need to fly, or fish need to swim.
One of the hardest things to really master is to be able to step outside whatever fight you are in and realize that folks on the other side are just intelligent humans acting as best they can. This really sucks because it is so very easy for us to demonize.
Aside from genocide and people who physically murder other people (directly, using their bare hands, not through some twisted jumble of cause-and-effect), most everybody is just like you: trying to live as best as possible.
Looking at the various political problems today: the federal debt, the financial crisis, various groups posturing for the upcoming election, the fight over climate change, the endless wonderment at how come something hasn't replaced oil as an energy source -- it occurs to me that in each of these areas folks are desperate for some bad guys. I'm sure there are plenty of bad guys to go around, but I'd be very careful about confusing my emotional need to assign blame with whatever the realities of the situation actually are. The fact is, I could imagine a complete financial disaster that occurred without anybody to blame. Sucks to say that, 'cause it's always great to have villains, but that's the way life works: most times there are not villains. We're not that lucky.
I wish it weren't so, but most times there's just no 'them' there.
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