Does Hypocrisy really matter if a man has no power? Do we care that a lowly bum is a hypocrite? Do we care if he is not?
For society’s sake hypocrisy only matters if a man is powerful. If a man is a hypocrite and has no power, then his hypocrisy matters only to his family and friends. Moreover, his family and friends must know what the man is like. They must know if he has integrity or not. And because they know, they will trust him or not trust him accordingly.
The same is not true of a powerful man. The people who depend on the man to be honest and straightforward may not know the man personally. They only know him by reputation and unfortunately, the man’s reputation may be clouded by fawning associates that wish to suck up to the great man.
The man may say, “I am fair” and to his direct reports he is fair, but does he insist on fairness throughout his domain or does he permit his associates to be unfair to those who are not privileged to know the great one?
Worse than that a powerful man may mark an opponent or competitor or underling with an innuendo without any fairness rationale at all. Certainly, a chairman of a company could drop a bomb on a disfavored underling by just moving him from one office to another. No one may know the underling’s offense but every employee and executive will get the message.
The powerful man, if confronted, may say, “No, no. Everyone got the wrong message. I did not mean to mark the individual. I merely shifted his office for tactical (or other insignificant) reasons.” But every witness knows differently. They know that the powerful man has cursed the underling and they know it so well that they spread the word far and near.
Know one will help the underling unless given a sign from some powerful people. The underling is completely and irrevocably screwed unless he guesses what action to take to please the powerful people. And the powerful people may keep on changing the game to keep screwing the underling.
The underling, who has never been charged, may wonder why everyone is being unfair. He may wonder why his life has turned to ****. Will anyone speak up? Will anyone betray the powerful man? Won’t they defend the powerful one when the underling complains?
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If I embarrassed a powerful person by quitting the actuarial profession on his watch, I certainly did it for good and valid reasons that have nothing to do with embarrassing that powerful person. I could have written about reasons for quitting the actuarial profession that have to do with vile people, rigging tests and falsifying analysis, but I didn’t think that that was the smart thing to do. Now that my life has been intentionally ruined, what have I got to loose?
I just need to figure out how to release my small amount of information so that it causes a huge amount of damage.
Powerful Hypocrites
Does Hypocrisy really matter if a man has no power? Do we care that a lowly bum is a hypocrite? Do we care if he is not?
For society’s sake hypocrisy only matters if a man is powerful. If a man is a hypocrite and has no power, then his hypocrisy matters only to his family and friends. Moreover, his family and friends must know what the man is like. They must know if he has integrity or not. And because they know, they will trust him or not trust him accordingly.
The same is not true of a powerful man. The people who depend on the man to be honest and straightforward may not know the man personally. They only know him by reputation and unfortunately, the man’s reputation may be clouded by fawning associates that wish to suck up to the great man.
The man may say, “I am fair” and to his direct reports he is fair, but does he insist on fairness throughout his domain or does he permit his associates to be unfair to those who are not privileged to know the great one?
Worse than that a powerful man may mark an opponent or competitor or underling with an innuendo without any fairness rationale at all. Certainly, a chairman of a company could drop a bomb on a disfavored underling by just moving him from one office to another. No one may know the underling’s offense but every employee and executive will get the message.
The powerful man, if confronted, may say, “No, no. Everyone got the wrong message. I did not mean to mark the individual. I merely shifted his office for tactical (or other insignificant) reasons.” But every witness knows differently. They know that the powerful man has cursed the underling and they know it so well that they spread the word far and near.
Know one will help the underling unless given a sign from some powerful people. The underling is completely and irrevocably screwed unless he guesses what action to take to please the powerful people. And the powerful people may keep on changing the game to keep screwing the underling.
The underling, who has never been charged, may wonder why everyone is being unfair. He may wonder why his life has turned to ****. Will anyone speak up? Will anyone betray the powerful man? Won’t they defend the powerful one when the underling complains?
/////////////////////////////////
If I embarrassed a powerful person by quitting the actuarial profession on his watch, I certainly did it for good and valid reasons that have nothing to do with embarrassing that powerful person. I could have written about reasons for quitting the actuarial profession that have to do with vile people, rigging tests and falsifying analysis, but I didn’t think that that was the smart thing to do. Now that my life has been intentionally ruined, what have I got to loose?
I just need to figure out how to release my small amount of information so that it causes a huge amount of damage.
An innuendo seems appropriate.
this is so great