Blinded by Self-Interest

Fred Harburg

Integrity—A Jewel of Great Price

I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. . . . (Isaiah 6.5, ESV)

As I write this, it still appears that the Governor of Illinois will not resign his position and that he is resolved to “fight, fight, fight.” This embarrassment comes at the same time that the biggest fraud in American investment history, a Ponzi scheme, has just wiped out $50 billion of wealth, much of it belonging to charitable foundations. I just had dinner with a longtime friend who had extensive dealings with Bernard Madoff, the perpetrator of the scheme, and we had an opportunity to examine the situation more closely. Trust in leaders in politics, finance, business, and religion is at an all-time low. With all the lip service paid to the importance of integrity and ethical conduct, it’s enough to make you shake your head in disbelief.

In the past few years I have been called on to design, deliver, sponsor, or participate in myriad “ethics” programs. There is almost no business on the planet that does not have a written set of “values,” and perhaps the most common denominator of those values statements is “integrity.” For all of the positive intent of those statements and the ethics programs that go with them, nothing is so prevalent today as a lack of integrity. We seem to think that dishonesty is isolated to only a few bad apples and thus that publicly affirming the value of truth will keep most people from unethical behavior. But the facts don’t support this comforting misjudgment.

Many of our most corrupt politicians won their seats on a platform based on a declaration to reform the government so that it would be free of the fraudulence that they were eventually shown to so fully embrace. What’s going on here? Was P. T. Barnum right? Are we all just suckers? Are we so passive, impotent, and naïve that we will stand by and let those with powerful positions and strong force of personality lie, steal, and cheat innocent people out of their retirement accounts, their life savings, their jobs, and their future? The answer seems to be yes, when we are blinded by self-interest. We are so distracted by our own concerns and demands that we have little time or energy to be concerned about the morality that affects the common good. As long as the returns are steady and attractive we won’t do much to investigate further.

Another apparent common assumption is that one either has or does not have integrity. Again, the facts don’t support this assertion. A little simple observation of self and others demonstrates that integrity is like the value of a stock. It goes up and down with market conditions, and each of us is susceptible to misjudgments and failures of character. The development of character is a lifetime task. When one of the brightest analysts on Wall Street was asked how the Bernard Madoff scandal could have gone on for so long and become so large, his assessment was “complicit ignorance.” He explained that while it was blatantly too good to be true that Madoff always earned 24 percent a year and never, ever lost money, very good, very intelligent people chose to ignore the total absence of logic of this situation because they were enjoying the illusion of 2 percent growth per month, every month, for years and years. There you have it. It doesn’t matter if you are management or union, young or old, male or female, brilliant or average, religious or not—we all have feet of clay and we are swayed by self-interest when we are interpreting the events and the people around us. To paraphrase Pogo, I have found the enemy and he is me.

Now I am not saying that people are not capable of good judgment, acts of remarkable self-sacrifice, and altruism—we are. In fact if we give in to cynicism and lasting distrust we fall on the opposing sword. When we are at our best, life is beautiful. I have been blessed to be surrounded by people in business and friendship who have displayed these characteristics in abundance. These are the characteristics that make human beings admirable. When people lay down their lives for each other on the battlefield, in a hospital, in the courtroom, at the dinner table, in the school yard, and in the board room life becomes sublime and rarefied. But this capability is so susceptible to the winds of self-interest, fear, and preoccupation with one’s personal agenda that it requires all of the nurture and protection we can give it.

When selfishness wins, we all lose. It destroys the very fabric of human civilization. Mutual, well-founded trust is not just a nice-to-have virtue; it is the essential building block of commerce and society—remove it and we all fall down. But wagging my finger at others misses the point. Self-righteous indignation is not the antidote. This is an inside, “internal” job.

In the end, it is character that counts, yet we live in an age when nothing seems as corruptible as character. On a recent NPR segment, Scott Simon, bemoaning the sad state of current leaders, said: “The politicians I have gotten to like the most—and they’re from both parties—wear their virtue lightly; they know it can be fragile.” His wise statement is a reminder to all who hold the reins of leadership what a difficult path they walk. Those who aspire to be leaders should be forewarned that the mighty have fallen on the sword of their own folly and ego more often than being felled by the arrows of an opponent.

Perhaps the greatest contribution we can make to each other is to remind ourselves that there is an interest that far outshines the accumulation of personal power, money, or accolade. The possibility to do something humbly to make our world a better, safer, saner place for all people is the highest reward—to replace hubris with service, and to serve an interest greater than self-interest—this is a jewel of great price. 

Fred Harburg is Managing Partner of Harburg Consulting LLC and a Senior Fellow of The Trinity Forum.

5 Responses (comments are closed) • Features, Business, Character and Ethics, Mon 05 Jan 2009