Over the weekend while driving somewhere, I was listening to the radio. There was a story about a man who had been an employee at one of the large financial institutions partially held responsible. . .at least by the general public. . .for the financial disaster earlier in this decade. He had been charged with some “misdeeds,” and was going to spend a bit of time in “house arrest.” I think this means he has to stay in his multi-million dollar home for awhile.
One of the radio commentators asked after the story “Why does there seem to be such a tendency for those involved in high financial positions to act unscrupulously?” When I first heard the question, I thought “well DUH!!!!” And then I realized that I reacted this way because that’s what I’ve come to expect. . . rightly or wrongly.
As so I decided to think about – OK, why DO they? And what I came to was – well why wouldn’t they? They live in a broader culture where more is better (you never can be too thin or too rich), and there’s never enough money. So, if your job is to make money, why would you stop if you could clearly see ways of making more. . .and more. . .and more? And what is this doing to the fabric of our society. . .of our just being with one another and with ourselves and having that be enough?
I know it seems like a big task, but at any moment as individuals we can just say “OK, that’s enough,” and decide to live that way to the extent we can. What impact will this have? We won’t know until we try.
