Last week in Where’s the Line we posted, tongue planted lightly in cheek, an old quote from conservative humorist, P.J. O’Rourke. “There is only one basic human right,” said P.J., “the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”
We asked if this maxim was true for business. Judging from the numerous comments, many thought not.
thommyguns writes:
To the extent that our actions have no effect on others I would agree, but in an increasingly flat world there is little we do that does not affect others. So I disagree. We must keep in mind that the consequences born by others due to our actions can be insufferable and cruel, and therefore we are not free to do “whatever we damn well please.”
jenyj89 likes the quote but thinks those in charge only observe the worst half of it :
Too many times we see politicians and high-level corporate leaders who have done as they pleased and got caught doing something illegal or unethical and then they scurry away or try to point fingers….failing over and over to stand up “like a man” and take the consequences for their own actions. It’s sad but true!! And our children and younger generations see it and unfortunately learn from it… it’s a bad example.
If you’re going to do something, right, wrong or indifferent, then you have to be able to stand up and say “YES, I did that” and then explain why you chose to do it, right wrong or indifferent. If you can’t…well, then, you are no better than the dirt under my shoes as far as I am concerned.
Meanwhile, psoucheray invokes the ancient Greeks:
The issue I have with the notion is that it seems to stem from the old Spartan teaching: Doing something wrong isn’t as bad as getting caught at it. That seems to be a tenet many businesses and individuals follow these days. It might be fine if we all lived in our own little bubbles. But we don’t. Like it or not, we have responsibilities to “the other” because they are us.
Or maybe P.J.’s just plain childish, says lllama:
P.J. O’Rourke sounds like a truculent 4 year old. Hopefully, next year he’ll attend kindergarten where he’ll learn to play well with others…
And our own Peter Galuszka (pgaluszka), who pens our Corner Office blog, opines:
This sounds so Ayn Rand. Greed is good. Self-interest is best. Altruism is phony. Ugh!
So who’s right? Who’s to say? As psychology student Julie O’Malley says:
I don’t think O’Rourke is commenting on whether it SHOULD or SHOULDN’T be this way, he’s saying it IS this way. And as a student of psychology, I have to agree that it really is that simple. It all boils down to human behavior. Stimulus and response, rewards and punishments. If we behave in an ethical way, it’s because we are unwilling to suffer the negative consequences of acting unethically.
And those consequences may be multi-layered: internal (guilt, anxiety, shame), external (social ostracization, rejection), legal (arrest, incarceration), business-related (firing, lack of promotion), personal (disdain from loved ones), or all of the above, plus many other possibilities.
Our decision-making brain considers it all and guides our actions.
So there, Peter. I’ll see your Ayn Rand and raise you a Sigmund Freud.
