RE: responsibility?

["Ted Rockwell" <tedrock@CPCUG.ORG>]

Some people are beginning to ask: if suicide bombing is immoral, what about

the extreme Islamic schools that teach children, day after day, that such

actions are required and approved by God.  What is their responsibility?

Then go on to mainstream Islamic leaders who remain silent on the theology

of it.



I use that example, not to take sides against the Palestinians, but as a

stepping stone to an example nearer home.  We all agree that what some of

the Enron people did was shameful.  But they didn't think so.  They joked

about it with each other, and planned such actions rather openly.  It was

not like the poor man who robs a store because his children are hungry.  He

knows he's doing wrong, is ashamed of it, but feels he has no choice.



Where did the Enron people learn such things?  At business schools that

teach that the purpose of business is to make money.  If we accept that as a

basis for our free enterprise system, then they should be lauded for their

work, and blamed only for being caught.



And what about our mainstream business leaders?  They blame the ones that

got caught, but I hear little criticism of the basic idea that the purpose

of business is to make money. Companies like Westinghouse stop producing

useful products like turbines, appliances and nuclear power plants, in which

they have special expertise, and get into broadcasting, Caribbean

construction and Capitol records.  Because somebody told them they'd make

more money.  And Westinghouse is/was better than most.



Historically, legally and ethically it is simply wrong to say that the

purpose of business is to make money.  Each corporation (in the US, at

least) is permitted to operate under a state-issued license that says they

are licensed because they will fill a socially-beneficial purpose.  If they

fail in that, the state could revoke their license.  And should.



You can follow a similar thread with regard to radiation protection.  It's

time we got back to thinking about what our real purpose is.



Ted Rockwell









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