I just sent this e-mail to the organizers of conferences that address issues of ethics and business ... but with a very corporate perspective. They know me because they think of me as a potential customer for their conferences!
Thank you for staying in touch.One day people will realize that I want to see more than talk ... lip service ... to ethics and solving problems of corruption and state sponsored thuggery
For most of my career I have had the goal of getting ethics at the center of socio-economic activity. I look at what has been accomplished over the past 50 years, and, bluntly put, I am not impressed. The main driver of society is not what is good and right ... but merely what is good for me and what is profitable. This has worked very well for some people ... but has not worked for all people.
Sadly, in modern society there is a veneer of politeness and doing things in an ethical and proper manner. Behind this, the role of thugs and all sorts of unethical behavior is in play.
My world view is that there is more profit in a stable corrupt society that oppresses the underclass than in a society that has ethics front and center. One day this socio-economic construct will fall apart ... as maybe it is doing now in Egypt.
The events in Tunis ... and now Egypt are very thought provoking. I have been in a lot of countries over the past 50 years where thuggery is a big part of the political and socio-economic landscape ... and I do not like it. People deserve better ... but I do not see much ethical anger about the role of corruption and thuggery in how modern society functions.
These are serious issues ... and broadly speaking ... off the radar. Who cares as long as stock markets are going up?
Please stay in touch ... look at TrueValueMetrics.org
Stay tuned.
Peter Burgess
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