Why do people park their ethics in the driveway as they go to work?

History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them. 

~B. R. Ambedkar

As the shocking revelations of unethical, even illegal, behaviour continue to flow from the banking royal commission, there's an obvious, albeit perhaps unanswerable, question. Why do good people and trusted institutions do bad things? It's not a new question. It's one that books, theses and countless articles in scholarly ...Why do people park their ethics in the driveway as they go to work?


Nationals MPs, meanwhile, are considering forcibly separating major banks from their financial services subsidiaries, with NSW senator John Williams saying “I think the sooner that's broken up, the better”. Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce tweeted “In the past I argued against a Royal Commission into banking. Harsher punishments for corporate wrongdoing


Banking Royal Commission all you need to know so far
We need a royal commission into tax. Tax avoidance, tax minimisation, tax evasion and all the other sneaky, creepy ways corporations get around paying tax. I think I could get a former treasurer of the year to back me up.

Why do we need a royal commission into tax? We need it precisely because the government tells us there is no problem with tax compliance by big business. In exactly the same way, it told us there was no problem with banks.

Nothing has exposed the cosy relationship of the Coalition with the banks in quite the same way as failed former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce's stance then and now. Then he said there was no need for a royal commission. Now he says he was naive and wrong.
Jenna Price - What do we need a Royal Commission into Tax Easion now

I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all. That is something that you cannot say aloud, or perhaps even think. 

~ Sigmund Freud who was born in a town on the Morava River in Czechoslovakia

 

 

Banking royal commission: The admission that just cost AMP more ...

“We thought this was an iconic brand and we saw it as something that was very authentic, but now we are having these doubts about its brand image and are seeing that it is not a very ethical brand." She said AMP would need to restore trust by talking openly to the public and reinforcing its ethics. 

Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with 'what can I give' spirit

Tough new penalties proposed by the federal government could see bankers and finance executives who engage in corporate and financial misconduct spending up to 10 years in jail.
Government proposes more jail time for corporate and financial misconduct

Two senior executives have resigned from one of Australia's largest security companies after an investigation into alleged bribes for contracts going to a rival business owned by underworld associate Santo "Toni Two Guns" Celona 
Two executives leave security firm over 'Toni Two Guns' bribery ...

*The Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard*

by  Tyler Cowen

 
• Philosopher of Real Note ...

Understanding various social situations in terms of the need of finding a scapegoat to sacrifice, if not violently with some kind of resolution and catharsis.  These days one of those victims would be the big tech companies, as it is remarkable how many weakly-argued critiques of them make the paper every day.  You’ll understand these writings through the eyes of Girard, not economic theory.  Girard is also one of the best lenses for understanding the writings of bad and manipulative pundits.

Girard is of great use for understanding literature.  Try any Shakespearean play with “doubles,” Merchant of Venice, Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge (an all-time favorite), or Coetzee’s Disgrace, all Girardian to the core and very much illuminated by familiarity with his key ideas.  These are perhaps his most underrated contributions.  Shakespeare, by the way, is Girard’s most important precursor, also throw in the New Testament, Hobbes, Tocqueville, and maybe Montaigne.

What should you read by him?: Violence and the Sacred, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Theatre of Envy.

That is the new book by Cynthia L. Haven, which I was very enthusiastic about.  I find about half of it to be a revelation, and the other half to be perfectly fine, though material I largely had seen before (but still useful to most readers).  Here are a few of the things I learned:

1. As a child, “…his favorite game was a solitary one: with toy soldiers, he reenacted France’s major battles, taking all the roles himself.”

2. In 1944, at the age of 21, he saw many French collaborators killed or put on trial, and from that time started to develop some of his major ideas.

3. When he migrated to America, he associated the country with grandness and Avignon with petiteness.  He was at that time “adamantly atheistic.”

4. He wrote his dissertation on “American Opinions on France, 1940-1943,” which at 418 pp. contained some early versions of his later ideas.

5. He was turned down for tenure at Indiana University, claiming he spent several years “devoted essentially to female students and cars.”

6. He insisted that he witnessed a lynching (likely in North Carolina) in the early 1950s, although after reading Haven’s discussion I suspect this was a fabrication.

7. He was significantly influenced by the Dante circle at Johns Hopkins where he ended up teaching, including by Charles Singleton.

8. Like myself, Haven considers Theater of Envy to be his most underrated book.

9. His work day typically started at 3:30 a.m.

10. Peter Thiel, as an undergraduate, actually took a class from Girard.

Definitely recommended to anyone with an interest in Girard.  Here is my recent summary post on Girard.

AMEN

The betrayer who is betrayed.

The deceiver deceived.

Away! Away!

What away?

Away to where

in the yellow air?

To the meadow that was?

To the lambs just birthed?

To the falling birds?

In our standing up, though a little bent—dayenu.

With our eyes seeing though blurred—dayenu.

With our ears almost hearing—dayenu.

Upon our lieing down and our rising—dayenu.

On our remembering our beloved’s name—dayenu.                                      

On our kneeling down—dayenu.

By the skin of our teeth—dayenu. 

In our heart that expands and contracts—dayenu.

In our worried heart, fearful and afraid—dayenu.

Amen AMen AMEn AMEN 

The shot heard round the taxing world fired by odd characters 

 

DAVID FRENCH: No, Conservatives Shouldn’t Try to Punish Radical Professors for Offensive Speech. I agree. Mock them, shame them, and thank them for creating more Trump voters. As Jim Treacher says, the left wants to shut up the right; the right wants the left to just keep talking . .