Situational Ethics
Recently the WSJ, I suppose, thought it highly constructive to advise us on the value of lying. In an article titled, “Lies, Damned Lies and Lies to Tell Your Spouse” the author deemed it quite a good idea to engage in such situational ethics to spare our spouses the truth. Isn’t it highly ironic that the WSJ thought to help its readership in the art of the salutary lie, or the “white lie” or the “just a little lie”?
Thanks a lot!
Most of us who have to play in the contact sport of business have found ourselves faced with these minor moral dilemmas and too many have succumbed. I am not at all sure we need encouragement in the category of lying. In fact lying with justification has become almost a contact sport of its own.
Insider information, the grist of arbitrageurs and many a hedge fund is based on the idea that rules are for everyone but me or the banal excuses, “I did it for a friend.”; “My employer made me if I want to play on his team.”; or “Everyone lies a little don’t they?”
Gertrude Stein said “a rose is a rose is a rose” and, generally speaking, a fraud is a fraud is a FRAUD. What started small, (oh poor Bernie Madoff), became just too big to fix.
So Wall Street Journal, keep your advice to yourself unless you are trying to encourage the nice juicy stories that will one day sell more newspapers.
Gail Long is a Senior Consultant to Getzler Henrich & Associates as well as W Capital Partners, and a current member of the board of ACG Boston. She is a regular contributor to The Dealmaker.
