Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

TruthOut, Business Week by Shoshana Zuboff | Mar. 22, 2009 (Opinion)
By refusing to consider the consequences of their actions, those who created the financial crisis exemplify the banality of evil

The economic crisis is not the Holocaust but, I would argue, it derives from a business model that routinely produced a similar kind of remoteness and thoughtlessness, compounded by a widespread abrogation of individual moral judgment. As we learn more about the behavior within our financial institutions, we see that just about everyone accepted a reckless system that rewards transactions but rejects responsibility for the consequences of those ... Full Story »

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4.8
 by Dwight Rousu - Mar. 22, 2009

Zuboff takes on the moral questions of individual responsibility in the current financial crisis. She finds parallels in the nature of the moral questions examined at Nuremberg, with individuals not questioning the morality of the behavior of people around them. The article provides an insightful leap to a broader perspective.

This societal moral perspective has relevance in many aspects of our lives.

By now the existential security of millions of people has been threatened or destroyed. No one is safe from the waves of value destruction set into motion by the banal evil of this self-centered business model and the unquestioning participants who failed to assert their own moral judgment. The urgent lesson for capitalism’s heirs redounds through every headline: There is no “other”; there is only us. The damage that was supposed to be “theirs” is now shared misery on a global scale.

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