Is it Corruption, or Human Nature?

As we get ready to do our latest show on WVIA-TV on local political corruption, I am beginning to believe that our scope of examination, finger-pointing and scolding is far too limited.  It is not enough just to look at low-paid public workers and how they fall prey to the money and influence of the private sector.  I now wonder if this sort of corruptibility is part of the human psyche.

We all know about the peccadilloes of the local pols, we just don’t have all of the names yet.  They’ve all done basically the same thing.  They used their public influence to let others cut in line.  Some took bribes to help teachers find jobs.  Others took money to alter documents.  Still others used their influence to steer developers to county projects.  We can blame those people and we should.  We can also blame the people who bribed them.  I wonder if we will.  But while we’re ladling out the blame, let’s leave a little for ourselves, because I believe we’re all at risk.  It is not as simple as knowing the difference between right and wrong, far from it.

Recently two stories have brought that ambiguity home to me.  One comes from Proctor & Gamble, where dozens of employees have been fired for sending naked pictures and crude jokes to each other using company computers.  The other story comes from Washington D.C. and the infamous C Street residence known as The Family.  In that case, one US Senator has apparently lied to cover up his involvement in the extramarital affair of another US Senator.  It doesn’t really matter which party they’re in, sex and money are equal opportunity corrupters.  That’s the point, really.

At P&G, the workers have been routinely sending around nude pictures, dirty jokes and political jibes on company equipment, a strict violation written in the company code of employee conduct.  When they were fired, some of the workers were stunned.  Everyone did it, they said.  It was the norm, they said.  And then one said the magic words.  “I got email from some of my bosses.”  Bosses who weren’t fired. 

It’s the same dynamic on C Street.  The Senators and Congressmen who have lived there over the years call themselves Christian.  That’s a matter of debate.  What is certain is that while espousing family values, many “Family” members over the years have engaged in various sexual escapades.  In the latest one, one Senator was helping another one by apparently negotiating the payoff to the other Senator’s former mistress.  The helping Senator has further darkened his own waters by first denying, then finally admitting his role.  Sex and lies enough to stain all around.

Or is it enough?  The word from C Street is that they have a different set of rules for themselves because they are different.  They are leaders, so it is okay for them to lie to us.  It is okay for them to have extramarital sex while condemning others for doing the same.  They forgive themselves and expect their constituents to do the same.

Is that so different from what’s happening at the local level?  People with low-paying jobs are being approached with a chance to make money.  On the one hand, it’s wrong or people wouldn’t offer you cash in envelopes.  But everyone else is doing it too, and you know it.  Further, if you don’t go along, what happens then?  You could be risking your job and besides, someone else will get the money eventually.  You could lose out twice.  And just look at the county commissioners.  They make less than their secretaries!  They must be taking graft, right? 

The poor people at P&G are similarly conflicted.  They claim they were never warned about their email offenses.  Their bosses did it.  So they sent each other pictures of tattooed genitalia, dirty jokes and pictures of the White House lawn as a watermelon patch.      

What is right?  Is it words in a book?  Is it what everyone else does?  Is it what your bosses do?  Is it what you know is right?