We Have Met The Enemy, And S/he Is Us
A good result never comes from empowering a bad person
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Birds Of A Feather Flock Together
Anyone who has lived a reasonable period of time knows that people hang out with others like themselves.
Honest people hang out with other honest people. Drinkers hang out with other drinkers. Druggies hang out with other druggies. Thieves hang out with other thieves. Assholes hang out with other assholes.
Birds of a feather . . . .
The Fish Stinks From The Head
My old bookkeeper, Helga, used to repeat a German saying, “The fish stinks from the head,” meaning that bad organizations have bad people at the top.
Bad people at the top contaminate the organization. Bad people hire other bad people just as good people hire good people, where “good” means smart, honest, competent, intelligent, fair, reasonable, trustworthy, reliable and decent and “bad” means the opposite of those qualities.
Whom You Empower Reveals Who You Are
Choosing someone you know is a liar, a cheat and a prick to run your company or one of your company’s departments or divisions tells us the kind of person you are and what you most highly value.
I used to run into people looking for a lawyer who would ask me who was the biggest, baddest, prick because they thought that the meanest, nastiest lawyer would get them the best outcome. Instead, picking an asshole lawyer mostly just told the world that they were, if not themselves assholes, at the least that they approved of assholes.
All this is to say that the person you choose to represent you, the executives you hire to run your business, the people you choose to associate with, all reflect the kind of person you are, your character, your morals, your values, and what things in life are most important to you.
It’s one thing if you don’t really know who your VP of Sales is. Maybe you think s/he is a great person when, in fact, s/he is a liar and a crook. Psychopaths are good at hiding their true nature.
I had a client who, upon discovering that someone he thought was of good character, wasn’t, said, “I guess he’s one of those people who are different in the nighttime than they are during the day.”
A Faustian Bargain
But if you know that Bill or Sally is a lying, conniving, greedy, dishonest, untrustworthy, abusive person and you still pick them to manage your business because you think they will make you more money or get you better deals, then that tells us what kind of person you are and what things, at the end of the day, are the most important to you.
“Yes, he’s a serial sexual abuser, but he makes us a lot of money so just pay off the women and make sure that they sign a really strong NDA.”
Your Hands Never Stay Completely Clean
The thing is, relationships go both ways. You rub off on them, but they also rub off on you. The people you choose to associate with, the people you choose to represent you, affect you too. If you choose to lie with dogs you’re doomed to live with fleas.
Turning to the upcoming election, let’s set aside all those people who think that Donald Trump is a good guy, that he’s a decent, honest, ethical, trustworthy, fair person. OK, they believe what they believe. I make no more comments about them here.
Hiring A Known Villain Ratifies His Future Misdeeds
If you knowingly hire a fox to supervise the hen house, then you’ve approved in advance the appearance of a lot of dead chickens.
If you give your mentally ill child a gun you can’t later claim that you have no responsibility for the people he shoots.
Let’s consider those people who do know that Donald Trump is a lying, dishonest, mean, untrustworthy narcissist, but who, nevertheless, still want him to be the next President of the United States.
Our elected leader’s values reflect our nation’s values. The person we choose to lead us is a reflection of who we are, what we want, and what we are willing to give up to get what we want.
Those Americans who want the person in charge of their country to be someone whom they know is a lying, greedy, abusive, dishonest, mean, narcissist have agreed in advance that his future bad conduct will be OK.
If the American people knowingly elect a scoundrel like Donald Trump we need to take a long, hard look at the kind of people we Americans are.
The Germans knew who Hitler was. They picked him because they approved of what he was. His goals were their goals. His values were their values. For that reason, the Germans deserved all the pain and destruction that Hitler’s leadership brought down upon them.
If Americans pick Donald Trump as our leader it will be because his values are our values, because we approve of what he is, and we Americans will deserve the pain and destruction that Donald Trump’s empowerment will bring down upon us.
If the American people are so flawed, so mean-spirited, so devoid of ordinary decency and common sense that, knowing what he is they still choose Donald Trump as their leader then the United States and its citizens deserve what they get.
Donald Trump Is Just A Manifestation Of The Problem
Donald Trump is not the problem. There are assholes everywhere. The people who think that it’s acceptable to empower a despicable person because they think it will get them what they want and who think that, in the end, it will turn out well for them are the problem.
People who think that they can profit from hiring a scoundrel are doomed to despair.
We Can’t Count On People Not Making A Deal With The Devil
In his first inaugural address in March of 1861, Lincoln said, “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
But, sadly, the better angels stayed home and in April of 1861 the racists started the Civil War to keep the massive wealth flowing from the business model of plantation agriculture powered by human slavery.
With regard to the upcoming 2024 election, I quote Walt Kelly:
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
— David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
