Worst Instincts: You CAN Learn Ethics from Books

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Can you really learn  ethics from  a book?  Mark Twain argued that there were only  two ways to learn - from smart people and from books written by smart people.

The latest book I read, Worst Instincts, is about boards, particularly, the ACLU board.

The author, Wendy Kaminer, opens with a story from her childhood. A group of kids decided to steal another boy's notebook and destroy it, knowing he would get into a lot of trouble. Even though she knew it was very wrong, she went along with it, and when the boy came asking door to door if anyone had seen it, she was too ashamed to confess. What was she so afraid of that she would not  Fast forward many years and she is on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union. She asks this question,

"If you were on a golf team playing in a tournament where the winning team got a large donation to the charity of its choice and you noticed that one of your team members was cheating, would you do anything about it?"

Ms. Kaminer argues that most people would not turn in their teammate, justifying it by the fact that the charity would get money if the team won, the player would be embarrassed if disqualified, etc. She points out, though, that most people exaggerate the benefits and underestimate the costs of their failure of the courage to be honest. If your team was disqualified, some OTHER charity would get the money, it wouldn't be spent on programs supporting drug dealing. Yes, your teammate would be embarrassed  - but so what.

On to the issue of boards. Ms. Kaminer talks about her experiences as an ACLU board member. When she criticizes the board president, several other board members send her private emails praising her bravery.

The author is puzzled by this. She says,

"It's not as if I was going to be sent to Guantanomo (for criticizing the board president). "

In fact, she points out, all that was at risk was an unpaid position on a non-profit board. There are plenty of good non-profit organizations in this country working toward worthy causes. The worst outcome is that she would end up helping another organization instead of this one.

Given those facts, why do we so often see people display their worst instincts? Why do they fail to stand up against wrong actions by fellow board members? One example given by Kaminer is an agreement the board president signed regarding a violation of privacy. In short, it seemed that somehow information in the ACLU computer had not been kept as private as people expected. The key point was, though, in the legal settlement he signed the president agreed to share the information on this security violation and the settlement with the board within 30 days. He did not do it. In fact, he didn't do it until five months later when a board member confronted him about it.

The arguments Kaminer reported are the same ones we always hear,
"What's the big deal?"

She says that it IS a big deal when a board president does not share information with the board members even after signing a legal agreement to do so. 

I am president of a board, and having listened to a lot of Erich's lectures on self-honesty lately I got to asking myself if I always share all of the information with our board as expeditiously as possible. The truth, I have to say, is no. Like anyone, I am closer to some people than others, know some of my fellow board members more than others, trust some more than others and some people I talk to no more than I have to.

I gave it more thought and the hard truth came to me that what Erich is probably right when he always says that if you want change, you need to start with yourself.

Smart people, smart books. Guess that is how you learn.

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