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Barbara Ehrenreich writes: Our corporate CEOs, for example, have gone from rocking to reeking in a mere two years. At the height of the dot-com bubble, when they had won the highest status American culture awards--that of "role model" and even "icon"--we hastened to offer them our adoration and, via the stock market, our life savings, as well. No traditional patriarchs, these--the '90s-era CEO combined the silver-templed authority figure of old with an appropriately up-to-date "out-of-the-box" image derived from Silicon Valley: reliable old dad and "edgy" young rebel wrapped into one. What was to rebel against when the leaders of our economy were already in full-throttle rebellion themselves--against irritatingly slow communications technologies, stultifying regulations, and obsolete national boundaries? If they earned 500 times more than their average employees, wasn't this a fit reward for the risks they took and the stress they endured? But now--after Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, ImClone, Tyco, Merrill Lynch, WorldCom--it turns out the only thing they were rebelling against was common decency, and the only risk that of getting caught. ... But even the most reluctant child must eventually wake up to the fact that the grown-ups in charge can't always be trusted. What we have learned in the last few months is that no one is looking out for us, guiding our souls, or ensuring our future prosperity. And when the powerful begin to act irresponsibly, it's the responsibility of the rest of us to take their power away from them. (07/23/02) |
