When the Good go to Work
Among the essays I have on my list to write some day is the one expounding my thesis that it's not possible for large organizations to be ethical, even if all or almost all the people in the organization are 'good' people trying to do the right thing. Here, from Secrets by Daniel Ellsberg, is one of the reasons why this is so:
McNaughton's fear, he told me one afternoon when he had just come back from the White house, was that one day the president would turn to him and ask him what he thought about bombing. In a memoir written years later, NSC aide Chester Cooper describes having had a comparable fantasy more than once. The president would be going around the table asking if everyone agreed with his decisions, and he imagined himself saying when it came to his turn, "No, Mr. President, I do not agree!" As he was contemplating this thought, he would notice the president's eyes turning to him and he would hear himself saying, as he nodded yes, "I agree, Mr. President."McNaughton told me, "I've asked myself what I would do." Then he paused and looked at me. "I would have to follow McNamara's lead. I'd have to say something along the same lines as McNamara. I couldn't contradict McNamara or under cut him in front of the president." I didn't say anything. He went on: "You know, my family owns a newspaper in Illinois. We don't have much to do with running it; that's for the editor. The main thing we have to do is pick the editor. And when we pick an editor, well, there're a number of things you look for, but my father taught me that the number one thing you look for is loyalty."
He continued to look at me, and I continued to listen. I knew why he was telling me this. He didn't define what he meant by loyalty, but it was clear enough from his story: Do what's good for your boss, the man who hired you; put that above what you think is best for the country, above giving the president or the secretary of defense your best advice if that would embarass your boss....