interesting viewpoint

I read a column recently that has me all up in arms. The main premise of the piece was to claim that Bernard Madoff, one of the biggest con artists of our time, is just like "us." We, as a people, have such disdain for him because we see ourselves in him.

REALLY, Cal Thomas? Can you possibly be serious??

Mr. Thomas claims that we are so disgusted by Bernie Madoff because he "mirrors the flaw in each of us."

I am far from a perfect person. But I (and all of the other imperfect people I know) have somehow managed to never run a billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Perhaps I am just a pillar of exceptional strength and restraint when it comes to controlling my dark, evil, greedy side.

Except, I just don't think so! It is possible to be fundamentally honest, rather than fundamentally evil, with "evil management" skills. I remember years ago I was in charge of managing the snack fund at one of my jobs--I took my role of managing that $50 a month fund seriously, I always left the receipts in the contribution jar so that people knew I wasn't pocketing any of the money, and was in fact using it all to buy snacks. That was $50 lousy dollars; I take personal offense that Cal Thomas thinks I am disgusted by Bernie Madoff because I see what he was able to do with his dark, evil, greedy side and identify with it (maybe he thinks I'm jealous because I am evil enough, just not clever enough, to pull off such a scheme.)

There was another disgusting side to this article: Mr. Thomas mentioned some comments from Jewish leaders that all but said (you could cut the implication with a knife!) that Mr. Madoff's behavior was even more despicable because he did it to fellow Jews. As a non-Jewish person, I take huge offense--this is a crime against all people who trusted someone who claimed to be an investment professional. This isn't a Jew/Gentile issue at all, and to imply that the offense would somehow be lessened were none of the victims Jews makes me sick.

I hold a firm belief that adult humans, who are essentially the top of the "food chain" in our civilised society, have a higher burden of care and responsibility to creatures lower on whatever food chain you are using for comparison, who rely on us in our exceptional capacities. As an investment professional, Bernie Madoff had a fiduciary duty to take care of his clients funds better than he would his own investments. In my opinion, it is a more egregious offense to screw over people who trust you than to rob someone at knife-point. At least a robber with a knife is honest with you about his intentions!