Behave badly and prosper!

A friend and former colleague of mine, Peter Burden, recently wrote a blog entitled “Do We Really Count?”, which you can find here. In it, he asks if part of our current malaise is caused by the suspicion that humanity might not be worth saving, and goes on to argue that businesses could do more to increase people’s self esteem. Of course, I agree, but it started me thinking…

When it comes to feelings of self-worth, infinitely more harm is done by politicians and the media (including marketing) than by business. Self-worth comes from striving to achieve things. The targets change over the course of our lives, from getting good enough A levels to get into a decent university, to trying to establish yourself in your first job, project or business, then trying to become a better manager, husband, parent, friend, provider, citizen etc. and, all the while, trying to appreciate the beauty of nature and art and humanity, and gaining self-knowledge, and becoming whatever you were meant to be. 

Simple! Achievement is great, of course, but striving – and what it tells you about yourself – is, I believe, far more valuable in itself than the actual outcome (which is often utterly beyond our control).

Politicians could help by celebrating effort and achievement and rewarding people who take responsibility for their own lives and who provide a decent example to others. But they don’t. Politicians have destroyed genuine competition in schools because hard work and talent are an affront to the lazy and talentless - and we are all equal! They’ve taken away the pride of millions by creating a benefits system that often makes going out to work pointless. They compound these errors by punishing parents who’ve made huge sacrifices to get their children the best education they can afford by encouraging universities to discriminate against pupils from fee-paying schools. 

So, the government is positively discouraging most of us from behaving in a way that would increase self-esteem for ourselves and humanity in general. 

At the same time – bizarrely – they’ve helped create a cult of elitism and greed that would have had Gordon Gekko reaching for the smelling salts. 

Many bankers, sports stars, modern “artists” and TV “personalities” have discovered that wicked, stupid, selfish, ugly behaviour will be condoned and rewarded by the government and the lickspittle quangocracy it has created to set the tone for the nation. So when criminals are set free because there aren’t enough prison places, and illegal immigrants are allowed to stay because the system can’t cope, and teenage girls can jump to the head of the housing queue by getting themselves up the duff, and MPs can “flip” homes and not be punished and keep their seats – it’s just part of a pattern set by politicians and the creatures who do their bidding: behave badly and prosper. It could be Labour’s next election slogan.

Teaching our children that testing yourself is a good thing – whether you’re found wanting or not - and demonstrating by example that behaving decently towards others is the cornerstone of a fulfilling life would, I believe, genuinely help us all feel better about ourselves and the rest of humanity.

Anything that encourages businesses to treat employees, each other, and the rest of us better can hardly be a bad thing! But I’m not sure, given some obvious exceptions, that business is really the problem here.