Why Whistleblowers are so necessary

In todays “mad” world it is vital for honesty, integrity and moral behaviour to be paramount. But is it?

One wonders at the conditions that apply which impel someone to expose corrupt, illicit, negligent, abusive or exploitative behaviour. This could be government or corporate policies or an individual’s activities. And one wonders at the response to such exposure which is always initially denial and ultimately a very severe and harsh form of retribution against the person who ‘blew the whistle’ which led to the exposure.

The thing is that no one likes to be presented with an image of themselves which differs from their own, internal, picture of whom or what they think they are – everyone likes to think of themselves as a ‘good person’. If and when someone is caught out and exposed by a whistle-blower they see themselves reflected, as it were, in a mirror, in their ‘true colours’ and they are shocked and enter a state of denial. How many times have those so exposed said the words “I have done nothing wrong”? They will fight tooth and nail to preserve their image of themselves and to avoid appearing diminished in their own eyes or in the eyes of others. They fight to maintain a level of trust because everyone, particularly in business or government, must be seen as trustworthy - if anyone is untrustworthy it is always someone else or another government or another business – it is always the ‘other’. Admitting responsibility for illegal activities is always difficult and not many have the strength of character to admit to such activity.  At its core then, this is an issue relating to morality, to values and to ethics because no one is trustworthy who is not also ethical. 

The French mathematician and humanist, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) in his ‘Pensees’ wrote, “There is no greater unhappiness than when a person starts to fear the truth lest it denounce him.” 

There is great insight in these words and this is the basis of the reason why whistle-blowing is so dangerous to the ‘blower’ and so necessary for the guilty party so as to relieve them of their unhappiness. It is necessary for the perpetrator to be exposed because their actions, if undetected, have a toxic effect which manifests itself by not only creating stress but also by alienating them from their community. It is as if something secret and unseen has to now be viewed. Any such exposure has a cathartic effect by lifting a burden and ‘cleansing’ them of their guilt. The alternative is fear and fear begets anger and hatred and those who are fearful and consumed by hate lose their powers of reason and in such a state seldom exercise sound judgement. A person’s ability to determine ‘right’ from ‘wrong’ is suspended and everything and anything appears to be acceptable, which defers the moment of exposure. 

Any activities that are exploitative, corrupt, illicit, negligent or abusive give rise to feelings of guilt and create a profound unease of conscience. Peace of mind will be the first casualty in such situations and any person caught up in these activities is unlikely to sleep easily at night! What many forget in today’s unedifying stampede for money and positions of influence is that men (as in mankind) have done these things and that we are all of mankind, furthermore we all share in the multi-various proclivities of mankind. Even if, from a purely legal stand point, any one individual may not be an accessory to any questionable activities or behaviour, thanks to our human nature and the consciousness that binds us all to each other, we are all guilty – we are all of mankind. We are all diminished by such unwarranted behaviour. 

This is why whistle-blowers are so important.  A whistle-blower’s courage, clarity of mind and singleness of purpose brings us lesser mortals up short and the proverbial ‘scales’ fall from our eyes. We are then able to see the extent and the ramifications of the questionable activity or behaviour that has been going on around us. 

Every activity is a cause for some effect. And every effect impinges on everyone in some way or another. Remember the ‘six degrees of separation’? Knowing six people is said (mathematically) to give us a link through someone to everyone in the world. This link is why, when an uplifting or inspirational event is reported in the media it has an immediate global impact and we all feel the effect. Likewise when some ghastly tragedy is reported we all feel appalled and cast down. This is the principal reason why we must treat all people in an ethical way because we are all interconnected – it is in our genes. To do anything else is to invite chaos and great unhappiness.

It was the British philosopher and statesman, Edmund Burke (1729-1797) who made the much quoted statement that - 

“All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”  

The following short tale has, over the centuries, warned those who may wish to harm, exploit or abuse others or to engage in corrupt activities of the likely outcome of their activities: 

Aesop’s fable (CLXIX)

The vine and the goat

“There was once a vine teeming with ripe fruit and tender shoots and looking forward to the day when it would provide a bountiful vintage. Suddenly a wanton goat appeared and gnawed its bark and nibbled its young leaves.

            ‘You have no right to harm me like this’, said the vine. ‘But I won’t have to wait long for my just revenge. Even if you crop my leaves and cut me down to my root, I shall provide the wine to pour over you when you are brought as a sacrifice to the altar.’”

            *Though it may be late, retribution arrives in the end*

Whistleblowing has its roots in Injustice!

As always I rely on my one loyal reader and the support I receive. I know that this reader is concerned about the increasing injustice reported daily. Injustice affects us all and has a toxic and corrosive effect on society generally.

People know when they are doing  wrong – lawyers, accountants, real estate agents milking Trust Accounts, for example. So do businesses. So do banks. So do Governments. So do religious organisations. They are all aware of wrong doing but they keep doing it!

As I have stated many times before the root of injustice is unethical conduct – people, businesses, governments either for personal gain, trying to gain unfair advantage or to avoid scrutiny or to cover-up some dubious conduct. This applies to all levels of human conduct.

Now we have the serious allegations (they are still just allegations) that a commercial subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia  has been offering bribes to encourage sales of the bank notes that it prints. This is the banker bank and is owned by the Australian Government! If the allegations are proved this will be a REALLY serious affair.

Also just recall the recent Olympic Games – taking drugs to gain an unfair advantage. Then there was the Tour de France – more drugs. Also of course there is the unethical conduct of banks and financial institutions – greed, manipulating interest rates, money laundering, betting on credit default swaps and fraudulent practices; the Catholic Church and paedophilia; businesses – poor customer service, greed, price gouging, squeezing suppliers to lower prices and general anti-competitive conduct; individuals involved in crime – be this “white collar” fraud, violence, sexual or physical abuse. Then there are the breaches of human rights by ALL governments (think Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graib and “renditions”; China and the Falun Gong and official corruption; the basket case that is North Korea; Russia with endemic corruption and Putin’s attempt to crush all dissent; Australia and the “stolen generation”, the treatment of asylum seekers and the Defence Force sexual abuse scandal – and so on and so on. The list is unfortunately endless).

This type of conduct, which hurts people either physically or emotionally, is often carried out by people who show a complete lack of empathy – an inability to feel what another person is experiencing. They show no remorse, are callous, have poor behaviour controls, are impulsive and fail to accept responsibility for their own actions. This evidence of anti-social behaviour is typical of people who usually would have high scores on the relevant clinical checklist for psychopathy.

On the face of it, psychopaths are often highly intelligent, charming, outgoing people, who are eager to make a positive impression. But this behaviour is a façade and an imitation of what they know to be socially acceptable: the so-called “mask of sanity”. The clinical checklist for psychopathy refers to "glib and superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, conning and manipulating ", and such like.

You may think that sounds like some of the businessmen and politicians we know!

Research shows that high-functioning psychopaths are often very successful people. On the surface they appear to be confident and calm and seem to have their act together. The Human Capital and Management Library says: "High-functioning psychopaths...tend to rule the world. They rise to the highest levels of power in politics and business."

Research also indicates that about ten per cent of CEOs could be diagnosed as psychopaths compared to about one per cent of the general population who show this same tendency. What allows these people to manipulate and control others is their ability to do so on a very rational, logical level with no feelings of emotion or empathy for the other person.

The importance of whistle-blowers stems from the fact that most of the unethical, unjust and downright criminal behaviour in government and in commerce that has been exposed, has been exposed by people with a conscience – whistle-blowers! Without whistle-blowers how would we know, truthfully, how any government, of any country was actually governing? Without whistle-blowers how would we know truthfully, as tax payers, how our money was being spent in any jurisdiction? Without whistle-blowers how would we know, truthfully, how our law enforcement officers were performing? Without this knowledge provided by whistle-blowers how could there be any trust in the performance of any branch of any government or any company or corporation? Every one of them has something to hide. Every one of them has a skeleton hidden somewhere (as do we all as individuals).

Whistle-blowers perform the very important function of shining a light into the dark corners where these activities are normally hidden and exposing the perpetrators of injustice for what they are.

Remember the advice Polonius gave to his son Laertes:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 78–82.

Long live whistle-blowers!