As you may know, several interesting books are being published about the ENRON insanity, and there is also a documentary coming out. In today's
WaPo Live Online, an astute participant from Mt. Lebanon, PA asked the moderator, Steven Pearlstein, about the similarities between ENRON and the Bush Administration.
Specifically, the Pennsylvanian asked about the ENRONization of the US government, i.e. the "institutionalization of fraud" which has certain indicia. A list of these indicia, and Pearlstein's response (hint: he agrees!), on the flipside.
The Pennsylvanian listed the following indicia of ENRONization: (1) "happy" numbers with no connection to reality; (2) off-balance sheet maneuvers designed to deceive investors (read: Americans); (3) conflicts of interest; (4) silencing insiders; (5) moving internal opponents out of the way; (6) vanity expensing; (7) soliciting insiders and then outsiders to profit from the confused mess; (8)unqualified schemers promoted to lofty positions of authority; (9) intimidation of outside analysts (read: media); (10) a board of directors led by "no one home"; (11) irreparable harm to investors, suppliers, creditors, vendors (read: taxpayers).
The Pennsylvanian sums it up nicely:
In other words, did ENRON - a marriage of unbounded greed, political belly-crawling, contempt for law & proper conduct, reality denial, personal vendetta, and colossal stupidity - inform and inspire our present U.S. government and the pursuit of its own global empire?
Steven Pearlstein then responds:
...yes, I think you are on to something: there is a kind of corporate management style at Enron that I think is reflected in the way the Bush administration is run. The basic model is to keep power and knowledge restricted to a tight circle of loyalists, ignore and starve institutional processes and checks and balances to the point that they atrophy, and manipulate and placate the outsiders (the shareholders, the voters, the press)as much as you have to without ever really leveling with them or thinking you might learn something from them. The purpose of the game is to win (power, money) and there is an end-justifies-the-mean quality to how you do it. And you see it everywhere, from the abrogation of civil rights down in Guantanamo to the non-punishment for those supervising prisoners who die to manipulation of the Social Security agency to further policy initiatives. I observe this is as much as Cheney attitude as a Bush one, by the way, and was evidenced in Cheney saying repeatedly that there was no market manipulation in the California energy crisis when, in fact, he really didn't know what he was talking about. It's all about helping our friends, screwing our enemies and circling the wagons in times of stress.
I was really struck by Pearlstein's candor. A breath of fresh air given the MSM's typical failure to call a spade a spade.
But, it brings up an interesting point for me: how do you fight back against a GOVERNMENT that has been ENRONized?
To me, you first begin to expose it. I think one way to do this is to begin the "How Bush/Cheney has ENRONized your government" project. The first assignment in this project: figure out the exact categories from those listed above that best convey ENRONization, and them begin to fill them with Bush/Cheney activities.
Anyone wanna help?