Despair leads to an idea

This article in this month’s Outlook India on the telephone scam initially filled me with a great deal of despair and dismay. Malfeasance and corruption have been committed not only by politicians and bureaucrats – and by the corporations who stood to profit -  but even by the journalists who were supposed to report on them –  and now, in a twist of recursion, possibly by the bodies that are investigating them¹.

 

And it makes complete sense, through a perverse logic. For example, why would any CBI officer go after the PMO when he has everything to lose from prosecuting them (as if it would ever stick) – and everything to gain from colluding?

 

This makes one wonder – is there a point, from a theoretical standpoint –  that the environment of an organization becomes so toxic that no recovery is possible whatsoever ? For example in India, I think, we all in our hearts believe that to get ahead you have to take shortcuts. “Ghee seedhi ungli sey nahi nikalti hain”. Given half a chance  anyone of us would quite readily do the things we condemn in others. An attitude born of Darwinian natural selection.

 

But this series of depressing thoughts leads to an idea (among the many such I have had vis-a-vis India) – based on a belief that behind every handicap lay a hidden opportunity.

 

Adam Smith showed how greed and self-interest can be harnessed, under appropriate conditions, for social good. Could it be possible that there exists a system that does not do away with corruption, but on the contrary creates public good through private turpitude. It would require a very cynical foundation, no doubt – but I’d say even preliminary theoretical work in this direction would be Nobel prize worthy.

 

¹ This brings to mind the phrase “Quis custodiet ipsos custodies.”