Monday, June 13, 2011

Monstrously inhuman or inhumanly monstrous?

I recently listened to a Fresh Air Interview of Diana B. Henriques about Bernie Madoff. Henriques is a New York Times financial writer. She was the first to interview Madoff after he was sentenced to prison. She is also the author of the recently released book, "The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust."

At the end of the interview Terry Gross asks Henriques if she sees Madoff as some sort of sociopath. Henriques replies that she thinks,
 "...we are fooling ourselves if we think he is somehow unique or rare or unique in our market environment....He is not inhumanly monstrous he is monstrously human."

I was struck by the wisdom of Henriques' assessment. We falsely reassure ourselves when we imagine that someone who has caused so much suffering is inhuman or otherwise exceptional, unique, or rare.  Most of the time, such people are all too human, subject to the same foibles, limitations, and moral failings as the rest of us. Madoff's problem was not that he didn't have a conscience. It was that he wasn't able to heed the promptings of his conscience. Henriques suspects the root of his moral failure was his inability to admit failure, i.e. he had to win at all costs. That particular struggle is not uncommon or unique to Madoff. I have struggled with it myself. How one chooses to respond to the pain of failure makes all the difference.