FEBRUARY 23, 2023 – As is other headliner news, the full derailment story is a Venn diagram of causes and effects. In an authoritarian society, the diagram would be obscured by a giant ax falling on the necks of people whose survival threatens the hand that wields the ax. In our fractious democracy, the diagram will be subsumed by the political and economic agendae of various interests that . . . derail . . . the greater good. In a better functioning democracy, the Venn diagram would be deployed to shape and implement cogent, comprehensive policy.
The story reminds me of a heart-stopping event during my days as manager of a division of the bank’s corporate trust department. One afternoon a section manager appeared in my office doorway, asked ominously, “Can we talk?” and, more ominously, closed the door. The ashen-faced manager described a giant hiccup that had just occurred. His exact words were, “We just learned that operations made a $10 million interest payment to the wrong bondholders.” I tried to maintain a poker face as my thoughts were seized by the image of a pre-colonoscopy, bottled laxative.
After the actual financial exposure was quantified and the fire extinguished, I realized the need to create a Venn diagram depicting the interplay among causes and effects; a diagram that would inform reformation of our systems so as to avoid a recurrence of the near-death experience.
What I learned in the process was that a full and accurate Venn diagram required input from several people, including those whose actions were the immediate cause of the laxative event. Just as confessions wrung by torture are rarely true, information provided by corporate employees cowering in fear is often unreliable. Accordingly, by projecting calm and objectivity and focusing on system accountability rather than individual scapegoats, I obtained more constructive insights from the very folks who were best positioned to improve the system.
In the case of the Ohio disaster, finger-pointing is on full display. The former president—who’d embraced deregulation—flew to the site, donned his MAGA cap and pointed his whole fist at Biden. Biden, meanwhile, poked his finger back into the eyes of the de-regulator. The locals used their gritty fingernails to scratch the eyeballs out of the railroad CEO. In blind faith, the hapless CEO pressed his hands together, fingers pointed skyward seeking God’s mercy.
God, in turn, is surely pointing a finger at the nefarious collective of (a) Norfolk Southern board members elected by (b) Wall Street fund managers, who, insisting on “precision scheduling railroading” to improve “shareholder value,” pressured (c) railroad management to hire (d) lobbyists who leaned on (e) elected officials to deregulate the industry, resulting in reduced safety measures and increased risk of disaster.
But I’ll bet the Creator is shaking its mightiest finger at . . . us; members of the biggest consumer society on the planet—and of all time. Look at our homes, our lives, our world. What do we see? Mountains of toys, cars, food and drink, electronics, appliances, furniture, items of décor, accessories, building materials and whole mountain ranges of packaging material—all “competitively” priced to ensure that we buy as much as possible. Incorporated into all these things and fueling, cleaning, packaging and lubricating them: innumerable chemicals with Greek names betraying extreme toxicity. We can hardly blame the former president, the current president, Republicans or Democrats, the regulators, the de-regulators, the railroad, Wall Street, or any of the rest of the “system,” without including ourselves—the end-consumers*—on the Venn diagram.
In reality, however, few voters or politicians who cater to us will have much interest in a Venn diagram approach to understanding the full story behind the derailment. Scapegoating is intellectually easier—and far more gratifying.
*God forbid (so to speak) if our IRAs, 401(k)s and pension funds are invested in mutual funds that hold Norfolk Southern Corporation stock.
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© 2023 by Eric Nilsson
