Dr. Stamer Jones Laments the "Cultural Crisis"

A new Email circulating the Internet, has a confirmed letter, written by Dr. Stamer Jones, lamenting the "cultural crisis" by modeling a rather unsympathetic patient laden with tattoos and a gold tooth.

A suggested reply... 

I truly understand how maddening it is to help people who make bad decisions in terms of finances and health. But frankly, we gather on a slippery slope when we target others, the uneducated or poor, to vent our feelings. The truth is, there are many rich, educated and middle-class folks, whom, while maybe not sporting tattoos and other “symbols” of wealth within their own “clan”, feel the same way as our gold-toothed friend.

The tag line in the e-mail laments, “It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that, "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".

Obviously, Dr. Jones’ patient is an easy target and will not illicit much sympathy, however I would suggest that even those at the top of our society, feel the same way.

When Dr. McQuire, ex-CEO of United Healthcare, the poster child of bad corporate governance, is given a $1.2 BILLION golden parachute, could it be that deep within his consciousness, he felt that “someone else (the Board) will always take care of me", not unlike Dr. Jones' patient.

How about AIG’s series of bad financial decisions, or Morgan Stanley et al, could they not also believe that “someone else will always take care of us", because the country cannot afford to let us go under.

Or the physician who adds a few unnecessary "procedures" to the bill, submitted to the insurance company, taking advantage of their fee-for-service system, not unlike Dr. Jones' patient taking advantage of a system that she has access to.

How about the common-man, the heroic veteran who takes up drinking and needs financial help. Should we attack the veteran for bad health and financial decisions because he supposedly knows that “someone else will always take care of me”?

Those of us who bristle with moral superiority, living in our McMansion sized glass-houses, should be careful about pointing fingers at the powerless who steal a few bucks from "The System", after all, how many times have we justified taking advantage of a system, subconsciously assuming that someone else will take up the slack. Remember Leona Helmsley infamous remark to her housekeeper before she was sentenced to prison, "We don't pay taxes!  Only little people pay taxes."  Aaaah, the slippery slope....

The e-mail states that we are in the midst of a “cultural crisis”. Dictionaries define a crisis as a “turning point”. The truth is every generation sees itself in the midst of a cultural crisis. From Moses throwing down stone tablets upon a crowd of drunkards, to Caesar’s lamenting of the wayward-youth of his generation, to our parents rating of “juvenile delinquency’ as the number one problem in America in the 1950’s (see the movies "Blackboard Jungle", "The Wild Bunch" and "Westside Story"), etc., etc. The truth is that the human condition has never been a comforting enterprise to watch.

Maybe it’s up to those of us who have been given much, by means of birth, education, wealth, connections, abundant brain cells or simple good luck, to be better models. Throughout history, princes, presidents and popes, have been “taken care of” or have been “bailed-out” after making bad decisions. Why should we expect better behavior from those lower in the food-chain? Wisdom suggests that to those who have been given much, much is required and responsible modeling of good behavior and accountability would be a great starting point for all of us.

So at the end of the day, and for the first time in history, maybe we, the fortunate, should begin modeling responsible behavior and accountability, before lamenting the bad behavior of those who look up to us.

Just a thought…