Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 24, 1995 TAG: 9510240026
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES E. LYNN JR.
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Our company was good to its employees. Too good. It had old-fashioned principles about job security and seniority rights. Unfortunately, it couldn't grow fast enough to sustain such corporate welfare.
There used to be many such companies across the country - family companies that grew to fit their local regions. They often supported several hundred employees plus dependents. By virtue of their diversification, they were the backbone of our national economy. Their steadiness protected us from chaos. There were thousands of them, and I worked for several good ones.
My companies were liberal, too. Though conservative and hard-bitten as businessmen, my mentors were transcendentally liberal. I admired that. I took my paychecks (which were always on time) to the bank with pride.
Now something is going on that frightens me. It has the potential to ruin everything. It is the "leveraged buyout" with "downsizing." This is a sinister methodology that has already spread like wildfire. It goes beyond justifiable adaptation to new conditions. It's inhumane.
This is not good for America - not the American WASP, the American black, the American Jew, the American Catholic or the majority and minorities of us. What happened to my companies, for example, had nothing to do with the American Dream. It was selfishness motivated by blind greed.
Our forefathers did not intend "the pursuit of happiness" to include blind greed. It's undemocratic. They wanted to take maximum advantage of a "window of opportunity" on the new continent to see if a true democracy would work. They laid their lives and fortunes on the line when they did this. They were focused on prime idealism, not perfection. They believed that the people would have enough sense to deserve it and forever improve it.
I cannot believe Uncle Sam is proud of some of his nephews who practice blind greed. Here he provides everything for happiness and they aren't satisfied. They want so much more they are insensible and without compassion. They corrupt their own homes - and yours and mine. And our souls.
Blind greed always contains within it the seeds of its own destruction. In today's technological system, this is not comforting. Those seeds fly on the wind. They contaminate everything everywhere. And they are ineradicable. Their fruit is too sweet and habituating.
Manifestations of blind greed are found in some of today's (and yesterday's) television programming. I have a low tolerance for this because to me the intent to exploit is very transparent. The success of it appalls me.
I now have almost 50 years experience in advertising. I know exploitation when I see it. And it's way out of line. I'm very ashamed of my own profession. The worst of it breeds in our large metropolises - places short on greenery and peace. These are restless places, unnatural places, material places.
As a bumpkin with a long life history, I can see the difference in our public mores compared to those of just a few years ago. There is more and more disregard. There is less and less individuality. Big ideas are more important than people. I feel much smaller than I used to because of it.
I started to write an essay critical of the effects of buyouts on companies I worked for. It was not to be theoretical or academic - it was to be about humans I know who have been tragically affected. It is tragic to be dumped at a mature age on the street. Especially after devotion to the company. It's treasonous because it's not what the founders had in mind! So I got really exercised thinking about it.
My professional life has been devoted to business development. I have a mind for it. But I wouldn't touch leveraged buyouts with a 100-foot pole! They stink that much.
They breed a great cynicism and demoralization. They rob our innocence. One can't work by cynicism. One must be enthused. Enthusiasm can't be synthesized. Nor can happiness.
Money ought to be currency, not an end in itself. Our truly great people did not think that much of it. Some of them were paupers. Yet they left great legacies to this country. Even though you may not know it, you were enriched by them.
Now we have too many who think money and evidences of it are all that counts. That frightens me as much as Nazism did! I cannot live in such a nation.
Bring back a God we can trust.
Charles E. Lynn Jr, 68, is a semi-retired, free-lance writer and advertising consultant in Salem.
by CNB