Government Ethics
Using an AN/PRC-77 dipped in ink, no less a personage than LTC Dan writes in on the subject of ethics:
Granted, I am now a mere contractor. But after 27 years of military service, I have yet to see (a) a general officer or SES who wasn’t required to take ethics training, or [2] an employee or Soldier who couldn’t pass the ethics test without believing it.
The gubmint gets all its people from the population at large. The population at large is not all that ethical, in my experience. Life sux, don’t it?
V/R,
LTC Dan
They probably start out reasonably ethical, for the most part, but their sense of propriety and ethos gets eaten away by the repetitiveness of their job. The Czar pictures the tired, demoralized DMV worker who spends half her day yelling at people who play dumb, cannot speak enough English to understand the rules of the road, or are simply there to waste her time. The union takes too much of her money, and she is just trying to get through the day. Day after day. Year after year.
Then, someone offers her $50 in cash to assist him with his written exam. She refuses, as this is unethical. Two months later, someone else does it to her refusal. Three months later, a third offer, only this time she figures “What the hell.”
Within two years, she has pulled in a fair amount of cash that no one needs to know about, has made her feel better about going into work, and really nobody has suffered from it.
Big things always arise from little steps.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.