Herron: National dilemmas not always a result of connivance

We are hesitant to admit it, but we need our villains — our dragons to slay, our bandits to… We are hesitant to admit it, but we need our villains — our dragons to slay, our bandits to bust, our tyrants to topple. This need is merely commensurate with our desire to become society’s shining knights. To a certain degree, we all long to be heroes. It’s part of our nature to desire recognition, and for many, that recognition must come as being the conqueror over evil.

Within our society, villains are rarely present, but we still seek them out, often in the form of pestering neighbors or unruly fans of opposing sports teams.

Politicians, however, know best how to create, seek out and attempt to destroy the demons of society. They’ve become magnificently skilled at the art of crafting the nefarious beings that they can blame for the ills of the United States.

So it is no surprise that, over the past few years, great effort has been exerted toward portraying the unfortunate problems that have plagued us as caused by greed or malice. Take, for example, the congressional inquiries into rising oil prices during the summer of 2008.

Unwilling to believe that gas prices were determined by supply and demand in an industry where demand is never a sure thing, numerous members of Congress began blaming the “oil speculators” who were, inexpProxy-Connection: keep-alive

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cably, driving up prices simply to make money.

These speculators were never named or identified, of course. However, based on their caricatures, it wouldn’t have been the least bit surprising if, had they been revealed, they would have been wearing a cape, goatee, monocle and whatever other evil apparel the imagination can conjure.

But then, oil prices returned to tolerable levels once the summer ended, and the issue receded. Do stay tuned for the sequel, which will undoubtedly appear once oil prices rise again.

Nonetheless, as one issue fades, another must rise. So we turned to the financial crisis. Economists are still trying to understand its causes, and distinguished debate in that dismal field continues.

However, Congress and the White House found the cause months ago: greed, greedy CEOs, greedy companies and generally slimy businesses that took advantage of the non-greedy.

Some want to see these people in jail. In the article “Hundreds should go to jail,” Tom Gardner, co-founder and CEO of The Motley Fool, said, “We won’t see orange jumpsuits on the hundreds of bankers for whom they would fit … the banking sector has wiped out its investors, is decimating companies that rely on credit, and is primarily responsible for our rising unemployment.”

What many have been unwilling or unable to understand is that this crisis was brought on by what Alan Greenspan characterized as “irrational exuberance,” a collective misunderstanding of how much houses were worth and how much risk companies were taking.

To see that this was the case, one merely has to look at how this sort of misunderstanding occurred on all levels. CEOs were guilty of it, mortgage companies were guilty of it, insurers were guilty of it, and home buyers who bought multiple houses on credit were guilty of it.

Sending people to jail for failing is hardly the right message to send to a nation that was founded as a result of what was essentially a large risk, and that sense of risk-taking is what has propelled the sort of prominence among the world that we enjoy today.

Our country has done so well in the past, has overcome numerous obstacles and has become such a beacon of success that it becomes difficult to understand the heartbeats of fallibility that we often face.

When a problem arises that we aren’t used to — such as the sort of pervasive failure that caused the current recession — our reflex is to conclude that it wasn’t our collective fault, but must have been the result of the sort of evil reserved only for comic books and the Bible.

Turning government policy into a constant battle between good and evil is never a wise solution.

Much of Latin America’s 20th century was characterized by a tendency to constantly fight economic battles against inequality, against wealth, against markets. The result has been an unfortunate lack of prosperity for most of the region and an enriching lesson that shows the problems of economic populism.

What the trial and conviction of Bernie Madoff proved is that there are genuine instances in which people lack a grasp of morality and that their pursuit of self-interest comes at great cost to others. Madoff’s behavior destroyed wealth and trust and is genuinely something our government must fight against.

However, we must not assume that every banker is a potential Madoff and that every problem within our society is caused by Dr. Evil.

E-mail Mason at mph20@pitt.edu.