Self-Regulation

Self-Regulation

If my brother was to be arrested for murder and I was on his jury, I would find him not guilty. His bloody fingerprints at the murder scene, his confession, even the full page ad's he took out in the newspaper detailing how he committed the crime wouldn't change my verdict. I would remain loyal to my brother just as I would expect in reverse.

You as a neutral observer would be outraged but would you be surprised? I doubt it and here's why.

You would wonder how anybody could think I would give a different verdict. In similar circumstances would you give a guilty verdict, I for one wouldn't count on it. How could justice work if every family got to decide if a family member was guilty or not, if every family got to self-regulate, in short it would not work.

But self-regulation is everywhere, how often do:

Police investigate Police.

Companies get to decide if they are wrong or right when you complain to them.

Government departments investigate themselves.

How about Finance companies being told that they should self-regulate, even after they have proven that we cannot trust them.

Why is it that self-regulation is regarded as a panacea to the worlds problems? Because it's easy. Nearly no effort required. The Authorities can hide behind self-regulation, how were they to know things were so bad!

They get to hide behind ignorance, self imposed ignorance. They get to help out their friends by saying, sometimes truthfully, "I had no idea that the right hand was doing that, I only look after the left hand". Their ignorance is meant to keep us ignorant. Self-regulation means that no legal authority is watching. Behind closed doors corruption can flourish, bad accounting practices go unreported, unethical and even dangerous activities continue unchallenged.

It is an environment in which the honest man is regarded as a fool.

So what can be done about the problem. In short no one should be allowed to investigate themselves on any serious matter. Everyone should be accountable for their actions and that includes companies and the Government as well as ourselves.



Upon Hope Blog - A Traditional Conservative Future