Checksum Arcanius

Erik, of Freedomdown.net asks:
“Is it really that hard to imagine that people sometimes just do things because they are the right thing to do?”

And I respond (it was a comment, but it got way too long):

No, it is not hard to believe that, because this is often why people do things. I made no claim to the contrary. What I do believe is that, when you take the aggregate of what the CIA does, it is not “the right thing.” So where does this behavior arise from, when there are, no doubt, many people in that organization trying to do the right thing – trying to protect us from terrorism; trying to save lives; trying to make the world a better place – not because it is neccesarily in their immediate self interest, but because it is the right thing to do?

And the answer I always arrive at is that there is another motivation that drives the organization as a whole that is different than what drives most individuals. And, from the way I understand incentives, the thing that makes successful government bureacracies is far different than what makes a successful corporation (ie, pleasing the customers). The primary driving incentive for government bureacracies – and this is no fault of their own; it is an effect of the system – is to increase their size and stature in the system. No other goal, as an organization serves everyone in the organization. Individuals may be strongly motivated to do the right thing, but the organization rarely is. And from the track record of the CIA, I would doubt that it has, as an organization, always had the best motivations.

Conprendez-vous?

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