In days gone by, handshakes, not contracts, sealed a deal.
A handshake came after both parties reached what each considered a fair exchange. It then implied mutual obligation to fulfil your part of the deal. Your reputation depended upon it and that meant everything in a time when we knew our customers, our employees, our suppliers, our neighbours.
Businesses were often run by families who were personally responsible for the way they conducted their affairs. They did not have the remove of being non-working shareholders, relieved of any responsibility or consequences. They knew their staff and their families. If they did not honour their word, people would find out and avoid them. They would feel the shame of letting people down.
But those days are gone.
When a CEO’s salary or bonuses are dependent on increasing dividends to their shareholders, that becomes the goal to be achieved by whatever means available. When shareholders’ have no connection to a business other than receiving a cheque periodically, the size of the payment is all that matters.
Now, we must have laws, rules and contracts to dictate how we must behave. Which has led to whole industries whose sole purpose is to work out how to get around the rules. If it’s not written down that you specifically can’t do something, or, in many cases, even if it is, there will always be ways to get away with it if you have enough resources to see off legal challenges, or powerful connections to protect you from scrutiny.
Rather than adhering to the spirit of a law, we have become one of the most litigious countries in the world, with arcane, and very expensive, arguments about the letter of the law surplanting any form of natural justice or fairness. It is a system that is routinely exploited in the worst possible way.
There was a time when the church provided a meeting point for the community where we heard if our neighbours needed help. The congregation would rally round to offer support. And this still happens to a degree, though far fewer of us are regular attendees.
But the church is now a huge business, with the archaic rituals of worship more a sideshow to enthral devoted followers. The hierarchy understood the importance of reputation, and protected it, not by acting honourably, but through a shocking complicity of silence, sacrifice and coverups.
There was a time when sports people would rather lose than cheat.
There was also a time when politicians were held in high regard. But now, government is seen as a prize with the spoils to be shared among supporters rather than any form of temporary personal sacrifice in the service of the public.
“There is almost nothing more important to good government and our nation’s future than the quality, honesty and clarity of political discourse: how we explain policy challenges and trade-offs, and educate voters about the constraints we have to work within…how we express our position, our basis for reaching it and why it differs from that of our opponents if this is the case…how we communicate changes in policy and their implications.
Yet paradoxically, there is almost nowhere else in our national life where the incentives to be untruthful or to purposefully mislead are so great, and the adverse consequences of such behaviour so modest.” – Malcolm Turnbull
When libertarians and conservatives speak about personal responsibility and reward for effort, they ignore the other half of the deal – honesty and integrity. Where is the obligation to keep up your side of the bargain? Where are the consequences if you don’t?
No amount of regulation will make us all behave well.
It is easy to lie and cheat and steal and exploit. But infinitely more rewarding to know that you have done the right thing by others. We have to set our own standards. We have to honour our obligations, not because of fear of punishment, but because it is the right thing to do.
When you shake someone’s hand, whether physically or metaphorically, it should mean something.
