People tend to rationalize minor ethical transgressions, and then continue making excuses as the behavior escalates

 

José Márcio da Silva Nogueira Neto

 

The film “Bad Education” provides a compelling look into a real-life financial scandal that happened in the Roslyn School District in Long Island, New York. The film talks about how the school administrators, Pamela Gluckin and Frank Tassone, were found to be embezzling significant sums of money from the school district to afford lavish lifestyles and expensive goods. Their actions toward the community, the situation and themselves could be related to the Ring of Gyges and the Positive Feedback Loops found in nature and society, where one would keep escalating his or her behavior as long as the thought of impunity was real.

In nature, positive feedback loops are classified when the product of a reaction leads to an increase in that reaction. Those loops can also happen in economics, like the “bubbles” in a stock market, and in society itself. The film greatly depicts those loops in Tassone’s and Gluckin’s actions, which is shown because as they felt no consequences on the criminal actions they were partaking, they kept increasing “the reaction” which meant stealing more and more taxpayer money, it was too convenient to keep going. These types of loops are also related to Bryan Borzykowski’s text “The Slippery Slope of Getting Away with Small Stuff “, where he commented about the slippery-slope effect, that people tend to rationalize minor ethical transgressions, and then continue making excuses as the behavior escalates. It is because of those excuses hidden as rationalization that the loop continues, and the product of a reaction leads to an increase in that reaction.

The desire to commit wrongdoing when no one is looking is best described with the Ring of Gyges analogy, where Tassone and Gluckin could be seen as the ones that appear to be fair to society but are not in reality. Thrasymachus interpretation of the Ring of Gyges shows that this type of person would be the ones getting the most advantage in society, because according to him, the reality of what a person does is not relevant and only what he or she appears to be to society is. At the end of the film, is shown that school staff and community had no idea whatsoever about the scandal, that they did not question the situation of the school, such as leaking in the ceilings and bad school infrastructure, because Tassone and Gluckin were “Good bosses.” To the school community they appeared to be good, ethical citizens and that is all that mattered to them.

Taking into consideration the aforementioned elements, it is crucial to understand the importance of the ethical conduct within a community, let that be a company, school or even a sports team. In Borzykowski’s text, he outlines the importance that strong long-term policies have on companies, that when a company fails to keep enforcing these policies, breaches in the company could then appear. Fabio Barbosa, CEO of Natura, who shares a similar philosophy as in Borzykowski’s text had a debate on Insper where he said, “It is possible to achieve great results while being a great person”, Fabio also mentions that strong policies are created over long periods of time, and people who are aligned with those policies are fitted to stay in the company. Tassone and Gluckin’s actions created a positive feedback loop that, much like the Ring of Gyges, lead them to act with increasing audacity and impunity. However, the film serves as reminder that, regardless of the temptations of impunity, ethics and morality remain fundamental forces in our society.

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Bibliography

• Movie: “Bad Education” – 2019

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20140806-the-slippery-slope

• Texto de apoio: “Os Grandes Problemas da Ética”, Marco Antônio Oliveira

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Este texto foi escolhido pelos professores Fernando Schüler e Leandro Consentino para o Prêmio Pensamento Crítico do 2º semestre de 2023