The king is dead, long live the king….Greg Smith, you have committed career suicide and you’ll never work in your chosen field of endeavor again. May whatever god you believe in, bless you and yours on your new journey. You’re a good man.
I’ve often been accused (occasionally, rightly so) of being a bit of a soothsayer, prognosticator of doom or general downer and not one to invite to parties. I can live with that… Sorry to be all Paul Revere about this, but don’t kill the messenger. Guess what? Good things AND bad things happen, bad people sometimes win, life can be unfair. Quit crying, finger pointing and burying your head in the sand (or your ass). Accept the world for what it is. Life is hard, wear a cup, and get back in the game. Sometimes, the devil vomits on your cheese platter. But…. BUT!.. sometimes people do the right thing. Sometimes, we see what’s worth saving here. Enter Greg Smith; FORMER Goldman Sachs employee and full time hero, king badass, banker-bitch-slappin pimp. Okay, I don’t know him at all, but I do like what he did.
Upon exiting his employ at GS, “GS” give the biggest middle finger in recent memory to his former masters. In Mr. Smith’s resignation letter, he skewered his former employer for nurturing and operating in an “environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it”. Mr. Smith has simply had enough. And, the New York Times knew it was coming, had done there research on the author and ran with the letter anyway. This research and subsequent support of an idea is called “vetting”. That means “we studied, researched and have concluded that these claims are accurate and true”.
Now, the left-leaning (as if that moniker actually matters) NYT backing a story like this is not a huge surprise. The left vs. right struggle is a distraction, nothing more. But, let’s remember that the same banking interests control the left and the right. Several people are taking a big risk here, and risk is a good thing. Defiance of this kind is either a) a PR stunt / smokescreen or b) an actual, heartfelt need to do the right thing. I’m going with option b, this time.
We can, at least for now, afford ourselves the luxury of thinking that some people do have a soul, even in banking executives. If I’m wrong for going out on this limb, I’ll take the bruises, dust off and learn. But I don’t think so. I think this guy is actually a good guy.
Not everyone is evil. Many good ideas get usurped (climate change, hybrid cars, etc), but that doesn’t mean that we stop trying. It just means we don’t let go of the reigns. If you’ve got a great idea, and all of the sudden, there’s a lot of support for it and money coming in beyond expectations…. trace the money… it probably goes back to Goldman Sachs… and they, don’t like you…
unpluggedfromthematrix 