Reaping the whirlwind

The wave of corporate fraud did not emerge in a vacuum. It's in part a consequence of a society that refuses to recognize absolute standards of right and wrong | Timothy Lamer

Did Scott Sullivan really think he could get away with it? Did the now-fired chief financial officer of WorldCom believe that he could forever disguise nearly $4 billion in expenses? Did he even realize that what he allegedly was doing was objectively wrong?

We don't know, because Mr. Sullivan isn't talking to the press, and he pleaded the Fifth Amendment before the House Financial Services Committee last week, along with former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers. But we do know that WorldCom wasn't alone: The telecom giant joined Enron, Tyco, Rite Aid, Global Crossing, and many others on the list of companies that used accounting gimmicks to lie to investors.

But as the list of disgraced corporations grows, some culture watchers are concerned that Americans may be learning the wrong lessons from the scandals. These corporate scandals didn't emerge in a vacuum, they say. The current wave of business corruption is, at least in part, the consequence of some very bad ideas that dominate the larger society.