Movies

I love movies, for that matter, I love books too. Films of all kinds tell stories. We have been watching the Sundance flicks for the past two weeks. Listening to the directors talk about why they made a movie is always insightful, just like going to a gallery and understanding the work in front of you.

There is always an ongoing theme across the films. Some of this year’s documentaries highlight big business, lack of a moral compass, and how power and profitability are number one. What is worse is that there are no surprises. It is just a head scratch wondering how the hell did we get here?

Who died and left the new head honchos of Boeing after the merger with Lockheed Martin to strip a respected safe company built on the best and brightest aviation engineers to cut every corner to make more cash for Wall Street? Like the Sachlers, evil geniuses got away with essentially murder, and so did the FDA. Like Richard Davis, who invented the bulletproof vest, who began to use shitty materials that don’t work but were less expensive. The FAA oversight is to blame too.

I am not for more Government oversight because our government seems to be more interested in deciding who gets to vote for them to stay in power these days, and that’s not good. There are other ways, and supposedly having Boards tied to legal protocol is supposed to make sure bad shit doesn’t happen, but it does time and time again. It appears to be worse now more than ever.

I am not sure what the answer is. It is one thing to stop using products where the Boards are all white men to make your own personal statement that boards should have women and Black and brown members. I love that. One vote makes a difference, but most of these bad big business decisions are realized once something awful happens. Then cheap becomes expensive. All three of the stories I highlighted cost each of these companies more than they thought they were getting away with.

How do we ever change that moral compass?