http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AI8mC8XucY
Network Boardroom Scene (1977): Ned Beatty proclaims to Howard Beale “You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.
It is the international system of currency, which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?
You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.”
Annotation: What more needs to be said? He said enough. No, there is more. Mr. Beatty is suggesting that there is one fundamental objective and that is currency – whose currency is worth the most, which government has the greatest cash flow and the mean objectives to determine this is via linear programming, statistics and price-cost probabilities. This is capitalism at its finest. Everything measurable. Everything calculable. Excel conquers all.
In value-based thinking, Keeney argues that we take step back from the all powerful monetary currency and before getting out the models that will drive our decision, we first decide what we value which is where democracy comes into play but is often overlooked. Having come from a world (non-profit) where models do not drive decisions rather intuition drives most decisions, I have found that both sides are not thinking hard enough.
Non-profits do not get passed the value-based thinking piece and for-profits most of the time do not get to it because the numbers are much more “telling.” If you cannot put a number next to it, then it does not deserve to be thought about. Non-profits on the other hand ruminate eternally on their values and fundamental objective (mission) and do not invest in going further partly due to not including measurable results as a value.
As Americans, we are taught that freedom, equality and pursuit of happiness are what should be the basis of all our decision. So, the question becomes is capitalism/supply-demand/free trade the only way to achieve freedom, equality and the pursuit of happiness? Are we aligned with our values?
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