In the NRC blog Hoera, een cokesnuiver by Joris Luyendijk, he talks about the newest behind-the-velvet-rope book regarding the London financial industry, the excesses and the psychopathy of the financial services industry. For those who are interested in the book, it’s called Binge Trading – the real inside story of cash, cocaine and corruption in the City. I couldn’t care less about the book, or any of the other books mentioned in the article, but what did strike me was near the end Luyendijk talks about the Jerusalem Syndrome.
Every year, several tourists come to Jerusalem and literally wait for the messiah, sometimes for months, during which they slowly go insane. (If they weren’t insane to begin with.) They stay in hostels and one of the hostel owners had the opportunity to observe several of these cases up close. The hostel owner’s theory was that these people feel terrible and completely helpless and by placing their hope in the messiah, they placed the responsibility for all their ails outside of themselves. Someone else would solve their problems for them.
Luyendijk suggests that the often suggested therapy to heal the broken financial service industry, the expulsion of all the psychopaths, gambling- and coke-addicts, fulfills the same psychological desire as waiting for the messiah. It makes the world a simple and tidy place, everything makes sense, and it places the responsibility on others, instead of ourselves. The reality is that we are all complicit to the current situation and the morally bankrupt financial services industry.
We all had a hand in it, buying into the housing boom, not questioning economic returns of more than 7% a year (a double of value in 20 years, which is kind of insane), but also in demanding cheaper gas, cheaper meat, cheaper clothes, etc. Everything is related and the financial services industry is the tip of the iceberg, but below the service lies a deeply corrupt society that we all belong and contribute to. We all get worried because China isn’t achieve more than 7.8% economic growth this year? Do you think that growth is achieved with the amicable involvement of everyone that works for it? Are you fucking kidding me?
We blame coke-addicted traders, but I think we despise them so much because they remind us of our own addiction to growth. We want to eat the sausage, we just don’t want to know how it’s made. Of course, it’s easy to speculate on the cause, but what’s the solution? I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know where it should start; introspection and honesty.
