America's ethical blind spots

William B. Helmreich, professor of sociology at CUNY Graduate Center and City College of New York, is the author of "What Was I Thinking? The Dumb Things We Do and How to Avoid Them."

Albert Einstein once quipped, "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

David Sokol, who just threw away a chance for the world's best job -- succeeding Warren Buffett as head of Berkshire Hathaway -- because of questionable financial behavior, appears to be only the latest in a long string of people who should have known better.

Did he forget what happened to Martha Stewart? Hadn't he heard of Bernie Madoff, Enron, WorldCom and the many other names that have become synonymous with corruption, dishonesty or misuse of insider information?

Sokol purchased about $10 million worth of stock in Lubrizol, a chemical company, and then, a few days later, convinced his boss, Buffett, to take over the company. That raised the value of Sokol's stock by a cool $3 million. Talk about chutzpah!

But it didn't really work out so well. Sokol resigned as a top executive last week, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating, even as Sokol insists he did nothing wrong. And many are wondering why Buffett didn't question Sokol about when he bought the stock and how much of it he owned.

In a 2010 letter to his employees, Buffett wrote: "We can afford to lose money -- even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation -- even a shred of reputation." Yet it appears he didn't follow his own admonition.

Buffett resembles those who invested with Madoff, ignoring the red flags. Berkshire Hathaway's reputation for fiscal probity and Buffett's sterling name may have meant he believed the decision would never be questioned. Those at the top often think this way. Bill Clinton probably thought his extramarital activities would never be revealed. It's probably the same for Eliot Spitzer, Charlie Sheen and Tiger Woods.

These people (and so many more) now have tarnished reputations, but have they really been punished? It seems that these days, all you have to do is issue a sincere-sounding apology -- adding, perhaps, that you're in therapy or you've found God -- and all is forgiven. The rest of us are reluctant to banish these people. We need our heroes as much as they need us. The price of scandal has gone down.

But there's a real danger here -- one that threatens to destroy the trust that society depends upon. Its most common expression is, "Everyone does it."

When Joe Average sees a doctor overcharging or performing unnecessary operations, what is he supposed to think? Our children are told not to cheat on exams, but they see lauded authors like Stephen Ambrose or Doris Kearns Goodwin accused of plagiarism. Ditto for fabulously wealthy athletes charged with steroid use, or respected scientists found to have faked data. In this light, the shenanigans of Sokol and the seeming blind eye turned by Buffett should surprise no one.

There's a way out of this mess, but it won't be easy. Schools need to develop ethics programs that begin in prekindergarten and continue throughout children's education. And they need to remove temptations to break the rules by, say, forbidding teachers to give the same tests. Higher education and the professional fields need to develop far stricter rules about and penalties for plagiarism and faked data, and conflicts of interest in politics and business must be identified and stopped.

We also need to punish the misbehaving icons of society -- sending Lindsay Lohan to jail for violating her probation was a good example. Everyone -- especially young people -- is watching, and bad behavior merits consequences. And we need to create positive peer pressure that looks down on dishonesty.

Finally, people need to reconnect. As much as technology has been a boon to society, it's had a negative impact on our ability to relate to each other. We text and email. We call when we know the other person's not in so that we can leave a message. This all has the effect of isolating us.

When that happens, we no longer feel responsible to anyone except ourselves. In short, it's time to develop a collective will to improve ourselves by changing our values and behavior.