I decided to write unconventional topics in the blog as well, reflections on the engine that guides our actions in situations that put us at personal risk and test the human spirit in adverse conditions.
In light of current armed conflicts where people have been observed fleeing and others leaving their normal chores to take up arms and defend themselves, the question came to mind that I have asked myself several times when I have had to carry out – in the deepest and most silent oracle within me – the debate between fear and the sense of duty.
This debate is one of the intimate spaces that ordinary people and -occasionally in the role of company directors- we reserve for ourselves to order our inner rudder in the face of the risks of our work that go beyond management and that we must face superior forces that often overwhelm and put us at great personal risk -even our life or freedom- at stake.
What motivates and guides the common citizen to participate in war or to face risks that pose a very personal risk, such as life or liberty?
I retrieved from the library a quote from General Patton that he used to say during the Second World War:
«All men fear in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fears overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of humanity.»
Is it really the sense of duty that guides us in these extreme circumstances?
I recently came across a book by a Guatemalan author – Diego Solis – during trips he undertook to remote parts of the world that have been in conflict throughout their history – those regions where wars with Arabs, Ottomans, Mughals, Europeans, perennial conflicts between local tribes have taken place – he documented reflections of the «unconventional warriors» of those places in the context of unconventional warfare,
«Fear leads to anger, anger to action.»
«Fear pushes us to act, and by acting we rebuild our self-confidence. Fear is the enemy of our inner warrior, or not, after all, it’s a spark. And it’s what we do with that spark that really matters.»
It is quite a broad topic and is a terrain for deep personal reflection,
The question came to mind again, what guides an executive to face criminal lawsuits and expose his freedom for alleged acts of fraud or corruption that may not have been under his knowledge or control?
Fear or a sense of duty?
These are issues that are closer than one might think: for example, in the cases that are happening in many regions of Latin America; mining companies in remote places are under pressure to contract services to third parties -under direct coercion from organized criminal groups under the cover of corrupt political networks-, or businessmen who pay extortion to organized crime in order to protect themselves, but in doing so may be violating anti-terrorism or anti-money laundering laws.
Sometimes irresistible forces push company directors to decisions that would imply deviating from compliance and ethical standards, in this scenario saying no is an act of war – according to third party standards – that could trigger very serious reprisals and very personal risks with criminals or with the criminal system, if their actions are abstracted from the context in which things happen; modern ethical dilemmas that require the same mettle that is needed to face a war.
This is a subject worthy of ongoing exploration; that’s what this blog is for.