The Banality of Systemic Evil Analysis

Through his article "The Banality of Systemic Evil", Peter Ludlow gives an interesting perspective over the recent whistle blowing cases. His main analytic focus is over the Chelsea Manning, Aaron Swartz, and Edward Snowden cases that grabbed global attention. The author raises the issues of morality and whether the actions taken were justified. He also gives reference to a book called "Moral Mazes" which elaborates on ethical decision making within the corporate world. The article also gives light to one side emerging from this situation, being the younger generation. Ludlow provides his analysis, the supportive sources from both parties, and the reasons for why his inquiry is appropriate. Although the author tries to analyze by the sidelines, he seems to be in favor of the new generation dubbed "generation W". The reason it was named generation W was because of WikiLeaks and the current war on whistle blowing. Ludlow's attitude towards generation W is supportive because he believes the morality within the younger generation has not been lost. Accordingly, he is in favor of generation W because he knows there was active morality during the actions taken by said whistleblowers. He also argues that due to these moral principles being implemented it saves society from a dystopian future. In addition, he exhibits a phenomenon known as systemic evil, being what occurs when people play their suggested roles. He is in favor for the existence of systemic evil because he illustrates it with the book by sociologist Robert Jackall named Moral Mazes. In this book it demonstrates and analyses the ethical choices taken by various corporate bureaucracies. Furthermore, it depicts how normal managers are not "evil" within their normal lives but when it comes to business there is a separate ethical code to follow. Jackall, author of Moral Mazes, names this consequence the "fundamental rules of corporate life". Throughout all the cases that were observed it became clear that