In the news, BBC reports on another kind of Blackrock – Blackrock, South Dublin, where Gary Keogh was hastily removed from a building after chucking eggs at Dermot Gleeson, chairman of Keogh’s bank, Allied Irish. The outburst came at a shareholder’s meeting of Allied Irish to approve a 3.5 billion euro government recapitalization for the bank, which has lost 91% of its value over the past 12 months.

Said Keogh,

“I have no pension. My pension now is wiped out because of AIB. I cannot sell the shares because they are useless.

If we didn’t live in a tolerant society, the chairman and the rest of the board would be hanging by their necks with piano wire out on the road.

Meanwhile, inside, an unsettled Mr Gleeson stood in front of a blue AIB logo spattered with egg and continued to take questions from shareholders….”

My Comment

Hooray for Mr. Keogh.

Any society can only take so much ‘tolerance’ and ‘non-judgmentalism’ without bankrupting itself financially and spiritually.

The moral problem underlying all this is that we deny that actions have consequences. And we also refuse to judge our actions by their consequences.

We want to make every action free of consequence, although consequences are precisely what guide us in ordinary life.

We’re accountable when we drive on the roads, aren’t we?

So why do bankers get to abdicate that responsibility when it comes to larger social and economic issues?