Salon: The dark lesson of Bernie Madoff...He should be a case study of human cruelty.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

The dark lesson of Bernie Madoff

The financier ripped off his lifelong friends and clients with callous precision. He should be a case study of human cruelty.

By Robert Burton

http://www.salon.com/env/mind_reader/2009/02/26/bernie_madoff/



Feb. 26, 2009 | At age 90, after 30 years of retirement, Ian Thiermann is back at work for $10 an hour as a supermarket greeter, thanks to being bilked out of his life savings by broker Bernie Madoff, perpetrator of perhaps the biggest investment fraud ever by a single person. It is hard to watch a video clip of Thiermann talking about his shattered life without wincing.

And yet, as Thiermann was gamely trying to accept his diminished financial circumstances by handing out fliers for the weekly specials, Madoff, under house arrest and close scrutiny, was busy mailing $1 million worth of old watches to family and friends.

I suspect we all wonder what, if anything, Madoff feels when directly confronted by those he has utterly destroyed. He cooked the books and perpetually lied to his investors. He pulled off the ongoing deception with an utter insensitivity to others. If shown videos of interviews of his victims, would he wince, laugh or simply shrug dismissively and say, "There's a sucker born every minute." For me, a glimpse into Madoff's brain can shed light on the origins of how we treat each other, and perhaps most important, why we treat each other so poorly.

If there's any single attribute that separates Madoff from the average Wall Street thief, I'd suggest that it's his extraordinary ability to read what others think and desire, and especially to know what will give them the greatest satisfaction. (In technical jargon, this ability to read another's thoughts is referred to as Theory of Mind).

[undergroundpanther]

1. The bastard is a sociopath

Sound Familiar?


Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern of the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools. Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience that they seldom even guess at your condition.

In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world. You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences, will most likely remain undiscovered.

Read more...

http://www.cix.co.uk/~klockstone/spath.htm

[KoKo]

9. I thought so too...but some of the Business Bloggers and elsewhere

have him tied to maybe the same stuff Stanford was into...arms...drugs..etc. for his cause. He had three different companies. He had names that all had "Oil" LLC..LLCI..LLCII..

Weird stuff about this guy. More than what it has seemed at first. And, think about how he's being protected...why? Why does this guy get "house arrest" given how many wealthy and serious clients he had.

:-( If you Google, "Madoff, Oil, LLC" you will probably find the new stuff. I don't want to get into it, here.

[gratuitous]

2. Cruel? Hardly. Nothing personal, it was just business

And the business Madoff was in was where you had money and he wanted it.

[cliffordu]

3. Someone should introduce him to a small blowtorch and a pair of pliers.....

Sorry.

He just ruined the lives of a couple thousand people, some for good.

Fuck him.

[Fire1]

4. Did anybody hear that Madoff was 'covering' for his sons who

supposedly were the ones conducting this scam and the day to day ops?

[fed_up_mother]

5. Well, I don't believe they didn't know what was going on. Never will.

How many brothers decide to put their houses in their wives' names? Not too many, and how damn convenient.

[Fire1]

7. That's what makes me believe Madoff's covering for them.

Remember, according to news reports, he's been retired for a while.

[Last Stand]

6. Well, his wife giving away million$ the day before he gave himself up implicated her.

Not too bright. Methinks the sons will get swept up before this is over. This story will be HUGH when they get done chasing down the people who knew on some level about this, and who got rich in the process. Not likely that the Feds will get past those pesky billionaire lawyers, though.

[Fire1]

8. The out cry from those investors will demand that somebody

is going down.