Bigger than any code of ethics and rules of audit: Civilization – from divisive barbarity to the birth of a new age

Humanity is maturing slowly and is soaked in blood, passing through his age of childhood and adolescence. He is now going through the last stages of his adolescence – producing, distributing, and trying to manage weapons of mass destruction; grabbing all he can for his selfish interests while millions starve in other lands and in our own neighborhood; holding also tightly to his ancestor's dogmas, superstitions, and divisive ideals of race, nationalism, and religion. Such mindset has recently manifested itself in huge scandals in the Catholic Church, and previously in Protestant denominations, and embezzlements in billions by the likes of Enron, Worldcom, and Arthur Anderson, and ultimately by the fundamentalist ideologies manifested in the likes of Osama Bin Laden and the Al‐Quaida organization. The democratic systems, while hanging on to old ideas, have necessitated what George Orwell foresaw as the need for “double‐speak” and “correct‐think” to be able to keep the illusion of democracy and at the same time control the passions of the masses. Wars, in the meantime, have continued, have brought devastation to the world and have claimed the lives of some 200 million people in the twentieth century alone. Man is at the brink. The question of business ethics cannot be addressed in a vacuum if he has lost a bigger truth – his humanity. One must either learn to grow up quickly or perhaps, perish.