Madoff pays for his mistakes and vengeance takes its due.
Madoff has brought the term Ponzi scheme into the forefront of our news. The term was coined in 1910 after Charles Ponzi and in the simplest terms, it's a scam where people are promised a high rate of return on investments that can never happen. Basically, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Yesterday's NY Times tells us that Madoff got the ultimate sentence of 150 years.
Madoff spoke weak words of apology to people who lost their incomes, investments and homes with many now needing food stamps to get food. Madoff's response, "I'm sorry I know that doesn't help you." Madoff thought he would not get caught and only time will tell if he even considered the effect his actions and misdeeds would have on the people who trusted him for at least 20 years. His attorney, Ira Lee Sorkin states in response to the sentencing, "[Madoff is a]deeply flawed individual, but a human being nonetheless. Vengeance is not the goal of punishment.”
Vengeance is a natural human reaction to loss and pain. A dictionary understanding of vengeance reads, "n. Infliction of punishment in return for a wrong committed; retribution." In that sense, vengeance is the goal of punishment. The sad part is that vengeance resolves little and is more often associated with violent, aggressive acts of punishment. In some countries, vengeance would mean loss of a hand for stealing, or perhaps even a death sentence. Madoff is sentenced 150 years in prison but he is still physically intact, but the fact that he had no friends or family write letters on his behalf shows that this man's life had wrought a punishment of its own. One of the victims stated, “He can’t hurt us anymore.”
What is often overlooked when we seek vengeance (no matter how rightful or just it may seem), vengeance exacts a price from all involved. The idioms that match "vengeance" are; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, like for like, measure for measure. What cannot be seen by those who have been victimized is that sometimes, the eye for an eye, only means more blindness for the victim. Madoff cannot give these people their savings back, cannot restore their hopes and dreams. The people who were victimized by Madoff are at a new starting point on this day, they can choose to move on in hopefulness or hold onto anger, regret and vengeance. The path of hope and forgiveness is a much harder path even though many may see Madoff as getting the sentence he deserved. That sentence still does not pay the bills, put food on the table or a roof overhead. In times like this, it is often easier for the victims to focus more on anger and vengeance. They want to make him pay in ways stronger than losing his life to a jail cell. While Madoff goes to prison today, he still has the power to hurt his victims but it is up to each individual to make a choice to let go. Justice is served, time to move on with my life. Yes, the victims made mistakes in trusting Madoff, but now he will be imprisoned by a cell with bars, no freedoms, no family or friends. What more punishment could happen?
Madoff now has to pay with his life for the wrongs committed over the past twenty years. That's not an easy sentence, but neither is a life lost to vengeance. Letting go of the wrongs committed by Madoff, or anyone else who has scammed, abused, used another is not a task that is as simple as saying, "I forgive." Even Jesus in talking about forgiveness shows that forgiveness (as opposed to vengeance) is so hard that you will have to do it 70 x 7 or 490 times at the very least. Forgiveness doesn't come easy for humans and for others to imply that forgiveness is as simple as "I forgive you" is an indication that perhaps the speaker has more to learn about life and humanity. In our human choices we are always caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock is our firm believe that God is with us even in the hard times, hard places that confront us every day in life. Madoff will pay for his mistakes, the victims are set free to live without fear, but only in learning to forgive and move on to the new life.Forgiveness every time Madoff's name happens, ever time that life is hard to work on forgiveness. Theologian Frederick Buechner said, "At its core, forgiveness is an act of radical self-interest." So many times people are afraid that forgiveness is letting a person off the hook for a misdeed. What Buechner shows us can only make sense when we understand the harm that a continued focus on vengeance can inflict not only on our souls, but our family relationships, work environments and bodily health. Vengeance can kill slowly but surely. The self-interest comes in when the victim realizes that the best thing to do is to let go of the hurt and embrace life again. The initial wrong is caused by a thief like Madoff, a family member who misspeaks, a friend who doesn't understand, but the result is the same, vengeance takes its due and it's often from you.
Nobody can hurt me without my permission.
Mohandas Gandhi
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Kessy
julie Kiernan
skeletnwmn
Myriad
the stand-in
Unbreakable
Salon.com
Comments
Nicely put! I like this very thoughtful piece.
I’m not sure a truly honest person can ever get taken!
For the most part, these were people who thought they were going to get five to ten times greater return on their money as the market was able to yield. My guess is many of them thought they were going to get such high returns because Madoff was going to fleece some sheep for them. My further guess is that most of them are not indignant because Madoff conned and fleeced people…but that they were on of the ones conned and fleeced.
Wise, gentle thoughts as always.
from the Huffington Post:
Madoff received the maximum sentence of 150 years in prison for the massive Ponzi scheme run at least since the early 1990s that demolished the life savings of thousands of people, wrecked charities and shook confidence in the U.S. financial system.
Chin dismissed Madoff's pleas for leniency, noting that Madoff made substantial loans to family members, including moving $15 million of his company's money into his wife's personal accounts as it became clear that the scheme was unraveling.
"I simply do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff has done all that he could or told all that he knows," Chin said.
"Here, the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless financial crime that takes place just on paper, but it is instead ... one that takes a staggering human toll," Chin said.
Perhaps a bit of true remorse might have made a difference, but that would have involved Madoff trying make any amends possible. That he did not do.
A fan of Frederick Buechner! He's an excellent and wise writer.
As you point out, forgiveness doesn't mean letting Madoff off the hook -- It's about the victims' attitudes, not the law.
One thing that breaks my heart is the number of wonderful nonprofit organizations that have lost money due to Madoff: universities, education and social service programs etc. Not just private citizens but the entire community will be harmed because of him.
Some of them will be reminded of what was done to them every time they take the bus instead of drive. Some will be reminded every minute they're in their low-rent apartment instead of the house they had to sell to make ends meet.
And so their task of forgiving will be a long road.
As for punishing Madoff, vengeance is a side-effect. The main purpose that the court, a party unharmed by the events that transpired, sentenced him to 150 years was to set an example for other white-collar criminals who might also think it's worthwhile to commit fraud on a massive scale - if maybe they'll only get 10 years in a club fed. Nope - 150 years in a medium security facility complete with violent criminals. Think again.
Lack of forgiveness does not necessarily entail dwelling on the wrong done to one.
I have on my bulletin board an excerpt from an article I read years ago & it helped me a lot when shitty things were happening that I had no control over. "We're inevitably made miserable when we cling to what could be rather than what is." In a situation like this it's especially true because those savings held dreams.
Great post, Robin! -- thoughtful & wise, as always, & the best thing I've read on the whole Madoff mess.
How is it the you even think to write this. Are you giving us all a philosophy lesson. I think we all have heard this one before.
Seems to me that this kind of "forgiveness" thinking is why we can have a secretary of treasury that blatantly did not pay $35K in taxes, thereby stealing from us all.
We all make mistakes. The difference between Madoff and others (hopefully many others) is that you realize that stealing is stealing, large or small, and maybe you don't get caught. Maybe you just stop because it is just wrong and you look yourself in the mirror and you forgive yourself because you really get it that it is wrong and you commit to never do it again.
This is not Madoff. He never looked himself in the mirror and still does not.
Maybe it is time to quit forgiving so damn many people for behaving in gross anti social ways. They don't all have to go to jail, but we certainly don't have to continue to reward admitted criminals and hypocrites.
I wonder if you would feel differently if he had screwed 5 million average people out of 1000 dollar life savings rather than 1000 rich people out of 5 million each. Would you tell them all to get over it or would we be talking about a victim bailout.
Exactly how much did you lose? And BTW, if his victims want to
fester on this, what is it to you?
Having said that though- I think they have a legitimate claim to go after Madoff's wife and sons. Sure- you can call it vengence if you want.
"For the most part, these were people who thought they were going to get five to ten times greater return on their money as the market was able to yield."
Wow. That's not even close to what the news actually reported about this story. What was reported was that, for the most part, these were folks who were happy to get a *conservative* return on their investments -- the fishy bit was that the return rate was so consistent, not that it was extravagant.
Of course, when your principal reason for commenting is to vilify the victims, I guess any distortion goes.
My post was to
@Frank Apisa
not
@Frank Apisi
Chinese Proverbs quotes
“The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance.”
William Shakespeare quote
Revenge is a form of behavior which shows that you can never get ahead of a person by trying to get even with him.
—Evan Esar
You are the very fountain of ignorance. In my area, charitable organizations (e.g., our Jewish Community Center -- on whose after-school programs I rely on for my daughter) are in danger of closing because the impact of Madoff on their investmented endowments or on the investments of their supporters. My wife and I both work, aren't wealthy, and rely on the JCC for services it provides to keep our daughter safe in the afternoon -- and there are a plenty of other folks in my area who rely on other organizations Madoff robbed for even more crucial services than that.
So, um, in other words -- fuck you.
Unfortunately, I think some things can't be forgiven -- or forgiven perhaps only by saints but not by mere mortals.
Imagine the following hypothetical scenario: let's say that Madoff was basically a good person who meant well. Perhaps he oversold his investment management skills, or overestimated his own abilities. As a result people are wiped out.
In that scenario I think forgiveness would be possible. One could at least understand how that would be possible, and a sincere expression of Madoff's contrition would go a long way to helping people to forgive him.
But that is not what happened. Madoff intentionally defrauded people for years. He continued to take new money in an ongoing fraudulent enterprise, even ripping off charitable organizations. In that regard he was an equal-opportunity defrauder, willing to defraud anyone without regard to race or religion.
Had the scheme not collapsed he would have continued to defraud people until he died. His only sorrow seems to have been in getting caught.
And then -- apparently his wife gets to keep $2.5 million of what is basically other people's money, while some of the victims have become paupers, not to mention the countless tens of thousands of people who will no longer be helped by the ruined charitable and educational funds.
If a victim somehow decides to forgive Madoff that's fine, but I don't see how we could expect or even recommend that. Some crimes are just too great. Even Elie Wiesel says he can't forgive Madoff.
In this post I had hoped that I clearly spelled out that I felt that Madoff deserved to be sentenced and sit in jail. I hold firm to that.
One of the things I was not allowed to do in writing this article for Examiner.com is to write from a first person perspective, the entire article must be written in third person. One of the reasons I write this is because I myself have been a victim of not only a scam but identity theft causing me to lose almost everything I had. The thief who scammed me got away with over $20,000 and my pension. I agree with LIVEMONSTER" As someone who's been ripped off blind- I can honestly say it was my responsibility." There were red flags that this person who ripped me off was not on the up and up. The worst part? I trusted two more people and only lost a couple of hundred dollars because I had little else to lose after the "big" scam. Perhaps $20,000 isn't much to you but that was all my savings, the equity in my house and then add my pension to it, well I had nothing and the thief had everything. I've never had a high paying job so 20K was a heck of a lot of money and I've NEVER recovered from it.
The part about forgiveness comes from how my anger at the person who took the largest part of my money led me towards feeling of hatred of her being let off the hook. Even the lawyer said that it was useless for me to try and charge her. For years I allowed that need for vengeance to make me sick. I had hoped that I could write about forgiveness in a way that was clear that I did not want to say we let others off the hook. I believe justice is important especially for those who so often get away with so much.
My goal was for us all to look inside ourselves for where we are in our own lives. I'm not there. I feel for Madoff's victims and can only hope that they will find what they need. I know that since I am still unemployed how hard it is. Because of what the scam artist stole from me I no longer have anything to sell off to make ends meet. I wrote this from the experience of "been there done that" and have too many dang tee shirts.
My hope in writing this article was almost a prayer that Madoff's victims would not allow them to steal the rest of their lives. I certainly have allowed thieves to steal too much of mine.
My humble opinion -- if some of Madoff's victims choose to forgive him for the sake of their own personal peace of mind and health, I think that's great. But it's optional. I wouldn't say that it's "right" to forgive him, that they "should" forgive him, or anything like that. It's just if they choose to for their own sakes.
Personally, if it were up to me I would have dragged the son of a bitch out in the woods and shot him and dumped his body in a ditch. Why his wife gets to keep $2.5 million of other people's money is beyond me.