Groupthink and Charismatic Leadership
Elizabeth Holmes (founder/CEO of now defunct Theranos), claimed her company could run dozens of test off of one drop of blood. She was later convicted of fraud. She reminds me of so many charismatic and televangelist preachers who tell their congregation that if they just offer a seed offering and wait on God, that all of their needs and desires will arrive. The manipulation of the masses using media and preying on people's desires and optimism isn't anything new. However, when I started to look at cults, I saw many similarities with religious organizations and Theranos where you have a charismatic leader who uses fear to rule and have gifts of speech and persuasion. I think when power and authority becomes centralized and condensed to one person or a few people, it is very easy to create either a cult or oligarchy. Leadership becomes about subjugation rather that inspiration.
I have a personal experience with this. I was part of a church. We had a very charismatic leader similar to Elizabeth Holmes. At one point he decided that God had told him to move the church to a larger building. That idea was interesting because his congregation had shrunk down to around 40 people where it had been closer to 300+ people the year before. He decided to hold a fundraiser to raise $30k for the move to a new larger building. He told people that this was "a move by God" and that they should sacrifice so that their sacrificed would be returned in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and multiplied back. This last part is a reference to Luke 6:36. He suggested that people look for jewelry they could sell and other things because it was for a greater good.
He wanted to raise $30k from 40 people, most of whom worked for the church and were underpaid and who were either in college or had graduated from college in the past two years. Three months later on a Sunday, he held the fundraiser and had people walk up from their seats to a microphone at the front of the church and declare how much they were going to give to this "move of God". My place was sitting in a booth off to the side of the pulpit increasing the donation number that was projected onto a large screen behind the pastor as he encouraged people to dig deeper. I actually felt sick watching people go into debt as they felt pressured to keep giving. After each person declared how much they were sacrificing, the pastor would ask everyone to clap and then he would make a comment about how good God is and speak in tongues. With out going too far off on a different point, speaking in tongues mean that a person would temporarily speak in another language they didn't know.
After people had given all they could give, the number stood at $20k. The pastor then told people they could pledge future offerings in good faith that they would yield a double portion. People came up again to the microphone to pledge money they didn't have. The manipulation from my perspective was unique. I saw someone who had managed to control a group of 40 people, while most were between the ages of 21-32, there were a few who were over the age of 50. Would it surprise you to know that they magically hit the $30k goal? Would it also surprise you that the church never moved to a new building?
Much like Elizabeth Holmes, the pastor made promises that were made that were impossible to keep. While Elizabeth Holmes used the fear of firing people to control the organization, the pastor used the fear of God to control people and his open rebuke. The level of devotion of to Ms. Holmes by scientists, board members and investors is staggering, to be fair most were outright lied to and manipulated. However, the clues were there. People and organizations believed in the idea and the hope. Once Ms Holmes made it to the cover of Time magazine, everyone wanted to be part of the in-group. A lie valued at 9 billion dollars.
To think critically and act ethically in the case of Theranos meant the loss of your job at Theranos. To think critically and act ethically at the church meant leaving the organization, a place where people had great experiences and formed meaningful connections. How do you respond when the pressure is on to conform to groupthink? An entire country bowed to the Nazi party and good people moved to do horrible things. Large groups of people desperate to succeed by any means necessary and encouraged by management lead to the great recession, the breaking of the savings and loan industry and the financial crisis of 2008.
Plato faced his death in the pursuit of questioning ideas and the status quo. I think at some point, we all face those moments where thinking critically means uncovering a truth that compels us to ethically act in a way that will cause suffering either for ourselves or those around us. I should have stood up and walked out of the church in protest to what I saw happening between the leader and the group. I should have walked up to the microphone, made a statement of truth about giving and walked off. Instead I sat there thinking, "This is crazy" while still adding up numbers that didn't exist.