<story><title>Remembering Allan McDonald, who refused to approve the Challenger launch</title><url>https://text.npr.org/974534021</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pietrovismara</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s almost like we are blackmailed into doing the wrong things all the time (on different levels of &amp;quot;importance&amp;quot;).&lt;p&gt;The fact is that this is a distinct feature of our society, we have to &amp;quot;earn our living&amp;quot; or be left behind.&lt;p&gt;Do we really want to keep such a negative incentive in place?</text></item><item><author>irjustin</author><text>Nothing remotely close. I&amp;#x27;m simply asking, that given the situation, would I have made the same decision? That I could be such a hero.&lt;p&gt;But am I willing to stick my neck out? Risk my career, who will hire me? Maybe someone will, but I just put a huge black mark in many&amp;#x27;s eyes. I have 2 children, a wife, and myself who rely on my income stream. Am I willing to let that go? Do I have to sell my house to make ends meet if I can&amp;#x27;t get a job?&lt;p&gt;I want to be able to say I could do what McDonald or Snowden did, but if I&amp;#x27;m honest, probably not.</text></item><item><author>dstick</author><text>&amp;gt; I wish I could say the same for myself.&lt;p&gt;Care to elaborate a little? Seems like your experience could help others in a similar situation.</text></item><item><author>irjustin</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s post fact. He blew the whistle before and very publicly.&lt;p&gt;This event almost doesn&amp;#x27;t matter because he didn&amp;#x27;t care he would have gotten demoted - he was driven by being able to do the right thing.&lt;p&gt;I believe there&amp;#x27;s a moment before he doesn&amp;#x27;t sign off on the launch or maybe just before he speaks out against his employer in front of the presidential commission... what will happen to me? what will happen to my family, 4 children? What work will I do? How do I make money? this is all I know...&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;ve ever worried about your future, job prospects, the unknown, the fear of not being able to provide, these thoughts are heavy. He made this decision and would gladly make it again regardless of outcome.&lt;p&gt;I wish I could say the same for myself.</text></item><item><author>hyperbovine</author><text>It didn&amp;#x27;t hurt that Congress basically threatened to administer the corporate death penalty to Morton Thiokol if they retaliated against McDonald and others in any way:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.congress.gov&amp;#x2F;bill&amp;#x2F;99th-congress&amp;#x2F;house-joint-resolution&amp;#x2F;634&amp;#x2F;text?r=85&amp;amp;s=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.congress.gov&amp;#x2F;bill&amp;#x2F;99th-congress&amp;#x2F;house-joint-reso...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>cushychicken</author><text>I got the privilege of having lunch with Mr. McDonald when I was an IEEE officer during college. He gave a lecture at my university on ethics, and the IEEE council got to take him for lunch afterwards.&lt;p&gt;He was not shy at all about saying whatever was on his mind. It was pretty awesome to hear him dunk on his VP, right in the middle of lying to the Rogers commission&amp;#x27;s face. He was also really open about the fact that nobody at Morton Thiokol trusted him for the better part of a decade after he did that. He said something to the effect of, &amp;quot;It definitely made my career harder, but on the bright side, I never had any major crises of conscience for lying about it.&lt;p&gt;He also didn&amp;#x27;t give a single fuck about getting a lunch beer at a student gathering. I wish I&amp;#x27;d joined him in drinking beer at noon on a Tuesday on IEEE dime.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wing-_-nuts</author><text>&amp;gt;It&amp;#x27;s almost like we are blackmailed into doing the wrong things all the time (on different levels of &amp;quot;importance&amp;quot;).&lt;p&gt;This right here is one of the main reasons why I&amp;#x27;ve worked so hard to achieve financial independence.&lt;p&gt;Every time someone in my life has told me that I have to do something I&amp;#x27;m uncomfortable with, &amp;#x27;or else&amp;#x27;, they&amp;#x27;ve simply been trying to cover the fact that I&amp;#x27;m being exploited.  &lt;i&gt;Every&lt;/i&gt;. &lt;i&gt;Time&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m quite happy to have reached a place in my life where I can tell someone &amp;#x27;No&amp;#x27; with whatever level of politeness they deserve.</text></comment>
<story><title>Remembering Allan McDonald, who refused to approve the Challenger launch</title><url>https://text.npr.org/974534021</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pietrovismara</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s almost like we are blackmailed into doing the wrong things all the time (on different levels of &amp;quot;importance&amp;quot;).&lt;p&gt;The fact is that this is a distinct feature of our society, we have to &amp;quot;earn our living&amp;quot; or be left behind.&lt;p&gt;Do we really want to keep such a negative incentive in place?</text></item><item><author>irjustin</author><text>Nothing remotely close. I&amp;#x27;m simply asking, that given the situation, would I have made the same decision? That I could be such a hero.&lt;p&gt;But am I willing to stick my neck out? Risk my career, who will hire me? Maybe someone will, but I just put a huge black mark in many&amp;#x27;s eyes. I have 2 children, a wife, and myself who rely on my income stream. Am I willing to let that go? Do I have to sell my house to make ends meet if I can&amp;#x27;t get a job?&lt;p&gt;I want to be able to say I could do what McDonald or Snowden did, but if I&amp;#x27;m honest, probably not.</text></item><item><author>dstick</author><text>&amp;gt; I wish I could say the same for myself.&lt;p&gt;Care to elaborate a little? Seems like your experience could help others in a similar situation.</text></item><item><author>irjustin</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s post fact. He blew the whistle before and very publicly.&lt;p&gt;This event almost doesn&amp;#x27;t matter because he didn&amp;#x27;t care he would have gotten demoted - he was driven by being able to do the right thing.&lt;p&gt;I believe there&amp;#x27;s a moment before he doesn&amp;#x27;t sign off on the launch or maybe just before he speaks out against his employer in front of the presidential commission... what will happen to me? what will happen to my family, 4 children? What work will I do? How do I make money? this is all I know...&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;ve ever worried about your future, job prospects, the unknown, the fear of not being able to provide, these thoughts are heavy. He made this decision and would gladly make it again regardless of outcome.&lt;p&gt;I wish I could say the same for myself.</text></item><item><author>hyperbovine</author><text>It didn&amp;#x27;t hurt that Congress basically threatened to administer the corporate death penalty to Morton Thiokol if they retaliated against McDonald and others in any way:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.congress.gov&amp;#x2F;bill&amp;#x2F;99th-congress&amp;#x2F;house-joint-resolution&amp;#x2F;634&amp;#x2F;text?r=85&amp;amp;s=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.congress.gov&amp;#x2F;bill&amp;#x2F;99th-congress&amp;#x2F;house-joint-reso...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>cushychicken</author><text>I got the privilege of having lunch with Mr. McDonald when I was an IEEE officer during college. He gave a lecture at my university on ethics, and the IEEE council got to take him for lunch afterwards.&lt;p&gt;He was not shy at all about saying whatever was on his mind. It was pretty awesome to hear him dunk on his VP, right in the middle of lying to the Rogers commission&amp;#x27;s face. He was also really open about the fact that nobody at Morton Thiokol trusted him for the better part of a decade after he did that. He said something to the effect of, &amp;quot;It definitely made my career harder, but on the bright side, I never had any major crises of conscience for lying about it.&lt;p&gt;He also didn&amp;#x27;t give a single fuck about getting a lunch beer at a student gathering. I wish I&amp;#x27;d joined him in drinking beer at noon on a Tuesday on IEEE dime.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cduzz</author><text>This is the basic nature of a modern American corporation where the culture of the leadership implicitly believes there is a fiduciary obligation to shareholders to generate a profit.&lt;p&gt;There is a self-selecting process where people promote other people who make those small decisions in a particular way.&lt;p&gt;If you climb well or are unlucky enough to look under the wrong rocks you get to an inflection point where your option is to become a whistle blower, leave, ask for a promotion, or become the patsy.&lt;p&gt;Often you can avoid this (if that&amp;#x27;s your desire) by frequently and vocally asking about the audit requirements of a particular business process...</text></comment>