SHANNON LOVE ON THE
ACORN SCANDALS:
This rule of thumb evolved after observing the failures of
millions
of computers. We learned that three separate computers would only
suffer the same failure if the failure arose from a common source in
the computers themselves. Just three machines out of millions told us
we most likely had a systemic problem.
This brings me to the Acorn child prostitution scandal.
* One report from an Acorn office was a fluke. Any large
organization, public or private of any creed can be infected by amoral
individuals who will try to use the organization to commit illegal or
unethical acts. No organization larger than a few dozen people can
police the actions of every member, all the time.
* Two reports from two separate Acorn offices was just a
disturbing
coincidence. The same reasoning as above applies, because in a large
organizations, just as in a large installed base of computers, it’s
possible for two separate bad eggs carrying out the same acts to show
up in the same organization.
* Three identical reports of the same failure from three separate
offices indicates the criminality arises from the organization itself.
It is highly unlikely that, out of the hundreds of Acorn offices around
the nation, the journalist just happened to wander into the three
offices whose managers wouldn’t blink an eye at helping to set up a
brothel using children.
This degree of organizational systemic rot has to come from the
head. I think that much is obvious. Something in Acorn’s organizational
culture made these people feel that it was okay and expected for them
to give the criminal advice that they did. Certainly, if Acorn had been
a private for-profit company, three separate and wholly unrelated
incidents would have been enough for leftists to demand the heads of
the corporate officers.
And it’s not just three. . . .
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