In reading about the recent financial crisis some points of interest came to mind in regards to the guilty parties. While the majority desire to point their finger at the banks, ratings agencies and other financial outlets I have a different take on the situation altogether. It certainly appears to be true that many businesses in the financial sector were lying through their teeth in a bid to prop up their assets, but the question isn't if they were lying it's why they lied.
As many have observed basically any organism will do whatever it takes to survive. Large mammals for instance have been seen chewing their own leg off in order to escape a trap. In fact I recall a story where a human cut off his own leg with a pocket knife in order to escape from a tree that had fallen and trapped him.
How does this relate to the financial crisis and why so many lies were told leading up to it? We live in a dog eat dog, kill or be killed, system where one must have money in order to survive. Those without money will die a slow and painful death. This is the system designed and supported by the entire population.
What this means is that when someone is in danger of losing their money, when someone is in danger of being killed they will do absolutely anything to survive, even if that means to lie, cheat and steal. Those behind the financial crisis were not trying to cheat the public, but instead they were trying to survive. They were trying to keep the public from mercilessly killing them as they do to those who lose their money.
At the root of the issue the guilty parties are not just financial institutions, but those who would force them into a position where drastic measures were needed to ensure survival. The guilty party is a system that rewards lies and punishes the truth. A system that encourages people to take advantage of one another or face exile and death.
The guilty parties are those who would uphold a merciless system designed to instill fear. Designed to encourage no holds barred competition. A system that places price tags upon the heads of all the people. The populace is the harbinger of their own doom. They voted for lies and they voted for a tyrannical system that rules with fear, greed, intolerance and temptation.
The people elected pure evil and then lust for blood when it doesn't work. They exile and they judge and they kill and they hate and they avert their eyes when someone tries to show them of their very own atrocities. The banks didn't create a failed system, they are just part of it. If the people want this system then they want corruption, greed and everything that comes with it.
The people would've killed the bankers if they told the truth, now they want to kill them because they lied. In truth the people just want to kill and they'll find a reason to make it happen.
This will only ever continue until the populace accepts responsibility for their mistakes. Go ahead and lock up the bankers, the rest of the criminals live out their punishment completely ignorant of their guilt. What they voted for, what they paid for, what they work for, everything they held dear.