I just read in today’s NY Times that “Fanny” and “Freddie” are also planning to hand out hundreds of millions in “retention” bonuses, also with the rationalization that the enormous bonuses are necessary to retain “key” staff (presumably the same people who lost ~$100 billion in one year and drove the companies toward bankruptcy)– and this is AFTER the AIG fiasco.

(For the NY Times story on Fannie and Freddie, see http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/fannie-and-freddie-detail-retention-bonuses/?hp).

It is the same kind of tunnel vision, entitlement, and egoentrism that justified the displacement and slaughter of native people under the rationalization of “manifest destiny”: Those who have amassed power and wealth are not there because of a confluence of fortunate circumstances, connections, and work. Rather, they are there because it is their manifest destiny, their exclusive province and birthright, and once in those positions of power it becomes inconceivable that anyone else could possibly fill their shoes. It is a perversion of causal logic, where “I got here because I am talented and have worked to make myself indispensable” somehow becomes “I am uniquely talented and indispensable because I am here.”