Stand Up

Learning from Peer Pressure at the Highest Level

Leo Rangell, M.D. wrote "The Mind of Watergate about what we can learn from the compromise of integrity..." in the inner workings of the White House. The following transcript is from the book as Senator Baker questions the young Herbert L. Porter:

Baker: Did you ever have any qualms about what you were doing?… I am probing into your state of mind, Mr. Porter.

Porter: [Uncomfortably] I was not the one to stand up in a meeting and say that this should be stopped … I mean … I kind of drifted along.

The questioning continued.

Q: At any time did you ever think of saying, “I do not think this is quite right, this is not quite the way it ought to be.” Did you ever think of that?

A: Yes, I did.

Q: What did you do about it?

A: I did not do anything.

Q: Why didn’t you?

A: [After evidence of much inner thought on his face] In all honesty, probably because of the fear of group pressure that would ensue, of not being a team player. "The ugly nightmare of the Watergate break-in of June 1972, leading to the resignation of the President, would not have happened if someone had the courage to stand alone while speaking with integrity.

Refusal to compromise personal integrity, has to be stronger than being loyal to the man at the top. Someone needs to be willing to tell the king he has no clothes. History is full of minions, “yes men,” sycophants, brown-nosers, who is seeking favor through flattery at the expense of truth.

What if Porter had feared doing wrong, more than “not being a team player”?

Oh how we need more people with the heart of Joshua when he proclaimed, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Isn’t it time to think biblically and independently, when the peer pressure is mounting to cave on integrity?