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Many very bad things have happened in large organizations, and have persisted for years or decades without someone blowing the whistle. The Catholic Church, intelligence agencies, and many police forces come to mind.

I don't think engineers are more principled than others, and thinking we are exceptional is, IMHO, the number one way to expose ourselves to these human frailties.

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I think oh_sigh might have meant to say "the rate of extremely principled individuals seems higher in geeks vs non-geeks" -- which I think is true, even if the average rate of principledness is around the same for both groups.

So I'd like to add to your rebuttal that extremely principled people are also capable of awful actions. All it takes is a good theory.

I'd agree that "principledness" seems unusually high in geeks, except that those principles are often bad ones which lead to bad outcomes. Which is a lot more dangerous than a hypothetical average amoral schlub.

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