How Evil is Your Organization?
Calvin Mulligan, May 11, 2026 (c) All rights reserved
How evil is your organization? Seriously? There’s a subtlety to the infiltration and progression of evil within the walls of organizations and institutions that seemingly eludes many in leadership. Consider, for example, that at one point in 2021-22, the president of one of Canada’s leading medical associations congratulated the membership for its outstanding contribution to combatting Cov*d. It was mind-boggling moment for the critical observer.
As one of the many “civilians” who remained clear-eyed and objective concerning the toll the lockdo*ns and magical vaxx solution were taking in injuries and lives, it felt like the president was living on another planet. In reality, the medical institution was, at the national level, blissfully presiding over what likely will be judged the most grotesque medical crime in human history with casualties world-wide numbering in the tens of millions.
Similar detachments from truth and corresponding moral inversions were, and remain on display in the realms of education, justice, religion, entertainment, academia and “other”. The question is how to account for the phenomenon when it’s not necessarily a case of evil actors or psychopaths?
Author, analyst and IT network thought leader, Martin Geddes, provides an answer in a recent article entitled: “A diagnostic scale of institutional evil”. The subtitle sums his thesis nicely. “Wickedness no longer requires monsters, only machinery”. Thus, as Geddes puts it, removing pathological elements may not necessarily restore institutional integrity. His article calibrates institutional degradation from right-side-up, grounded purpose and operation to detached moral inversion and institutional evil. Geddes identifies tangible markers in a each of the five stages in the decline to unconscious institutional evil.
I recently stated I would rejoice if RFK Jr. elected to bl*w up the CDC and the FDA, both of which have exemplified institutional evil. My measure of utility and licence to operate is simple. When it become apparent that significantly improved client and public outcomes would result if the institution in question were destroyed, its prompt disassembly becomes a moral imperative.
Hopefully, your organization hasn’t reached the advanced stages of degradation, but you may be surprised at what an audit may uncover. To ensure it doesn’t, share the five level diagnostic scale with your director of Organizational Development and recommend its application. It could have two beneficial outcomes. First, you may be able to arrive at a realistic indication of where your organization is situated on the scale. Second, flagging indicators of degradation and enacting the necessary corrective measures could be life-giving and soul-energizing for your organization and your employees.
https://lnkd.in/e3tJ-jey
A diagnostic scale of institutional evil