Review of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) by P H — 25 Apr 2006

Wow, ok I just got home from this movie and finished updating my Tristan and Isolde and Hostel reviews, but this movie really got me thinking. I'm glad I managed to convince my sister to watch this, since I'm pretty sure she would've chosen to watch a movie like Disney's "The Wild" rather than a hard-hitting documentary that is depressing and realistic (so much more my style).

Being a native Houstonian and raised in Texas until I left for college in California at 18, I've always been so proud of my Texas roots and upbringing. I love Texas, and I do have that annoyingly rampant "Texas pride" that so many outsiders seem to notice about other Texans. But I have to admit, after seeing this movie, I was so ashamed, and for some reason, I have this overwhelming feeling of guilt, even though I had nothing to do with it. I think maybe I'm feeling guilty bc I didn't know enough about the issue, in my opinion. Sure, we did tons of accounting, consulting, legal case studies in business school on the Enron-Arthur Andersen scandals, but I never really thought about the home aspect of it all, the part beyond the businesses, the part that goes home with the employees that had to pick up the broken pieces of their lives after it all came crashing down. I felt for the people who got duped, the innocent pawns in a power game of greed among a few wealthy corrupt. The people at the top held such power, but they failed to realize the responsibility that came with such power. It's sad that they still came out ahead of the people that worked the hardest and have nearly nothing to show for now.

I also finally understood why when I came to California for college in fall 2001, around the time Enron unraveled and declared bankruptcy, so many people expressed contempt for my precious homestate everytime they heard I was from Texas. After seeing what a huge part Enron played in the power crisis of California and abusing the deregulation of energy to profit, it made me sick. I've never felt such disgust for some of my fellow Texans (Enron execs and our dear president). Anyways, as I learn more each day about how this sad world we live in works, I realize more and more how anti-corporate I am and how I'll strive to be less commercial. Maybe that's why I moved to another country to escape the inevitable doom that most of my fellow grads met in just finding a big company to work for. When those huge entities are run by other humans, humans that have human flaws and human greed, then how do you ever know what to put your blood and sweat into? Who do you follow? It's scary when you grow up and realize that the people that are supposed to know what to do and do the right thing (parents, law officials, businesses, government, etc) do so many of the wrong things that make headlines. Sigh...