Enron CEO Jeff Skilling’s favorite book was The Selfish Gene, in which Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins argued that we are a product of our genes, and that these genes have survived by being as ruthlessly competitive as Chicago gangsters. Dawkins merely meant that the basic business of a gene is to get as many copies of itself as possible into the next generation, by whatever means. He has protested ever since that he never meant to advocate selfish behavior as the best way to accomplish that.

But Enron executives latched onto the idea of our innate selfishness with glee. To be fair, plenty of other voices also seemed to be advocating selfish behavior. The economist Milton Friedman was famous for declaring that "The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits."