Politics & Criminals | A Rant

Watching the national news has taken me back to my working days -- days spent in rooms with criminals, wife-batterers, rapists, child molesters, murderers -- few of whom accepted responsibility for their own behavior. And living in this country is feeling a bit like dealing with the offenders' families and communities -- firmly in denial.

Denial. Blame. Minimization. Distraction. All classic maneuvers.

While the offense may come from the perpetrator himself, the crimes could often not occur -- at least not repeatedly -- without the silence and/or active collusion of family, employers, friends, churches -- all the organizations and individuals that move to protect and 'forgive' the offender; and often to blame the victim. In the refusal to accept the evidence. In the protection of one's own position, income, influence, at the cost of honesty, recompense, accountability.

The very individuals who speak with disdain of the private, adult sexual lives of others, suddenly become coy about the exploitation of teenagers in their care. Those who condemn others for -- sadly -- ordinary sexual indiscretions, are publicly and undeniably revealed to have committed the same (or worse, more destructive) sins, but are somehow exempt.

Because they are sorry. Because they are religious. Because God forgives them and so should you. Because they are Republican. Because such behavior should now be considered private and irrelevant, where it was previously considered 'fair game'.

The very individuals who lecture about family values and the degeneration of American Culture, apparently consider financial and ethical shenanigans involving the public trust -- and the public purse -- perfectly legitimate. Misdirection, double-speak, and outright lies are just part of the game. What's a few hundred thousand in cash or golf abroad from lobbyists? It's a coincidence that subsequent votes were to the benefit of said lobbyists' clients. Just a perk of the job. Everybody does it.

He's one of ours, after all. As long as he's one of ours, he didn't do it. Or, if he did it, it's not his fault. He was seduced, entrapped, confused. Victimized. He promised not to do it again.

Or, if he did it, and we can't slip him past it, then it's all his fault. No one else was involved. We didn't know. Or, if we knew, we thought he had quit doing it. Or we didn't understand how bad it was. Or -- no -- actually, we didn't know. He lied to us.

The victim(s) lied to us. OK, they told us, but how were we to believe such outrageous accusations against such a fine upstanding person / corporation? There was no evidence. The evidence was unconvincing. The evidence didn't fit our ideology. There was no room in our world view for this evidence.

Well, so there was evidence, and we did know, and we knew it was bad -- but the real crime is how the system (the child protection workers; the cops; the media; the prosecutor; the judge; the opposition party) handled/ leaked/ took advantage of this relatively minor problem. It's been escalated beyond all proportion.

We will deal with it ourselves. He's in treatment; we've instituted new policies; we fined the corporation. No further attention -- no further investigation -- is required. We all need to move on.

I once sat in a room with a man who had molested his three daughters, his two granddaughters, for decades. He assaulted another man in the group for 'taking the name of the Lord in vain'. He was a Christian, you see; and therefore superior to the other man -- who was not, in fact, an offender, but a therapist.

A devout Catholic therapist, as it happens.

Just as most rape and child molestation is not about sex, the core of these scandals is not about sex, either. It's about hypocrisy, greed, abuse of power (which is, after all, what many who have too much do with it), selfishness, narcissism, and the arrogance of the untouchable. But criminality -- the abuse and deception and exploitation of the weak and uninformed and easily led -- uses the same techniques, in both the commission of the crime and the denial of responsibility.

We have seen all of this in the past few weeks. In the past months; in the past years -- as military contracts are let without bids to companies with connections, which are then not held to the terms of the contracts. In the public flaying of those who question the war and so 'don't support the troops' by the very people who refuse to provide our soldiers with sufficient equipment and armor. In the pretense that we don't torture. In the lies about who knew what, and when.

It's about votes. It's about money.

But really, right down to it, it's about power.

Yes, I know this post should be dense with links, but it's the middle of the night, and you know what I'm talking about. If you have links you think I should add, send them on.

I do want to thank Ryan, though, for his series of posts that helped clarify for me these connections, the cause of my recent agitation.

Comments

[Mary Scriver]

Sometimes I think that everyone should have to serve as a social worker/emergency responder/moral intervener/cop for a year. Just to see what goes on and have a try at making a difference.

But there really is no escape. There are places where bad stuff is closer to the surface, usually because the people involved have less power to suppress an accounting.

Certainly the academic world, the religious world, the art world, the literary world, the civil service world -- all are different versions of the same political forces.

Blogging may be one of the countervailing forces, but I expect us to lose our freedom soon, all in the name of security.

Prairie Mary

[Thomas]

Right, Right and Right. As in correct :) You comments about the problems with society are totally correct, amazed there are not more comments!

[Dave]

Righteous rant. The story about the "Lord's name in vain" guy is certainly strong anecdotal evidence for the propostion that patriarchal religious constructions are abuser fantasies writ large. Translation: this guy is really on God's dick.

[Bitterroot]

This is a very cogent review of a fundamental dissonance in our society today.

[David Gans]

Great rant, Sharon. I've been raving about America's personality disorder for years, and it seems to be boiling over everywhere these days. This Ted Haggard guy is the poster boy for fundy hypocrisy and should remain so until reasonable policies can be reinstated, if ever.

[Gail Williams]

America as an addict and abuser. Sadly it explains a lot. This is such a good rant.