BACK TO YOU, RICK!

WHEW! YOU GUYS ARE KEEPING ME BUSY!!

Here's RicK, all Rick:

I wrote this before seeing Loff56's post so I apologize if there are redundancies. Loff56 is right to correctly write my intention regarding the use of racists. I illustrate only that race based decisions inherently demand discrimination of another group(s).

As far as blowing off the Gates-Crowley incident, you can't be more off base. This is my backyard. I have met Gates and know his work, which is facinating. I know the Crowley type of cop intimately. I still contend race had little to do with this and two hot heads just got into a regrettably escalated situation. I may be wrong but let's see when we look at all of the facts of the case. Even the President is backing away from it being a racist incident. Surely you can too if the facts present it as such.

On to exonerating the bunch with the sake of a few, my few are actually many in my experiences. Your life experiences are not those of everyone else’s but make up your “many”. To denounce the entire institution because of your few “many” experiences makes you guilty of the same crime as me exonerating it because of my few “many”. Who gets the free pass? (I know it’s your blog but humor me nonetheless.)

I like the disease analogy but am having difficulty with not taking the bad apple approach. If you have a cut + bacteria enters + festers, you get an infection. Does that mean there is something inherently wrong with your body? Typically not. I think it is just a singular event, not an institutional deficiency. Just like a broken bone, you fall a bone breaks, that’s it. Some ailments can be brought on by our own actions like drinking, overeating, smoking, working with hazardous materials, doing drugs, recklessly living etc, and I would contend that some institutions bring upon these “diseases” themselves. Wall street, healthcare, unions, government agencies etc

Name one “body” that isn’t prone to exceptional deficiencies? As long as humans are involved, there will be deficiencies and “infections”. I do agree that certain “bodies” lend themselves to attracting infections. Here is where your approach makes sense.

Let’s take your examples and see if there are institutional diseases or simply bad apples?

Cops-

I’ve seen insecure people enter the police force in hopes of gaining self worth and confidence from the default praise/fear + adulation. No chance. In addition I’ve seen otherwise good people get caught up in the cop title + become arrogant “diseased” officers who are worse than the criminals they arrest. Institutional?

Priests-What better place to be if you were a homosexual before recent times than the priesthood? No need to justify not having a spouse and you are well respected by your family + community. Only 5% of priests abused parishioners. Bad apples or institutional? A majority of the abuse cases were irresponsible homosexual behavior, only a few were actual pedophiles. Like the cops, they gained adulation + trust of people and became arrogant in thinking they could act so abusively. The institution shuffled these bastards around. Institutional?

Teachers- I am one and see the same default adulation/respect showered on us as priests + cops. Furthermore, we are also, mothers, fathers, therapists, ministers, Dr.’s, prison guards etc to them as well. The confidence in which students sometimes hold us has been too much of a draw for some insecure + predatory teachers. They cross that line and abuse their position in the teacher-student relationship and take advantage of the very people they are charged with protecting. Institutional issue?

Doctors. Same as the aforementioned. They benefit from the same default adulation. Try telling them they are wrong. Most won’t even consider it. Do egomaniacs/disease enter the profession or do they become that way because of the institution?

Lawyers- Do I need to explain this one? To make money morals and sense of “We are one” is out the window. A NYC lawyer was having his car towed because it was illegally parked + laid down in front of the truck. He was subsequently arrested and said, “I am lawyer, you can’t do this.” To which the cop responded, “You’re wrong, you’re a lawyer in handcuffs!”.

Therapists- Talk about intimacy, trust+ vulnerability! I defer to you to expound on the reasons why people come through the door. For me, I limped into therapy and was extremely vulnerable. ½ of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers abuse that position + become sexually involved with their patients. (http://www.kspope.com/sexiss/sex2.php) Also, I can certainly understand patients becoming awestruck by these manipulative “saviors” who then abuse them. Institutional?

Dictatorships? Tough call. People loved the dictators of the mid century until too much distance came between these once revolutionaries as they all became tyrants + murderers. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin. Nationalism was pounded into the psyche of the people and education, health care, transportation and the economies were dramatically improved under these men. However, we all know what they did once their ego got the best of them. They systematically destroyed their countries. Institutional or bad apples?