We've lately been confronting the reality of sexual abuse of young people, that can happen whenever adults are in a position of power. We've read horrific stories about physicians, coaches, scout leaders, teachers and clergy. A disturbing common thread is what seems a nearly universal institutional response of denial and cover up. This was the basic story of the Boston Globe expose of the Catholic church 20 years ago. It was the essence of the Jerry Sandusky story, that destroyed the reputation of Joe Paterno not to mention the president of Penn State. And it is the core of the Larry Nassar story -- not only USA gymnastics but even the FBI ignored and enabled his behavior. And now we learn that more than 300,000 children were abused by Catholic clergy and some others associated with the church in France over the past 70 years, and again that the response of the hierarchy was to conceal and enable it. This has been found to be true of the Catholic church in many countries -- actually all countries where there's been a serious investigation.
Why? I find it very puzzling that in all of these cases the people with responsibility responded with denial. There seems to be a cultural universal operating here, yet when the truth is revealed the universal reaction is abhorrence. If we all feel shock, anger, and outrage when we learn about these atrocities, why didn't the Bishops, the authorities at Penn State, U.S.A. gymnastics, and all the other people in charge react the same way? I just find this baffling.
4 comments:
Am I missing something here? Where’s the mystery? When most people are confronted with evidence that a crime has been committed and they are in some way responsible, they deny. As you mentioned, the president of Penn State University had his life ruined by the Sandusky scandal. What kind of person would admit to involvement in a crime? Answer: a responsible person. What kind of people are involved in child abuse? Answer: irresponsible people. Nobody wants to get in trouble, and most people prefer lying to consequences.
“A lie would make no sense unless the truth were felt to be dangerous.“
— C.G. Jung
Well yeah but that's my point. Paterno and Spanier wouldn't have had their reputations ruined if they had acted appropriately. The reputation of Penn State and Penn State football would have been enhanced, not damaged, if they had gone to the cops about Sandusky. And who the hell benefited by protecting Larry Nassar?
The Catholic church is another matter, however. Their view of sex is profoundly distorted.
Back when I was in sales I came across a business school rag with a long, citation heavy, article on the counterproductive nature of incentive systems (aka commissions) in sales departments. The author pointed out that, despite every faculty of business knowing they were damaging, they persisted in the business world. When questioned, most business "leaders" (ugh!) argued the old "real world vs ivory tower" bullshit. The author found this unconvincing but failed to present his own theory.
To me it was immediately, and painfully, obvious: the VP of Sales and Marketing (who usually becomes CEO) came up in an incentive system. To accept the proposition that is was actually harmful to company interests would force them to contemplate their own "deserved" place in the hierarchy. Ego Death, table for one!
It's not a rational response and we do it because we are not, fundamentally, rational beings. It's a variant of the argument I keep having over at LGM when they tell me rural whites should educate themselves out of congenital racism, the (classical) liberal canard that we can control our feelings and beliefs. We really can't because human reason exists to promote individual survival, of the ego as well as the body. To bring people to see certain facts it is necessary that the path not threaten their sense of self.
So, DQ is half right. The truth is a threat, but not to their material conditions. It is a threat to their ego, and that cannot be born by any man.
Yeah. Well, apparently the sense of “propriety” that America’s elite academic institutions have is pretty warped, too. Wherever we look now, in policing, higher education, government, entertainment, business, the values of America are profoundly warped. There are people trying to make a difference in all of these fields, but by and large the country has gone off the rails and I don’t see any way to pull it back, especially with Democratic politicians who almost to a man have no gonads. They simply do not realize, as Steve Van Zandt has pointed out, that we are in a war with crazy rightwing ideologues. They keep trying to play by the rules of the game when the Republicans abandoned all of the rules decades ago.
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