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RealityVsUnreality 3 - 18 Feb 2009 - Main.PetefromOz
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When Prof. Moglen was discussing the wide chasm separating between what we know about the penal system and what really transpires behind prison doors, it occurred to me that this divergence between reality and unreality certainly isn't unqiue to the criminal "justice" system, and that the failure to bridge that gap often leads to a distorted understanding of human behavior in other contexts as well. In the case of the penal system, we witness some alarming absurdities: the father who thinks jail time will "shape up" his son, the politician who pads his resume with convictions, the prosecutor whose political ties pervert her duties as a public servant, and a community which thinks itself safer despite rising rates of incarceration and crime. These symptoms are no doubt worrisome, but I believe the same social forces operate in other cases as well. | | | | |
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< | I used to volunteer at a small organization that serves food to the homeless in Los Angeles downtown. Once, the director of the organization asked me, “Do you know what the difference is between you and the homeless?” I don’t even remember how I answered. But, his answer was rather shocking to me at that time. He said, “The only difference between you and the homeless is the family/environment you grew up.” He went on to explain with the statistics that I don’t remember quite well… That a big percentage of homeless was raised by the parents who are alcoholic or abusive… Many were orphans or from broken homes… He gave me one example. He explained that people accuse homeless as being lazy and incompetent. He said that when you are raised with a total indifference by your parents, you actually get trained to become incompetent. According to his theory, if your parents are totally indifferent whether you do well or not in school, you lose an incentive to actually study hard. You are supposed to learn by observing, remembering, and then internalizing what behavior is rewarded or punished by your parents. For example, children raised by the indifferent parents might not even be able to learn that diligence is a good thing because they were never rewarded for it. (I don’t know if I explained his “indifference theory” well.) I accepted most of his statements, but secretly I thought in a dignified way that ‘The environment does not explain everything. There are people raised from the abusive parents and they don’t all become homeless.’ I think I was uncomfortable with the fact that I could also be homeless if I were born in that situation. I would’ve liked to think that I had a choice. I would’ve liked to think the homeless that I see when I serve food had a choice. I could not accept the fact that I have less choice than I think I have… I felt far more comfortable if I could just separate my world and the homeless’s world. I felt more at ease by not being fully aware of how privileged I am compared to others and that I didn’t earn the most of it. I think I was just not comfortable to see the injustice that was manifest right in front of me. | >
> | I used to volunteer at a small organization that serves food to the homeless in Los Angeles downtown. Once, the director of the organization asked me, “Do you know what the difference is between you and the homeless?” I don’t even remember how I answered. But, his answer was rather shocking to me at that time. He said, “The only difference between you and the homeless is the family/environment you grew up.” He went on to explain with the statistics that I don’t remember quite well… That a big percentage of homeless people were raised by parents who were alcoholic or abusive… Many were orphans or from broken homes… He gave me one example. He explained that people accuse homeless of being lazy and incompetent. He said that when you are raised with a total indifference by your parents, you actually get trained to become incompetent. According to his theory, if your parents are totally indifferent as to whether you do well or not in school, you lose an incentive to actually study hard. You are supposed to learn by observing, remembering, and then internalizing what behavior is rewarded or punished by your parents. For example, children raised by the indifferent parents might not even be able to learn that diligence is a good thing because they were never rewarded for it. (I don’t know if I explained his “indifference theory” well.) I accepted most of his statements, but secretly I thought in a dignified way that ‘The environment does not explain everything. There are people raised from the abusive parents and they don’t all become homeless.’ I think I was uncomfortable with the fact that I could also be homeless if I were born in that situation. I would’ve liked to think that I had a choice. I would’ve liked to think the homeless that I see when I serve food had a choice. I could not accept the fact that I have less choice than I think I have… I felt far more comfortable if I could just separate my world and the homeless’s world. I felt more at ease by not being fully aware of how privileged I am compared to others and that I didn’t earn the most of it. I think I was just not comfortable to see the injustice that was manifest right in front of me. | | | Well… yeah… Young’s post and our discussions in class reminded me of that experience. Now I understand more why I was rather uncomfortable with the statement that the only difference between the homeless and I is “where we were born”… I also wanted to say that I am really glad to be in this class. This class is the only class that makes me “think” about things…things that actually matter. When I come home after this class, I find myself just sitting and “thinking” about what we discussed in class. So, thank you, Professor Moglen and my class mates… =) | | | It's interesting to think of these social institutions - prisons, psychiatric institutions - as a way of justifying or eliminating the discomfort that Esther mentions. If we can rationalize a person's circumstances and make them "worthy" of some kind of retributive institutionalization, then we don't have to deal with the larger questions.
-- MolissaFarber - 18 Feb 2009 | |
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At the risk of being criticized for being too politically correct, may I suggest that referring to people living rough as "homeless people" is preferable to "homeless" because it reminds both the speaker and the listener of the humanity of the subjects.
I also appreciate that this class genuinely makes me think.
-- PetefromOz - 18 Feb 2009 | | | |
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