In this period of seemingly extreme polarization and a divide that reaches the political and cultural spheres, I (and I am sure ‘we’) hear unceasing calls for uniy. Politcians and talking heads loudy espouse the virtues of togetherness and can’t seem to reach fast enough for that wonderful Latin maxim that sits on the nation’s coat-of-arms, ‘E Pluribus Unum’.
Now to be sure, a part of me does favor unity and general human solidarity and the motto, “Out of Many, One” strikes m as a lovely one and I am sure I am not the only one that feels that way; for misanthropes it is certainly a differnt tale. Plus, in a week during which the Federal Bureau of Investigation foiled a plot by a fanatical ultra-right wing Christian militia intent on a delusional plan to overthrow the U.S government by way of murdering police officers, and other episodes of Tea Party-ites and Code Pinkers engaging in gross misbehavior, calls for unity are growing urgent.
I must preface my ensuing paragraphs with the following statement - I in no way excuse or find permissible, the aforementioned episodes of attempted treason and uncivil behavior, and in the case of the former, is clearly illegal and its historical penalty has been death.
But now, to the point for which I interrupted my sleep and decided to write this piece in the first place.
Division and differing points of view and position can indeed be virtuous and in the realm of politics and ideas, are in fact necessary. Arguments are to be had and waged with conviction and whole-hearted embrace. No society has progressed in ways enviable that has not had a public forum akin to a blood-soaked battlefield. I have spent years of my life in countries that have a scant amount of public discourse if any at all. In these places, ideas are not encouraged, opposition is not tolerated and contrarians are not suffered lightly. Political prisoners are numerous and journalists languish in jails or are brought to an end by way of car bombs or bullets.
Countries in which citizens are treated as flock, with their leaders naturally being the shepherd, societal stagnation and even regression are sure to follow.
Debate is thus necessary and indeed critical in a democracy and in polities that discourage it, or even employ thuggish tactics of violence and coercion to put a stop to it, the results are clear - authoritarianism, economic stagnation and eventual collapse, a poor education system (for it is frequently in the academy that revolutionary ideas are birthed), a discontented populace which can then lead to violent uprisings, possible civil war and eventual failed statehood; frequently in that order.
In the United States, I cherish opportunity to engage in the exchange of ideas (hence the very note I am typing). The nature of our democracy has evolved for the better over the course of America’s existence and such is entirely owed to freethinkers and intellectuals battling in public fora for what they believed were the best paths forward.
Darwin’s theory of evolution is strongly applicable to the matter of arguments and ideas. In a public square of multiple ideas and intellectual camps, only the strongest survive and therein lies the secret regarding why some societies advance while others stall. Those that encourage the debating of ideas and intellectual division, not unity, along such lines are the better for it. On the other hand, those that treat citizens in the mode of a controlled experiment and view them as livestock to be herded in lock-step unity behind their government are bound to suffer for it. Therefore, I dare say, division in the creation and exchange of ideas ia a virtue.
April 2010
Permit yourself to imagine a small cult of grown men who have charged themselves with the task of guiding their lay members through earthly life and into eternity. However, instead of limiting their mandate to such an assignment, these men have instead expanded it to molesting the youngest among their flock. Furthermore, those at the top of this group’s hierarchy send out an urgent SOS, warning members not to alert civil authorities and to keep accusations of sexual abuse a secret, as such matters will be handled within the group and away from the larger society’s legal apparatus.
Now of course the group I am alluding to is not a fringe cult of the Branch Davidian kind or the Kool-Aid drinking, mass suicide-committing Peoples Temple. I am instead referring to the Catholic Church, a communion of over one billion. We have now had the great misfortune of knowing about innumerable cases of sadistic abuse, molestation and rape of young children by older, filthy men. Even worse, is the secrecy and possible cover-up that ensued upon each and every such case. From dioceses across the United States to those in Ireland and mainland Europe, archbishops failed to alert authorities about such heinous crimes and when they did decide to finally take some action, they simply transferred the suspected priest to another parish, where he of course helped himself to a fresh batch of innocent children.
Even the sitting pope now finds himself entangled in this four- decades long intercontinental crime spree. First, as Archbishop of Munich, then Joseph Ratzinger had a priest who had been accused of forcing a young boy to perform oral sex on him, sent to therapy for treatment instead of making such evil filth known to the police, and as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as the Inquisition), he sent a warning to Catholic priests across the globe telling them to not notify civil authorities of charges of abuse as such matters would be handled internally. This as far as I understand the law is called ‘obstruction of justice’ and one can easily find one’s self facing prosecution for it. This then bring me to my main point, when are states in Europe and state officials here in the United States going to pursue church officials, Il Papa included with zeal? Benedict and the entire lot of men of the cloth that had anything to do with accusations and the concealing of them should be subpoenaed, as the first step.
Sadly, this seems unlikely to happen as civil authorities would most likely be gripped by cowardice if the target of their investigations is the Church and the Vatican itself. This of course owes itself to the immediate respect people confer upon those with clerical qualifications. However, perhaps a shocking piece of information I just gathered would give some pause and inspire in them a sense of righteous outrage. In Wisconsin, during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, a certain Father Lawrence Murphy who worked in and was indeed head of a Catholic institution that took care of deaf children, sexually abused young boys (they were deaf, remember) and some put the number of his victims at 200. Some of these boys had up to 60 torturous sessions with him and despite all of that, he was not reported to the police. Instead the church began internal deliberations and sought therapy for him. He even wrote a letter to then Cardinal Ratzinger begging to not be defrocked and subject to church discipline. Father Murphy was thus able to die unmolested by the legal system in 1998. He was even buried with his vestments draping his vile corpse.
Justice desperately needs to be served. A systematic process of abuse, molestation, rape and torture was directed at the most vulnerable members of society - children, and even within that collection of children, an even more vulnerable set - the disabled, was targeted for sexual gratification. It is about time legal apparatuses the world over do their damn jobs and prosecute the accused parties and let that most solemn ideal that governs jurisprudence reign supreme - No man is above the law, not even Europe’s last supreme monarch. A call for justice I say.
