Crimes Against Humanity

The 'invisible' hand of 'the market'. 

The 'invisible' hand of 'capitalism'.

It's visible now!

HT Xena and NY Times

Published in July of 1966; on police brutality in New York and the race riots of 1964.

Published in July of 1966; on police brutality in New York and the race riots of 1964.

This ESPN article and SI article have me thinking about the culture of the locker room and the spaces of machismo that are cultivated there away from the view of the rest of society.  This is a rather important topic to me personally because I was victimized and systematically bullied in the locker room as a kid; I see a connection between what happens at the highest level of sports infusing the images that high school and little league kids aspire to have in their lives.  I was driving home listening to this particular Colin Cowherd radio show and was surprised how much I agreed with what he said.  Much of the backlash on this story has centered on the supposed “wussification of society.”  Sports are that great bastion of hyper-masculinity that rewards behavior that in other social circles would never be culturally unacceptable away from the field of play or the locker room.  Most locker rooms are fine, but expecting them to be self-policying is the type of scenario that bullies actively seek.  I think that those that defend the system’s code of silence fail to realize how they are a part of the system that empowers the bullies to victimize and take advantage of those that prefer more thoughtful, civilized interactions as ways to resolve disputes.  Any comment I’ve heard that has criticized Martin usually ends up tells me more about that commenter than it does to explain the situation. 

Isn't hiding and keeping the "locker room" mentality exactly what helped abusers like Jerry Sandusky at Penn State?

What can happen when you are a sloppy writer/publisher, when you are a lazy reader.

I don't think the word 'evil' is helpful because that is a religious term.  

Would we say that someone born as a psychopath is evil? I suppose if one is religious they would say that.  

Psychopaths lack the neurophysiological “hardwiring” that enables them to care about people's feelings. 

Psychopathy affects approximately 1 percent of the United States general population and 20 percent to 30 percent of the male and female U.S. prison population. 

The danger in every community and nation is that it only takes one psychopath to get into a position of power (or get their hands on a gun) to end up doing massive harm. 

Click through to read Abagond's post - then we can ask ourselves if U.S. culture is evil or psychotic. 

We just had a similar talk at home with the kids while watching "Who Do You Think You Are?" (The episode with Chelsea Handler serching her German & Jewish family background.)