In 2011, the American Middle Class is metaphorically a 10 year old boy, recruited by Jerry Sandusky's, Second Mile Charity. Mike McQueary represents our system of justice, and Joe Paterno represents our morality, that inner voice that serves as a conscious guide.
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Simply put, we American's, have a misplaced reverence for our institutions--corporate, educational, and religious. And when unthinkable conduct by those within these institutions surfaces, we demonstrate our lack of moral compass. We deny. We suppress. We cover up the dirty nastiness so as to protect the institutions at all costs. Almost as if our brains have turned to mush from all the years bad TV programs and high-fructose corn syrup.
McQueary reported hearing body slapping from the shower room and walked in on Sandusky forcing himself on the 10 year old boy's anus. Following that revelation, head coach Joe Paterno failed to escalate to law enforcement McQueary's report.
For 9 years after the rape, Sandusky was permitted regular access to Penn State's gym, fields, and locker rooms. This access legitimized the charity that Sandusky used to recruit his youthful victims. Sandusky had a lively career as Penn State's favorite pedophile.
Nevertheless, a sense of collective shame was not to be.
The behavior of the student-body when Paterno was fired speaks to the broader culture of general corruption. Similarly, the Catholic Clergy sex-abuse scandal, where every bit of energy and effort was spent to cover up and to protect the perpetrators, which had the unintended consequence of ensuring more and more victims, and more cover-ups. Just as Bankers socialize their losses when their incredibly risky behavior leads to losses, Sandusky's behavior was covered up and perpetuated.
The institution had to be protected above all else.
Compare the Penn State's failure to act, failure to use the rule of law to punish and protect the offender, to Wall Street's cabal of plunderers and economic terrorists. They are protected by the State's police force, while criminal behavior is rewarded by obscene bonuses and tax-payer bailouts and tax cuts for those that are least in need.
I hear the sound of slapping bodies in the ear of my mind.
It is not a leap to consider that moral bankruptcy on one level contributes to moral bankruptcy on another level. Just as Paterno and Sandusky placed loyalty the Penn State Football program above their legal and moral duties, we have seen the American system of justice defer to 1% of Wall Street. The Corporate plunder of 2007-2008 also goes unpunished and unprosecuted.
Is the culture of criminality a coincidence? I think not.
Consider how football is represented as a model for corporate team models, and traditionally was thought to be an instructive and character building endeavor. Football was a metaphor for success in life as well as in business.
But it is a lie, a big lie. College football is an odious greed-fueled racket. It chews up and spits out semi-professional players who in most incidents, only pretend to be real students. Everyone inch of College Football is corrupted, and it serves as a conduit for sucking dollars from brand merchandise and TV revenues. Coaches make million dollar salary's while adjunct professors cannot even get a dental plan. Bankers make millions in bonus, while the teachers pay for class room supplies our of their 40k salary's. This is fairness, American style. We've grown accustom to the body slapping and the boy screaming for someone to help make it stop. Looking in the mirror has never been this painful.
It is as if Sandusky has his hands on our collective genitals, and the Coach seems not to notice or care.
We embrace and celebrate lawlessness as a culture and as a country. It points to a culture that has no behavioral boundaries to cross. It's a culture of fakeness: fake corporate values, fake warrior religious culture, fake corporate responsibility, and fake sense of fairness and fake morality and fake Democracy.
And it makes for dam fine entertainment......
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