Mr. Nice Guy

Reading Maureen Dowd's story on Jerry Sandusky American Horror Story.

I am sickened. Let me be clear, I am sickened by the pretense of innocence and not-knowing that Ms. Dowd as well as just about everyone else casts over this story.

It’s hard to believe that a monster like Sandusky was harbored by Happy Valley for so long. It was an open joke in Penn State football circles that you shouldn’t drop your soap in the shower when Jerry was around.

Only it isn't hard to believe. I seem to recall writing about Justin Bieber grabbing his crotch while singing on the Today Show a couple of years ago, and many have written about the "imaginary" prostitution of kids in Beauty pageants and shows like Toddlers and Tiaras.

I will not go into detail, but there are a lot of people who know what it is like in this society to be young and abused by love and violence; a whole lot.
It is not hard to believe! Not a bit.
At which point do the innocent people in blinders begin to believe? The genocide of the native Americans? Lynch law and segregation? Wars based on lies and schemes? Abuse by priests, rabbis, and imams?  Institutionalized sadism of the prison system?
When does Ms. Dowd open her eyes entirely?
She seems to have done so now, but surely she will let them close again "when justice is done" !

(Which brings us back to the weakness of the "group mind", which is unable to learn from the past: when good things occur, the group merely assumes that the good is due to its own goodness and is its due; when bad occurs, the group tries to sweep it under the rug with exclamations of disgust, and soon forgets all about it.)
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