this newly-faddish notion that the problem is that americans don't trust their institutions is, i must say, completely bizarre. only an idiot trusts an institution, and americans as a rule never have. today maureen dowd discusses the jerry sandusky nightmare, the catholic church's man-boy love support group, and the ways the institutions mobilized to help the rapists. from that she generates the following rhetorical question.
Have our materialism, narcissism and cynicism about the institutions knitting society — schools, sports, religion, politics, banking — dulled our sense of right and wrong?
wait. what? cynicism about these institutions is richly warranted, and the only possible thing that can prevent their becoming secret worlds of abuse. cynicism is the right response, surely, and it is itself an expression of moral values, a trace of idealism in the face of the grotesque. what she actually portrays is people venerating institutions - and hence destroying individual lives through lies and concealment - that in fact deserve to be leveled with explosives. there was never a time when such institutions were trustworthy, or were actually approached with trust. i think perhaps what dowd or chris hayes are remembering is not the history of american atitudes to institutions but their own small childhood, when they regarded the institutions in which they were embedded with with uncritical veneration. that speaks badly for their raising, of course, but surely it's time to put away childish things.
now i'm sure hayes and dowd want trustworthy institutions. but the structure of their thoughts is actually precisely what leads to secrecy, lies, and abuse. remember nixon's basic stance on the watergate investigation? my god you're impugning the 'institution of the presidency.' the whole catholic hierarchy participated in a cover-up that was essentially a pr manouver; well, if people lose their mindless faith in the church, their souls will face an eternity of torment. the whole idea is to preserve public trust by ever-increasing untrustworthiness. there are two ways, of course, of dealing with the problem of 'the apearance of impropriety': (1) eliminate the impropriety. (2) make sure no one finds out. because the issue arises when it's too late for (1), the actual strategy is always (2). when we lose our suspicion and cynicism about institutions, we will all be victims.
also, when did the american left become the defender of vicious traditional institutions, yearning for unthinking trust? sometimes it's hard to tell the radicals from the reactionaries. looking squarely at the history of american leftism (a few bad stalinist moments aside) people like this are outrageously betraying it.
