The -ology of passing the buck

By the time you read this, a news story that surfaced this weekend has exploded into a major scandal that has already claimed the job of the winningest D-1 football coach ever, put a university president on notice and left a couple more high ranking officials reading the writing on the wall.  Not to mention the lives of at least 8 young men forever scarred.  I'm talking about the happenings at Penn State University.

There isn't much I can add to the discussion of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal that hasn't already been said.  And believe me, I looked.  I did extensive research on this issue- literally reading more than three articles for over twenty minutes and accumulating at least two pages of notes.

But I'm still going to blog about it anyways.  Don't worry- I'm not going to be playing the part of Internet Avenger or Moral Crusader.  What I am going to say is that in light of what we know about human psychology and organizational theory, this type of cover-up response is not necessarily indicative of any moral failure- at least, not as we understand morality in our day-to-day lives.

Before I begin, I'm going to tell you what I'll not be saying.  I'm not saying it's okay to sexually abuse children.  I'm not saying it's okay for people in power positions to abuse their position.  I'm not saying that people (Paterno and Spanier specifically) shouldn't lose their jobs.  I'm not saying Penn State and Second Mile are blameless in this.  I'm not saying that organizations should expect to employ child predators or that it's okay to cover up the transgressions of others.  That should cover the list of things that I'm not saying.

Now, to what I am saying.  And what I am saying is that the behaviors of Joe Paterno, Tim Curley, Gary Schultz, and Graham Spanier (among others) are understandable within the context of organizational theory and our understanding of psychology.

Look, I'm 99% sure we can all agree that there is no place for the abuse of power that happened in this situation, and that people need to be held accountable.  And obviously sexual abuse is a moral issue and its perpetrators have what I would consider a moral failing.  But I do not agree with those that say Paterno and Spanier (by omission) committed gross moral failure.  In fact, statistically speaking, they probably did what a majority of us would have done were we in their same shoes.

Chilling?  Maybe.  Unbelievable?  Most definitely.  But that's why you read this blog, right?  To be consistently and routinely amazed.  Anyways, enough about me.  Let's talk about you- what do you think of me? 

I'm building my hypothesis with bricks of psychology and macro-sociology.

To start with, check out these human behavior experiments.  Ordinarily, Cracked probably wouldn't be the first source of authority I'd send you to to back up my points (Wikipedia would be the first), but these are all legitimate scientific studies that each tell a frightening tale about the depths of common humanity.

The whole article is relevant in that it talks about ways we change our behavior from norms depending on social settings/power/etc.  Pay particular attention to #3 (Bystander apathy) and #2 (Stanford prison).  Have you read it yet?  No.  Okay.  Go read it, and then come back.  And no, I'm not stalling. 

My point is this- our ideological morality is not necessarily our pragmatic morality.  Most of us have some sort of moral code that we adhere to.  It helps us navigate a very grey world by making certain areas black and white.  That means we have to spend less time thinking and pondering those situations- we can just process them through our moral filter, make a quick judgment, and move onto the next episode of American Idol pressing ethical dilemma.

The thing is that, as these studies have shown, our moral compasses are not always set to 'stun'.  Our behavior is shaped by a multitude of forces other than what we believe to be right and wrong.  Sometimes people will do things they would otherwise deem inappropriate because of social setting.  Sometimes people will do those things because they are given power.  Sometimes people will do things because of peer pressure.  But regardless, there are situations that arise that will impact our behavior and cause us to do things that we probably swore we would never ever do.

These statements will make more sense as I awkwardly transition to my second topic, which is organizational theory.  But first, another disclaimer!

Again, I am not saying that people shouldn't be held accountable for what happened.  I agree with State police commissioner Frank Noonan when he says "somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child...I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone...to call us".  I just want everybody playing the moral superiority card to tone it down a few notches- because each of us has a unique set of circumstances that could put us in morally compromising situations that we probably would handle pretty damn poorly according to the popular consensus.

Moving on.

Organizations are, anthropomorphically speaking, survivors that form a symbiotic relationship with human beings.  They give us power, money, prestige- we give them the ability to survive.  Fair trade right?  Except for the part about human beings giving them life.  That's just asking for a techno-organic cluster-frack.

This is an example of a non-profit techno-organic cluster frack

Looking at the Penn State situation specifically, some are chalking it up to big bucks football power-type stuff, where love of the green (grass) and love of the green (money) come together to sacrifice kittens in crudely drawn, bloody pentagrams in endzones across the country.  I would posit that it's much more than that.  This isn't just about money and football- it's a reality of any organization.  It's a systemic issue.  It's inherently built into the system.

There's a reason that certain people are mandated reporters.  I'll give you a hint- it isn't because these people are screw-ups or likely to have indecent moral standards.  I'm guessing it's because sticky ethical situations probably arose and the government wanted to have some form of legal recourse (note: I'm sure I could do some research to find out the origin of mandated reporter laws- but you've been flat-out blessed by all the research I've done so far.  Don't push it).

In the ESPN article I linked to above (good read, BTW), Bryant says the "special power of an institution lies in it's moral authority".  I disagree.  I say that institutions (to be fair, he may be talking strictly collegiate institution whereas I am applying it in a broader sense) have power because that power has been given to (or more accurately, not taken away from) them by those we charge with our governance.  We tacitly give our stamp of approval by our willing submission to those organizations on a daily basis.  Many of them are necessary to run our society- at least, the society that we choose to live in.  I mean, when you have cities with hundreds of thousands of people, you pretty much have to turn things over to the Man in order for things to even run with a modicum of precision.

Of course, that precision comes with a price, and unfortunately there are times when the cost is our humanity.  Our systems are largely built on chain-of-command communication which can lend itself quite skillfully to breaking down while also providing a wonderful layer of protection.  Just make sure to pass on information to your superior (or whoever you are supposed to tell), and you can pretty much cross it off your to-do list- once you've made the proper documentation that is.  This sort of thing probably happens way more than you'd think- it's just not usually with serious things like sexual abuse. 

Communications breakdowns aside (and there were a crap ton of them with this Penn State debacle), I think there are a couple of reasons why something like this could happen without someone being like 'hey, um, this is pretty...wrong'.  Note: I'm not saying that these are legitimate reasons that give a free pass for covering for illegal, immoral activities.  I'm just saying that in the context of an organization's desire for survival, these are probably reasons why 'cover-ups' would happen.

1) Protect the organization.  There can be a lot of chaos when something like this hits the tabloids.  Disruption in the work place and at home.  Loss of jobs.  Tarnished reputation- both for an individual and the agency/organization they are associated with.  It's pretty easy on the outside to say that those things are not more important than people- and in a vacuum, you'd be 100% right.  But when it comes down to protecting a living, breathing, known quantity (self, friends, family) or protecting a nameless, possibly faceless statistic...that 100% can come down considerably.

Like a living organism, an organization is going to fight to survive- and it fights for survival through the people it feeds.  It will not be consumed.  It disguises its intentions behind peoples lives, their jobs, and their financial security.  It takes what we have in common and disregards it in favor of what makes us different (namely that you're here and they're not).

2) Protect friends.  It's easier to want to cover up and hide people you know and are probably friends with than unknown- which doesn't make it right, but that doesn't make it an ethical slam dunk either.  Paterno knew Sandusky for over 40 years.  Sandusky played football while Paterno was an assistant coach at Penn State, and became the defensive coordinator the year after JoePa started as head coach.  So they worked together for over 30 years.  Sandusky started his Second Mile foundation (a non-profit which helped at-risk youth) in 1977.  So they knew each other for over 40 years, worked together for over 30, and Sandusky ran a non-profit organization for over 20 years when the 2002 incident happened.

So when a graduate assistant came to his house and told him he had seen Sandusky behaving inappropriately in the shower with a young boy-  I'm just assuming that it didn't register as something that was really happening.  Obviously he told his superior, which fulfilled his legal requirement.  We know the incident was never followed up on.  But I imagine there was probably quite a struggle of being confronted with that terrible accusation- a person, a friend that you've known for over 40 years does the absolute most disgusting, horrible, inhumane thing you can imagine.

There's also probably a degree of self-indictment.  If you allow yourself to really think on the horrible things that your friend has done while still outwardly appearing like everything is going on like business as usual...it seems like there would be a tremendous overwhelming sensation of 'what else have I been wrong about?'.  You probably refuse to believe that you could be deluded, because you have such a strong, alert moral filter.  Maybe you live in denial of the event.  Maybe you minimize it.  Maybe you think 'well, I told my boss, so if this is the real deal, then something will happen and then I will deal with this'.  

Of course outside people are quickly accusing the Penn State big wigs of simply passing the buck.  They say they absconded from their moral and ethical responsibilities.  To which I would say, well of course they did- they live and work in a system that is set up for them to do such a thing.

One of the board members said on Tuesday that they want to put "systems, procedures...in place so this can never happen again".  You mean like the ones you have now?  I mean, the chances are that there was already some sort of system in place- the one where you just keep telling your boss to tell his boss and assume that someone has to tell the relevant authorities.

I don't imagine anything like this will happen at Penn State again for awhile (if ever) simply because the University's reputation has become stained by this event.  But for him to think that there is some sort of magical system that can be installed in such a large institution to keep this horrible tragedy from happening again- it's just not realistic.  There are always precautions and measures to be taken.  Precautions and measures that are sometimes conflicted by human psychology and organizational structure.

In the end, Goliath did not throw the stone at his own head.  What brought Sandusky's horrible actions to a stop was not the system.  It wasn't a chain of command.  It was a mother, who persisted until there was action.  Let this be a warning to all of us- that we need to be active participants in our lives and the lives of those around us.  We can't rely on our systems and we can't necessarily rely on others. Don't wait for the cavalry...because chances are, they've been held up by loads and loads of red tape. 

As the people involved in this Penn State tragedy move forward and the world tries to learn from this, I hope that you can see that our moral actions do not take place in a textbook or a video game.  Life is not as black and white or linear as we try to make it out to be.  Yes, we humans have our standards to always live up to our conscience whatever system our morals are based on.  Accountability and consequences are an important part of a healthy society in my opinion.  But that said, there are forces outside of us, outside of our understanding that can cause us to do things that we might not normally do outside of that context.  Therefore we shouldn't be so quick to judge.  Who knows- one day we could be the ones answering to the torches and pitchforks.  

Information from ESPN was used in this blog. 
PIC: http://www.tony5m17h.net/MatrixNet.gif

Burden of insight

I remember talking to a (then) co-worker during my internship about the burden of insight. At the time, we were talking about it in a negative context- that is, a person was not functioning very well in their job despite numerous instances of feedback, critiques, and reprimands because they weren't able to deduce that what they were doing or the way in which they were doing it was wrong. The guy just literally could not understand the concepts of the correction- because in his mind, there was no wrong the be righted.

In recent weeks, I've been thinking about this concept, and applying it in a much broader scope- and honestly, sometimes I think that this would be a nice state of mind. It might be kind of nice to not really be aware of what is going on. 'Ignorance is bliss', it is said. And really, they might just be right.

I spend most of my days hanging out with my kids, so I admit that I may have a little bit of a skew to my perspective. I mean, I spend my days watching children's television, coloring pictures, and playing pretend. Forget the gray- it's all black and white, baby! And pink and powder blue, too!

I realize that life is, in no way, shape, form, etc., never going to play out like an episode of Dora. "Bad guys" (whatever that term means, seriously) are never going to cease and desist because we incant a plea three times. We don't get a talking/singing map to help us plan our journeys. We aren't administered a stock magic backpack that is sure to contain at least one item that we need at any given moment. And we certainly don't hang out with near-naked primates. (I am sorry if I am assuming anything about your pets)

But still- having insight can be such a bother. Because then we start to think about things, and we start to allow ideas and thoughts to take hold in our mind. I'm not saying thinking is bad- believe me, you won't find me burning books to suppress knowledge- but what I am saying is that often times, my thoughts can warp my perception and leave me vulnerable to hopelessness and despair.

I think about things in the world- the events unfolding before us, as we see entire governments thrown down in a state of worldwide unrest. Even on the home front, the cracks in the foundation are beginning to show. And I think sometimes, wouldn't it be nice to just live in a corner of the world somewhere, oblivious to what's going on? Just going about the normal day-to-day routine, just living and spending time with family?

I think about all the weights and cares that are superficially placed on us. We owe thousands of dollars to faceless corporations. We are not the masters of our own destiny- we are slaves to a system that survives on the sweat of our labor. Right now, we live in a primarily tertiary (service) economy. This is not a system that is building a better human being- it's a system that actually, in my opinion, reduces our humanity by robbing us of our base abilities to survive apart from the system. We may not be plugged into machines- but we're not all that far removed from being in The Matrix, either. And then I think, maybe the steak isn't real- but who cares? We're eating steak, right?

Look, I'm as big a fan of insight as anyone. Because of the nature of humans and the systems we create to naturally drift to homeostasis, insight can provide the spark that leads to meaningful change. Insight can help us to compartmentalize the world around us, and realize that while the big picture moves forward that we are still responsible to take care of our part of the puzzle. Having knowledge and a general sense of awareness (even one in the stages of genesis) is wonderful, and really I wouldn't trade it for anything.

But along with that comes the burden. The burden that we know that we cannot always trust the actions or words of others- no matter their rank or station. The burden that we realize that we have much less control of our lives than we are led to believe. The burden of knowing that many of the pillars our society is made of are made of wet cardboard, just waiting for a windstorm to come and blow them all down.

Look at the nuclear event in Japan. Here is something that completely blindsided those poor people because of a natural catastrophic event. The initial assessments were that it was "serious" but likely to be contained fairly quickly- definitely not the next Chernobyl, is what we were told. And then the situation began to spiral out of control, and radiation began to leak, and soon they were calling this the biggest nuclear event since Chernobyl, and radiation had got in the tap water and Tokyo was running out of bottled water. Hard to believe that mere weeks ago, lives were being lived in much the same manner as I live mind today.

Apologies for the ramblingness. Often times, I'm able to sort things out in my head before I blog- or at least during the blog itself. Right now, I'm not 100% confident that I've done that. I'm not even sure if I have a point. How's that for a conclusion?

Agony and Ecstasy

It's been a crazy week. Originally I was going to write this blog last week because of news that I got on Saturday (11/6), but as usual life happened (illness) and I didn't. But that's okay- because there were more things to happen over the past week that really tie into what I was going to write about. (of course, I then proceeded to wait an additional five days before finishing the blog. Man I am awesome).

While there are innumerable differences between all of us, we are also bound together by types of events that are not discriminant. Birth and death are chief among these- and the beauty of humanity is that we take these mundane commonalities and flavor them with our own perspectives.

This blog is about a day in my life when joy and sorrow intersected in my life on a normal Saturday. This is about the meaning that I have attached to it. Let's get this party started.

In the morning, I took the kids grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. I do this often, because apparently we do not live in a magical land where food automatically replenishes itself while it sits in your cupboards. Also, we do not live in a normal land in which food mates with other food and bears offspring. While shopping, we ran into some friends and found out that they were pregnant.

Congratulations! Apparently they've been trying for a couple years now, and now their "hard work" has paid off. They been very active in helping out with the baby explosion at our church, so it's nice to see them get their due (date). They are a great couple, and they're going to be excellent parents.

Interesting aside- when you're talking to people who have recently become pregnant...let's just say that they will tell you things about themselves that they probably wouldn't normally tell you- and unless you're a real sicko you probably wouldn't want to know. For instance-they might tell you "we've been trying for awhile to get pregnant"- well, I'm assuming that your preparations didn't involve brushing up on your ornithology. And I've seen your apartment- it definitely isn't big enough for a lab to fertilize eggs in vitro.

I wish that was where my story ended. Good news doesn't sell, though, and life is all about homeostasis- and when life is going good, unfortunately it is something bad that will bring things back into balance..

That evening, we were just chilling at the house (which is an amazing reality for me- having come from a job that sucked away my weekends like vampires suck away blood, I am just pleased as punch that I have weekends off), when we got a knock on the door. Well crap- if you know me at all, you know that I'm rocking the boxer-briefs when I'm in mi casa and there are no plans. I'm sorry if that's an over-share- I guess I figured after the whole pregnancy talk, we could all be adults and be open about things.

So I grab some pants real quick, run down to get it, and it's a friend of ours from the townhouses. A simple neighborly courtesy call about their noise level turned quickly south when she told me her son (who is only a year or so older than Delaney) has been diagnosed with cancer.

It came as quite a shock to me, to say the least- especially with the juxtaposition of the earlier pregnancy news. When you have kids, and you find out something like that- it tends to rock you. You realize that life is often a game of Russian Roulette, and sometimes it's your turn and you get the empty slot- and sometimes you get the bullet.

Being a stay-at-home dad has offered me a degree of safety. It's been fairly easy for me to build a bubble wall that I live my life in, and spin the wheels of my routine. Sometimes I go back and forth- is my life this way because I'm blessed? Or is my life going so smoothly because things are wrong? I know it sounds messed up- and I know that I am messed up. And the world is the most messed up place in the world.

There are other examples of happiness and sorrow from the past few weeks- it's pretty hard to process sometimes. Because the people in our lives don't suffer alone- we are there with them, if for no other reason than because we realize that it could have been us. And so we should celebrate when they are happy and lament when they are sad- because it could have been us. The calender marches on, but congratulations and consolations are always in season. As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, remember to give thanks to those in your life who mean the most to you.