Us & Them
Let’s talk about Cops. You know, the boys (and
girls) in blue – the ones with the T.V. show, the catchy theme song, the video
tape cruisers. The ones everybody keeps telling me are crooked, bigoted, heavy
handed enforcers for the state.
I’ve lived a relatively diverse life – even
spending a few interesting years as a civilian in several different countries.
As a juvenile, I instigated my fair share of delinquency – and got
"busted" and made to take responsibility for my actions. After a
series of mulish adolescent reactions, I’ve learned that it is better to live
my life responsibly in the first place than to suffer the consequences of
irrational behavior at a later date. I consider myself "lucky" to have
been caught, and taught these lessons at an early age.
When I was caught for speeding, or for pot, or
for wreaking general havoc on the local population, I never fully realized how
out of control I was. Oh sure, I knew that many of the things I did were wrong
– but hey, it was the 70’s and it seemed to me (and many other kids) that
being a rebel was the way things were supposed to be. It was us against them. We
were the poor, misunderstood good guys simply asserting our independence and
developing our individualism. How warped and twisted is that? Only a teenager
could understand.
The problem here is that we were wrong, we knew
we were wrong, but we were unable or unwilling to admit it. My generation sprang
forth from two diametrically opposed previous generations – the straight
arrow, law abiding, government-is-good generation of the 50’s and the free
love, bipolar, passive aggressive (or aggressively passive),
independence-is-whatever-you feel-like-doing generation of the 60’s. While not
an apologetic argument, I believe it is important to lay out the foundation for
what I feel is the philosophic motivation behind a mixed up and contradictory
generation.
Our generation experienced infancy and early
childhood during the most paranoid and discordant social period (save, perhaps,
for the Spanish inquisition) known to man. At the same time, we’ve witnessed
the greatest advances in technology – ninety percent of which were developed
by the military industrial complex for either the defense and/or destruction of
the entire world. Our parents experienced, to one degree or another, the effects
of World War II and many participated in America’s first military failure in
Korea, while we were subjected to an increasingly hostile Cold War, including
the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and the second devastating military failure in Vietnam.
On the home front, we witnessed the assassination of a president and several
attempts at an encore performance on other presidents.
Our government expanded, during this time, like
an out of control virus - increasing in size, scope, responsibility and
authority, all the while becoming more distant, complex, impersonal, and
unapproachable. We no longer understood the machinations or mindset of those we
sent to Washington to protect and uphold our Constitution and our way of life.
The military and police force grew with a booming population yet, rather than
feeling more secure and protected, we felt exposed and threatened.
We experienced the Civil Rights movement as a
blur of hatred, murder, more assassination, and riots, while our cities fell
apart around us. Crime increased exponentially and we began locking the doors of
our homes and cars, leaving lights on, installing security systems, and
developing a defensive potential victim mindset. Juvenile gangs grew and took
over entire city blocks, then began warring with each other while preying on the
citizens and businesses unlucky enough to fall within their turf.
Taxes grew. Restrictive laws and regulations
invaded every aspect of American life. Our government sent ever more young men
to fight and die in a war even they admitted could not be won, primarily due to
a lack of political commitment. The youth of our nation grew despondent and
millions turned to drugs and alcohol to escape the perceived lunacy of the
"real world." It was a revolution of escapism, withdrawal from the
conventional norms, and the deliberate abandonment of the values and morals of
the nation.
They called it the "Peace" movement,
and because of it, people died from drugs, from riots, from irresponsible and
self-destructive lifestyles, from hatred and from murder. The so-called peace
movement was anti-establishment in every conceivable aspect – perhaps with
some cause – and yet it was as volatile and dangerous to all parties as any
armed insurrection. From it grew the psychotic and ineffectual society, perhaps
on the verge of collapse, that we witness today.
We no longer trust our government, believe what
it tells us, or expect it to act in our own best interest. Nor, apparently, are
we concerned enough to hold it accountable for it’s actions. At the same time,
we appear to accept it’s authority to inflict nearly any absurd and outrageous
act upon us with the same oblivious nature of an ox accepting the yoke. We
bellow and moan on our own time, but as long as we have a cud to chew and a warm
stall to stand in, we are as content as any domesticated farm animal. Keep us
amused, keep us distracted, keep us fed and sheltered, and even though we’ll
complain incessantly, we’ll passively march to the government’s tune –
right up to the processing plant of their choice.
Think I’m getting off the subject? Wandering
off on a diatribe about the government? Hang in there a moment longer and
you’ll (hopefully) see my point.
Ever wonder how cattle feel while in the pens and
stockyards outside a processing plant? Ever wonder what they must be thinking
as, one by one, they are fattened up and led away? Ever wonder what those
outside the plant might be thinking as they hear the bellow of their former herd
mate receiving the final blow? Ever wonder why they accept their fate right up
to the very end instead of banding together with their considerable size, weight
and natural defenses to overwhelm, trample and destroy the men who are breeding
them for death?
Alright! Okay! I know you suspect that they
haven’t a sufficiently developed brain to wonder or worry about these things.
If so, then why do the wild herds band together in defense against their natural
predators – wolves, coyotes, mountain cats, bears and such? Why do they flee
when approached by these animals yet passively stand at the approach of a man
with a hammer, a cleaver, or a gun in his hand? If they are aware of the intent
and effect of a natural predator, is it not conceivable that they might fathom
the reason and effect of entering the slaughterhouse?
The difference here is that they have been
"domesticated." They have been raised and fed, sheltered and
ministered to by men all of their short, relatively peaceful, and contented
lives. They have wanted for little that men have not provided them. They have
been protected from their natural predators by men, and men have never failed to
heal their wounds, move them to greener pastures, speak to them in gentle terms,
or pat them on the head. Oh, sure, there’s the occasional branding, and once
in a while a maverick is culled from the herd never to be seen again, but on the
whole, life is wonderful all of the time.
So, while they stand outside the doors of the
packing plant and witness their herd mates shuffled in – never to be seen
again; even though they may, with their heightened olfactory senses, smell the
blood and fear and fecal discharges of their dying mates; even though, with
their superior sense of sound, they may hear the death knell or worried
bellowing of their mates as they are led down the final chute; even though
every sensory input tells them they are in grave danger- they simply
refuse to believe this danger is about to fall, inevitably, upon them. They
cannot and will not accept it.
Just like us.
We pride ourselves on being the most advanced
example of humankind to walk the earth. In our pride, we have named ourselves Homo
sapiens, literally, "wise men." Personally, I believe this
particular species no longer exists. That we, as a species, have evolved (if you
can call it that) into two similar, yet distinct, species: Homo domesticus or,
"domesticated man" and Homo crudelis – the "coldhearted
man."
H. domesticus is the average Joe, the affable
citizen, the compliant drone. The "Us" in "Us and
Them."
H. crudelis is the predator masquerading as
protector, the master pretending to be the servant. Them.
Because of our supposedly advanced intellect and
rational capabilities, however, it is necessary for the dominant species (H.
crudelis) to intermingle with the herd (H. domesticus) and occasionally elevate
or include certain hand-picked members of the herd species in the plans and
positions normally held only by the dominant species. Never without careful
monitoring and manipulation (guidance), mind you – but nonetheless a position
of prominence above the rest of the herd so that all may look and point and say,
"That, too, could be me!" The effect is that H. crudelis convinces H.
domesticus that there is no difference between the two, that they are all in the
same boat, that they may all aspire to the same heights and that both species
suffer the same woes.
It works. There truly is an "Us" and a
"Them." Though it is sometimes difficult to delineate exactly who is
whom, the division exists. Now, when it comes to cops (remember the cops?) the
division is often so blurred that the majority of us domesticated types tend to
blur the entire group, or force, into a single class – Them. But
this is not the case. It never has been the case, and probably never will be the
case. If it were, the distinction would be so great that the herd would be
compelled to view the police as predators regardless of the disguise they might
wear.
As it stands, the vast majority of the police
forces of the United States are composed of H. domesticus. They have been
elevated above the herd, given a distinct set of advantages and benefits, and
carefully coached and manipulated into acting like junior members
of H. crudelis, while maintaining the sympathetic mindset of H. domesticus. They
have been granted more authority and, seemingly, more autonomy than the general
population of the herd but in truth are more closely monitored and ham stringed
than the herd itself. In essence, H. crudelis has managed to develop a method
for the herd to monitor itself within the proscribed limits they have set. They
no longer have to worry about monitoring or controlling the vast numbers of
their ever increasing source of sustenance, they simply maintain control of the
hand picked few whom they have convinced it is their honor-bound duty to
shepherd the rest.
Simple. Easy. Direct. Effective. No intellectual
slouches in H. crudelis. They may not have a heart, or soul, or any regard for
human life save their own, but they sure as hell aren’t stupid.
So the next time you think of the cops as one of
"Them," you might take a closer look at the world outside your
particular patch of green pastures. You might try talking to one of these
fellows and see what they really think is going on. In most cases, they are men
and women with hearts of gold who have seen too much betrayal of H. domesticus
upon H. domesticus and experienced the cruel and contradictory manipulations of
H. crudelis upon us all. We are all living outside the processing plant – both
citizens and cops – and their job is to keep us all calm and in the best of
health before walking down that final chute. You can’t blame them for trying.
Their motivations are pure. They just don’t know what they are doing. Do you?
Geeze! Kind of makes you want to turn vegetarian,
doesn’t it?
Mooo!
MEG
4 March 1999
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