Over this past weekend I had a couple of conversations with some people about the whole prom night controversy and one of the things that got said, which I’ve heard many times before in other contexts, was that, “don’t you think the people in authority know what they’re doing?”
As if that is any answer when they demonstrate that, clearly, whatever they’re doing it has nothing to do with common sense, ethics, or any kind of honesty.
I’ve been hearing that rejoinder for decades, ever since Vietnam, and I keep coming back to that scene in All The President’s Men when Deep Throat lectures Robert Redford about the nature of the administration and he tells him, really, these are not very smart guys. It was a revelatory moment for me, way back then, and ever since I have had a difficult time accepting any kind of authority Just Because.
Because no, I don’t think many of these folks who are In Charge know very well what they’re doing. They got these jobs on some kind of popularity contest basis and as long as nothing requiring a great deal of thought comes before them, it’s just administrative blank-filling. But when they actually have to make a decision about something for which there is no line on the form…
The school board—and maybe some of the parents as well—in Itawamba County, Mississippi, reacted from personal revulsion. They looked at Constance McMillen and thought “Oh, that’s not right!” and gave it no more thought, because, hey, who’d gainsay them? The Students? Big deal.
But when Constance sued their asses, it changed to a “who the hell do you think you are?” affair and those In Charge, in a fit of pique, demonstrated even more clearly that, regardless of right or wrong, no student was going to dictate to them, nosirree Bob, and most especially not some tuxedo-wearin’ dyke…I can picture the seething, redfaced rage at the presumption of that girl, tellin’ us we can’t bar anybody we damn please from the prom, like she has rights…
They reverted to the school yard and turned it into a pissing contest. Do I think they know what they’re doing?
No, I don’t think such people are very smart or have good reasons for what they do and I think people who defend their actions on that assumptions themselves don’t give these matters much thought and would likely do as bad if not worse a job. And that seems fairly consistent with what I see as a given in this country, that, when people get together in a large enough bunch, I.Q. is the first casualty. No one wants to rock the boat, no one wants their sacred cows slaughtered, and no one wants to offend their neighbors.
Is it any wonder things are a mess?
Just askin’…
When forming a committee
There’s a simple rule of sum:
Talent makes a difference,
and Folly makes a sum
— Piet Hein