The Gator
Footballguy
There seems to be two recurring themes I hear, whenever anyone talks about their conservative friends, and what they think:
1. The first is, how great America is;
2. The second is. we just have to get rid of the "bad" people.
I don't understand how both can be true. But lets assume, for the sake of argument, that America is the greatest. Why does the greatest country in the world have a disproportionate number of "bad" people?
We have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
US - 737 per 100,000
Russia - 615
Ukraine - 350
Mexico - 196 - despite all the bad hombres
England - 148
Spain - 144
China - 118
Italy - 104
Germany - 94
France - 85
Japan - 62
We have been locking "bad" people up for decades, just like people want to do. And, yet. we keep finding more bad people to lock up. Its almost like the solution of getting rid of bad people is not really addressing anything, let alone the "problem".
So, that begs the question - statistically, you would expect the number of bad guys in the United States to be on par with the rest of the world - and perhaps, given the status of "Greatest" country - you would expect a lower incarceration rate - yet, here we are as the outlier.
Why do we have so many bad people - this is not a rhetorical, or a silly question - if we are to improve as a society, we have got to get a handle on why we have so many bad people, who are willing to risk their life, limb and freedom instead of basking in the glory of the greatest country in the world? What makes people do that, and why so many?
Similarly - if you look at the rate of Police killings (we are much better than places like Venezuela):
US - 28 per 10M
England - 0.5
Canada - 9
France.- 3.8
Germany - 1.3
Japan - 0.2
Now, you can look at police killings as either a bad cop killing a person, or a good cop killing a bad person - either way, it means the United States has a statistically improbable number of bad actors.
My hypothesis is not that we have an unusually disproportionate number of bad people living in this country. I don't think we a spawning bad people. I think the question that deserves serious consideration (and not the expected eye-rolling) is: What are we doing as a society to create an environment where so many people are "bad"?
Do we need a different definition of "bad"?
Do we need to identify and address the underlying issues?
This idea that we can clean up our little corner of the world by locking up the bad guys, and firing the bad guys in the police, is dangerously naive. It might even be worse than doing nothing We have been doing that for decades - and we are not improving. Its time to stop pretending that we can solve problems by focusing on the symptoms, and not trying to identify the root causes.
I don't know what the root causes are - but, I can say with certainty, there is an underlying cause(s) that has created the rot from within. There is no plausible explanation that we just randomly have so many bad people.
If we really want to be the greatest country in the world - we have to dig, and find the uncomfortable answers, and make the necessary systemic changes. That is hard. But great countries find a way to get it done.
If anyone tells you its just a few bad apples, they are not paying attention to the rotting apple tree in their backyard.
1. The first is, how great America is;
2. The second is. we just have to get rid of the "bad" people.
I don't understand how both can be true. But lets assume, for the sake of argument, that America is the greatest. Why does the greatest country in the world have a disproportionate number of "bad" people?
We have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
US - 737 per 100,000
Russia - 615
Ukraine - 350
Mexico - 196 - despite all the bad hombres
England - 148
Spain - 144
China - 118
Italy - 104
Germany - 94
France - 85
Japan - 62
We have been locking "bad" people up for decades, just like people want to do. And, yet. we keep finding more bad people to lock up. Its almost like the solution of getting rid of bad people is not really addressing anything, let alone the "problem".
So, that begs the question - statistically, you would expect the number of bad guys in the United States to be on par with the rest of the world - and perhaps, given the status of "Greatest" country - you would expect a lower incarceration rate - yet, here we are as the outlier.
Why do we have so many bad people - this is not a rhetorical, or a silly question - if we are to improve as a society, we have got to get a handle on why we have so many bad people, who are willing to risk their life, limb and freedom instead of basking in the glory of the greatest country in the world? What makes people do that, and why so many?
Similarly - if you look at the rate of Police killings (we are much better than places like Venezuela):
US - 28 per 10M
England - 0.5
Canada - 9
France.- 3.8
Germany - 1.3
Japan - 0.2
Now, you can look at police killings as either a bad cop killing a person, or a good cop killing a bad person - either way, it means the United States has a statistically improbable number of bad actors.
My hypothesis is not that we have an unusually disproportionate number of bad people living in this country. I don't think we a spawning bad people. I think the question that deserves serious consideration (and not the expected eye-rolling) is: What are we doing as a society to create an environment where so many people are "bad"?
Do we need a different definition of "bad"?
Do we need to identify and address the underlying issues?
This idea that we can clean up our little corner of the world by locking up the bad guys, and firing the bad guys in the police, is dangerously naive. It might even be worse than doing nothing We have been doing that for decades - and we are not improving. Its time to stop pretending that we can solve problems by focusing on the symptoms, and not trying to identify the root causes.
I don't know what the root causes are - but, I can say with certainty, there is an underlying cause(s) that has created the rot from within. There is no plausible explanation that we just randomly have so many bad people.
If we really want to be the greatest country in the world - we have to dig, and find the uncomfortable answers, and make the necessary systemic changes. That is hard. But great countries find a way to get it done.
If anyone tells you its just a few bad apples, they are not paying attention to the rotting apple tree in their backyard.