So, TheWife and I are watching INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (the 1978 remake) last night at the NewBev and there's this one moment where Donald Sutherland finally puts everything together--the seed pods are creating duplicates of human beings--so what does he do? "I'm calling the police!" he says.
I and a few other people in the audience laughed out loud at this. Sure, the character is a civil servant, so it makes sense that he has faith in the system, even though it's let him down thus far. But my reaction wasn't about what had happened in the film so far. My reaction was more instinctive. I've been trained by my experiences to no longer trust figures of authorities to do the right thing (or to even know what that is).
I remember as a young teenager I'd see a cop car driving down the street and say out loud "there goes my friend."
My friends would look at me, shrug and then agree.
A couple years later, one of those friends and I stumbled upon a grass fire near a local strip mall. We were about to go call the cops (had to find a pay phone back then) when a cop car rolled up and detained us for simply being there. He had no reason to suspect us of starting the fire, but he held us for a half-hour in the back seat of his car. Two more black-and-whites and a fire engine showed up to take care of a five-foot-wide grass fire and two 13-year-olds.
Eventually, they let us go because they had no evidence that we did anything.
And of course, we didn't.
A few years later, I was driving my car through the mountains ten minutes from my house in suburban New Jersey. I hit a turn too fast (and hit a puddle) and spun out into the woods, straddling my car on a previously-knocked over log. I didn't hurt anyone, only rand down one street sign but my car was stuck on the log. "Luckily" a cop drove by within a half-hour or so and asked me what had happened. Stupidly, I told the truth. "I was driving too fast, clearly!"
I was so mad at myself for losing control. I knew better. So, I got a huge ticket and the cop called a tow truck. My car was drivable, it just needed to be dragged off the log. The cop insisted the tow truck pull it up onto it's flatbed. However, the tow truck guy didn't both to notice a piece of the fender was hanging underneath the car--as he pulled the car onto the flatbed, this piece got caught underneath the wheel and pulled the left fender (which had not been damaged at all in the accident) downward. I pointed this out as it happened to the cop who just shrugged it off. As my parents came out to greet me as they saw the tow truck arrive, I told them immediately what happened.
"Is this true?" My step-dad asked the cop.
"No."
I was an officer in Jr. ROTC--if I got caught lying, I'd get in a LOT of trouble.
"You're lying!" I said to the cop.
"Who do you think the judge is going to believe, kid? You or a New Jersey police officer?"
Then, just last year, I was sued by a law firm for a back debt they claimed I owed. I didn't know what I was doing and didn't have money for a decent lawyer, so I didn't know I actually wouldn't have my day in court to defend myself. The court ruled a summary judgment against me. Basically, the system is set up so that if someone accuses you of something if you don't defend yourself against it, the law assumes it's true. No "innocent until proven guilty" crap, here.
When I finally did borrow the money from my dad for a super-cheap lawyer he asked the judge to reconsider the case since I now had a lawyer and the judge said "If I did that, I'd be punishing the plaintiff for having a lawyer."
Thanks to the stupid protocol of the court I couldn't just say "but the plaintiff IS a lawyer!" After that, my lawyer said he was going to fight it but we ended up missing the deadline for appeal. So, despite the fact that the debt has not been proven AND the fact that if it had been the statute of limitations on debt collections would have kicked in, according to the law, I owe these assholes a bunch of money. Of course, I don't really and they'll have a hard time getting it out of me considering how little I make. :)
The point is my lawyer let me down, my judge lied and let me down and, worst of all, the system itself let me down.
And then we've got the mess in Iraq, 911, Katrina, the mess in Afghanistan, buckets of corruption in DC, etc.
Sure, society still functions, but how much of that is the average citizen, you and me, just agreeing to not be shitty to one another? How much of society really benefits from these supposed "authority" figures? I'm not saying we need to get rid of all of them, but I do think we need to start holding these morons accountable.
Now... how to do that???
Orignal From: TRUST ANY AUTHORITY? NOPE, YOU?
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