It happens because institutions lie. And today, our major institutions lie because of a culture in which loyalty to "the company," and protection of "the brand" — that noxious business-school shibboleth that turns employees into brainlocked elements of sales and marketing campaigns — trumps conventional morality, traditional ethics, civil liberties, and even adherence to the rule of law. It is better to protect "the brand" than it is to protect free speech, the right to privacy, or even to protect children.
Sigh. Where are the facts to back this up? This is the age of internet, Charles P. Pierce, provide a link.
If Mike McQueary had seen a child being raped in a boardroom or a storeroom, he wouldn't have been any more likely to have stopped it, or to have called the cops, than he was as a graduate assistant football coach at Penn State.
This is just his not so humble opinion,with no evidence whatsoever. We will soon show that Penn State [the key word here is "state", meaning funded by the taxpayer] is much different from boardrooms and staterooms. But first, let's let grantland ramble a bit more:
With unemployment edging toward double digits, and only about 10 percent of the workforce unionized, every American who works for a major company knows the penalty for exercising his personal freedom, or his personal morality, at the expense of "the company."
Quite a few factual errors here. Charles P. Pierce, we know you are upset, but keep your focus. Check your facts.
First of all, unemployment has long ago passed double digits, if we use the measurements applied during the Great Depression, not the govt propaganda numbers.
Second, among people who have jobs paid for by the taxpayer, like Penn state employees, union membership is at 35%. Private sector membership is a piddling 7%, [because unions always bankrupt the companies they work in, just like they are bankrupting the govts as we speak].
Third, Mr Charles P. Pierce is implying that if only more workers were unionized, then they would be more moral and free. This contradicts the entire history of unions in the United States, which were and are a pack of violent, lying, thieves and often murderers.
But we digress. The main thesis of this humble article is that Penn State is what it is, a safe haven for pedophiles, precisely because it is NOT a business, not a "company". Because a company has to please the consumer, or it goes out of business. At the first hint of scandal, the company will make good and sure it's "brand" is not hurt, not by hushing the situation up for decades, but by firing the pedophile [unless the unions Mr Charles P. Pierce is so fond of don't allow it]. They have too much at stake.
Can you imagine if a McDonald's, for instance, was known to be a breeding ground for pedophiles, who keep their jobs for decades while actively doing their thing? It would instantly go out of business.
Contrast this with Penn State, which gets it's money parasitically from the taxpayer. They have a known pedophile in their ranks, and they think they can get away with a prayer and a football game to end the incident. And why? Because they get their money no matter what the consumer thinks.
So Mr Charles P. Pierce, your anger is justified, and I share it. But don't toss the baby with the bath. Pedophiles at Penn State have nothing to do with free market companies, and with the blessed decline of unions in the private sector.
[P.S. I was unable to inform Mr Pierce about my article, since I am not a member of Facebook].
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