Tuesday 30 May 2000

Pic of the day: The June issue of Psychology Today has arrived. Hmm. The development in technologies and economics has given our generation unprecedented wealth and health and possibilities. But has the development in psychology given us a flood of insight, empathy and happiness? Hmm, again.

Day of the nodders

Another unfunny entry. Be warned.

On my way to work I saw my favorite Norwegian newspaper, Dagens Næringsliv, a primarily business paper. They had the not typically businesslike headline "Med frykten som våpen" - "With fear as their weapon". It was a study detailing how Norwegian top leaders of large companies were not respected by their closest underlings; but they still nodded and agreed, for fear of losing their position. In a very anonymous study, they told it all.

Duh. Like this would be news to us. We already knew beyond reasonable doubt that the top leaders are morally bankrupt, if not downright evil. Look at what is public knowledge: These people are earning tens of times as much as their workers; they continue to do so even when the company loses money; they are perfectly willing to fire many of said workers and increase the pressure on those that remain, so that they themselves can continue to increase their own personal salaries and bonuses and fringe benefits. Any person who worried about his reputation, not to mention his conscience, would shrink back in horror from taking such a job. There is the old saying about winning the world and losing the soul, you know. Some things can be bought too dearly.

It's a safe bet that their nodders and yes-men are of the same stripe, just waiting for a chance to stab their superior in the back without being found out, and taking their place. No wonder they have problems getting along. No wonder they are nodding and saying yes in order to keep their (somewhat more moderage) over-payment. Duh. Verily I say unto y'all: Duh. And it does not end there.

***

There was a burial today in the city of Kristiansand where I work. This is hardly unusual, and I'm happy to say it was no one I knew. It was one of the two girls who were killed and raped some days ago. The shops in town closed for an hour, as did municipality offices. The event was covered in detail in national broadcasting. The cathedral here in town was filled with a thousand people, and more were standing outside.

I have mixed feelings about this. As I said when this happened, there is a potential for mass hysteria and witch hunt. Sex and children. Violence and children. These are explosive issues, not least because they are kept in darkness, kept closed. So this one event becomes a symbol of so much more.

I know that some of the people who went to the church were friends of the family, grieving with them. I guess others went to show sympathy, to support the family in a time of immense grief and rage. And I am sure that some went to show that We Are Not Like That. But is that so?

Kristiansand is a city of ca 70 000 inhabitants. Statistically, roughly one in ten children are used sexually before they grow up, some of them repeatedly. So it's not like many days pass between each time a grown-up uses a child for his (or her) sexual pleasure here in the city.

Again statistically, it isn't too long between each time a parent or other responsible adult beats the crap out of a child, either. Sure, that's not quite like killing them. But it's not much to be proud of either, is it?

But all this goes on in the darkness, in the closed rooms. Outside is a different world, with much smiling and nodding and keeping up the painted front. Impressions count. Or do they? Are the ones who nod the most, always those who agree? Are those who protest the loudest, always the innocent?