Romania
the systemic evil of corruption, ignorance and indifference
Evil has the face of a complacent bureaucrat, a self-confident government official - and an indifferent, ignorant citizen
Text: Andrzej Szczepanek - Edit/lLayout: Pia Berrend - Throughout our recent history, we have come to understand that social inequality, racism, sexism, imperialism, autocracy, colonialism and extreme ideologies of communism and Nazism are distorted and devious systemic patterns of thinking and cultural organization that often result in the creation of institutionalised forms of violence. The forms of institutional violence may not be apparent, they are often subtle and elusive though they perpetrate physical and psychological suffering. Poverty, inequality and social exclusion are indicators of institutional violence, so is the mass slaughter of non-human sentient beings.
The institutionalization and commercialization of mass killings of other sentient beings for whatever reasons, the contempt for their suffering, the systemic ignorance of, and indifference to the corrupt process, bring unavoidable parallels from the darkest past.
Institutional, non-intentional violence is systemic in nature because it involves systemic state institutions believed to be democratic. Therefore, institutional violence is believed to be perfectly legitimate. From the legal point of view, institutional violence resulting in the deaths and suffering of tens of thousands of sentient beings is not legally perceived as criminal or illegitimate. The non-intentionality of state-legalized institutional violence obscures the question of responsibility and accountability. The Romanian moral, religious, legal, constitutional and governmental authorities gave their consent to the slaughter creating a semblance of legality.
The representatives of the authoritative corporate bodies, governmental officials, priests, constitutionalists, judges and prosecutors, the whole lot of them are just people like us. They love their families, keep their pets, take care of their children and careers, have their ideals.
Like us, they are friendly, caring, loyal, devoted, IGNORANT and INDIFFERENT. So were the chiefs of Nazi extermination camps. Systemic violence can be perfectly consistent with the system's high ideals of democracy, human rights, justice and morality.
The institutionalization and commercialization of mass killings of other sentient beings for whatever reasons, the contempt for their suffering, the systemic ignorance of, and indifference to the corrupt process, bring unavoidable parallels from the darkest past.
Institutional, non-intentional violence is systemic in nature because it involves systemic state institutions believed to be democratic. Therefore, institutional violence is believed to be perfectly legitimate. From the legal point of view, institutional violence resulting in the deaths and suffering of tens of thousands of sentient beings is not legally perceived as criminal or illegitimate. The non-intentionality of state-legalized institutional violence obscures the question of responsibility and accountability. The Romanian moral, religious, legal, constitutional and governmental authorities gave their consent to the slaughter creating a semblance of legality.
The representatives of the authoritative corporate bodies, governmental officials, priests, constitutionalists, judges and prosecutors, the whole lot of them are just people like us. They love their families, keep their pets, take care of their children and careers, have their ideals.
Like us, they are friendly, caring, loyal, devoted, IGNORANT and INDIFFERENT. So were the chiefs of Nazi extermination camps. Systemic violence can be perfectly consistent with the system's high ideals of democracy, human rights, justice and morality.
The parliament has sanctioned the killings and suffering, the state institutions supported it and the mainstream media consented. Thus the process of legitimization of systemic evil and corruption has been initiated. In the same way, across the world, inequality, poverty and social exclusion resulting from systemic and institutional violence have been justified on economic, social and legal grounds. This time it is humans who suffer. It is necessary to draw the parallels as institutional violence inflicts misery both on human and non-human sentient beings.
Institutional violence is characterized by the presence of legality and social approval to hide from the public conscience the suffering, trauma and pain of those who are its victims. They are rarely referred to as victims of the state and institutional violence because in the eye of the law they do not deserve the status of victims because the process of abuse and violence is thought to be perfectly legal.
They are left totally unprotected and marginalized. Social exclusion and marginalization is also synonymous with the marginalization of suffering and displacement of violence. This particularly relates to the mass extermination of stray animals in Romania but the phenomenon also affects disadvantaged groups of population.
The seemingly decentralized system of power and free elections we call democracy and pluralism, which were intended to promote social justice and oppose inequality, are becoming a devious system of institutional oppression which threatens the well being of humans and non-human sentient beings. It is a system where state and public institutions are increasingly being controlled by private corporate interests and political party elites.
We have a crisis of social representation whereby state and public institutions increasingly controlled by corporate interests gradually lose their social mission and legitimacy.
Once the institutions of a democratic system have been appropriated by corporate elites, the system itself ceases to be representative of social welfare. In this corrupt systemic setting, the legitimization of institutional violence becomes possible and evil becomes a cultural norm. Only in such a socially hostile and corrupt system of ignorance and indifference, the mass extermination of thousands of feeling sentient beings is possible. Only in such a system, outrageous inequality and poverty do not raise questions as to the system's social legitimacy. The unintentional institutional violence becomes a tool of policy wielded by the representatives of corporate organizations who are just like us-loving, caring, convinced of their moral integrity.
They are this and more, they are murderously ignorant and indifferent. They are morally deficient in their outlook and perception of reality and therefore they are dangerous and they do harm to us and to our own intuitive sense of justice and morality.
In their ignorance, complacency and indifference, they corrupt the system and the society. They shape the foundation of our culture, the deceptive system of values and convictions and the quality of social relations. Yet, they are like us - ignorant, contended and indifferent. They impose on us their own set of values for their own particular and private gains to maintain their social and economic status, to preserve their own identity, to achieve the sense of stability and personal security.
We are the same so we follow them trying to preserve our own sense of identity and security and we assume their own identity worshiping their values and adopting their views. Democracy, freedom, human rights, minority and animal rights, pluralism, freedom of conscience. We internalize those values and we are being mislead because we do not know that the values are there to justify institutional violence, poverty, inequality, the unprecedented killings of other sentient beings and systemic evil.
The corporate representatives are as dangerous as we are in our false beliefs and in our failure to see the gaping chasm between our illusion of righteousness and the realities of systemic evil. Having lost our identity, we are left defenseless, confused and passive.
We are unable to distinguish between good and evil and we tolerate systemic evil and institutional violence - we are as guilty of ignorance, indifference and complacency as the decision makers.
Ignorance, indifference and the false sense of complacency are accomplices of evil. And so are we, and so are they - the decision makers.
Institutional violence is characterized by the presence of legality and social approval to hide from the public conscience the suffering, trauma and pain of those who are its victims. They are rarely referred to as victims of the state and institutional violence because in the eye of the law they do not deserve the status of victims because the process of abuse and violence is thought to be perfectly legal.
They are left totally unprotected and marginalized. Social exclusion and marginalization is also synonymous with the marginalization of suffering and displacement of violence. This particularly relates to the mass extermination of stray animals in Romania but the phenomenon also affects disadvantaged groups of population.
The seemingly decentralized system of power and free elections we call democracy and pluralism, which were intended to promote social justice and oppose inequality, are becoming a devious system of institutional oppression which threatens the well being of humans and non-human sentient beings. It is a system where state and public institutions are increasingly being controlled by private corporate interests and political party elites.
We have a crisis of social representation whereby state and public institutions increasingly controlled by corporate interests gradually lose their social mission and legitimacy.
Once the institutions of a democratic system have been appropriated by corporate elites, the system itself ceases to be representative of social welfare. In this corrupt systemic setting, the legitimization of institutional violence becomes possible and evil becomes a cultural norm. Only in such a socially hostile and corrupt system of ignorance and indifference, the mass extermination of thousands of feeling sentient beings is possible. Only in such a system, outrageous inequality and poverty do not raise questions as to the system's social legitimacy. The unintentional institutional violence becomes a tool of policy wielded by the representatives of corporate organizations who are just like us-loving, caring, convinced of their moral integrity.
They are this and more, they are murderously ignorant and indifferent. They are morally deficient in their outlook and perception of reality and therefore they are dangerous and they do harm to us and to our own intuitive sense of justice and morality.
In their ignorance, complacency and indifference, they corrupt the system and the society. They shape the foundation of our culture, the deceptive system of values and convictions and the quality of social relations. Yet, they are like us - ignorant, contended and indifferent. They impose on us their own set of values for their own particular and private gains to maintain their social and economic status, to preserve their own identity, to achieve the sense of stability and personal security.
We are the same so we follow them trying to preserve our own sense of identity and security and we assume their own identity worshiping their values and adopting their views. Democracy, freedom, human rights, minority and animal rights, pluralism, freedom of conscience. We internalize those values and we are being mislead because we do not know that the values are there to justify institutional violence, poverty, inequality, the unprecedented killings of other sentient beings and systemic evil.
The corporate representatives are as dangerous as we are in our false beliefs and in our failure to see the gaping chasm between our illusion of righteousness and the realities of systemic evil. Having lost our identity, we are left defenseless, confused and passive.
We are unable to distinguish between good and evil and we tolerate systemic evil and institutional violence - we are as guilty of ignorance, indifference and complacency as the decision makers.
Ignorance, indifference and the false sense of complacency are accomplices of evil. And so are we, and so are they - the decision makers.
The Romanian syndrome of institutional violence and evil is a good example of how public and democratic institutions can be turned into a killing machine. How they can be distorted and conditioned to kill and traumatize the victims.
To be continued...
To be continued...