|
As the politically-correct fallout passes through its early stages and into the solidifying consensus following a shocking occurrence, it's often illuminating to sit back a second and look at some of the prejudices at play.
Something I'm not hearing or seeing much is any condemnation of these two professions. To clarify: I don't think the former should be TOTALLY vilified, nor should the latter be mostly vilified, but they BOTH attract some seriously insane types, as well as just plain assholes.
Yes, many join these professions to help others, spread the good word, ease pain and all that, but many also do it to have power over others and abuse people. This doesn't seem to be a minor aberration, either, but a rather widespread phenomenon.
Both of these professions have a component of the practitioners expecting immunity and being "better" than others. Much of this comes from a sad need from emotional bullies to hide behind credentials (as is rife in academia) to have an exalted position from which to domineer others. There's a self-aggrandizement inherent in many of these people: many shrinks consider themselves inherently superior, both intellectually and emotionally, and many of them simply don't play fair. Some of the most fucked up people I've ever known are in that profession, and some of them are downright mean. As for religion, the piety of some is beyond sickening, and although many are truly sweet and honorable servants of their fellow humans, many are arrogant assholes of the first order.
Religion has a built-in danger of certainty, and this elevates many of its practitioners to a self-proclaimed privilege to do whatever they damned well please. Let's also throw in the sheer ridiculousness of some of the supernatural claims; squaring eternal life and a big super-being with real, actual, mortal and causal life causes a constant friction that puts rationality at risk in a big way.
Just thought I'd spread the joy.
As incidents like this come up, we're buried in apologetic wailings of what noble and altruistic professions these are. It just ain't necessarily so, and it needs to be said. It also needs to be said that those who put themselves above others by the very nature of their profession merely amplify this by being in yet another profession that grants itself unchecked aristocracy, and it shouldn't be seen as too big a leap of logic that someone of both these professions should feel himself above the questioning of his performance (poor review) or the obligations of job (deployment), nor should it be too big a leap for someone who's reinforced in his superiority to others to take the penultimate step of superiority over others: killing them.
Remember the old bumper sticker: "Psychiatry Kills". Religion, of course, REALLY kills.
|