Blue Eagle editorial
July 1999
There is an interesting but troubling characteristic of most societal primates, including humans, that surfaces whenever a powerful member of the society does wrong. Many of the other members of the society, who either fear the wrongdoer or whose interests will be hurt if the wrongdoer is punished, will find a way to rationalize and excuse the powerful wrongdoer's behavior, and will instead find a more available target for their anger. And this target will often be the bad guy's victim, or his accuser. Or both.
They will convince themselves that the victim somehow "caused" the powerful one to commit the wrong in the first place, or that the righteous accuser somehow created the problem by daring to speak up. When this happens, these citizens' anger is likely to be all the more vehement because of the subconscious knowledge that they themselves are subverting justice.
This happens not only on the national level, but in societal subsets large and small -- families, organizations, and communities. A personal experience comes to mind, of a summer in the late 1960's at a summer camp in upstate New York. The owner of the camp, a fellow named Hershon, had a 16-year old son who was also a camper. The son resided in the cabin with the oldest campers, the so-called "CIT" or "Counselors In Training" cabin.
Young Hershon was a miserable bully, and very strong. The other campers hated but feared young Hershon. Not only was he strong and malicious, but as the camp owner's son he was able to retaliate against those who crossed him by means not available to others. Few in that little society ever dared to stand up to him.
Young Hershon's favorite pastime was tormenting those smaller and weaker than he. One of his favorite victims was a shy 10-year old named Jimmy. But after more than a month of brutal treatment, little Jimmy did something no other camper had ever had the courage to do -- he told his counselor about young Hershon's bullying.
Jimmy's counselor, Steve, approached young Hershon and told him he'd better lay off Jimmy, or he would be punished. The bully's sneering (and probably accurate) reply was that he was the boss' son, and could do pretty much as he damn well pleased, so Steve should just "get used to it." Steve lost his temper at that point, and punched young Hershon in the stomach. The bully ran to daddy, and Steve was promptly fired and left the camp.
Steve had been very popular with all the campers -- in fact, he was the most popular counselor there. Of course, the rest of the campers wanted revenge for Steve's firing, and they got it: On hearing that the beloved Steve had been canned, and learning the circumstances, a mob of indignant campers gathered together, sought out, and beat little Jimmy to a pulp.
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