A Modern Monument to Our Collective Monster

[sealchan]

Headline news item...

Florida governor says 27 possible graves found near controversial boys reform school - CNN

Also this Wikipedia article...

Florida School for Boys - Wikipedia

My first reaction was to wonder what Stephen King novel this place has inspired.

My next reaction was to wonder what, if any, horror movies have been created based on this place.

I could easily imagine some evil spirit at work twisting the minds of those who wanted to help wayward boys but instead became convinced that violent or unruly boys needed violent and unruly discipline. In my own King-inspired sense of things, I can easily picture Dosier, the beloved superindendent, clearly was the evil mastermind who knew how to turn a happy face to society but had, under his hat, an evil face always looking behind at the children under his care. But behind Dosier was some deeper thing, a being so malevolent but impotent that it could only survive in the out of the way places of our society and feed on the hopeless and the lost and the naive...

Many of the rooms were unlocked, no perimeter fence...given what happened there what kept those boys from running away?

For over one hundred years this place stood as a questionable monument to our failure to deal with our own issues of abuse and neglect both within ourselves and within others. Those boys that died there or were abused there are martyrs to our own inability to address our inner needs for belonging, safety and value. They represent the failure of individuals and society to care and to create meaning for those who probably started out in one way or another at a great disadvantage in life.

This place is a real life haunted house in the neighborhood of what we take as a good enough understanding of our own private motivations and justifications, our psychology. Perhaps if we can look into the story of this place deeply enough we can uproot those tendencies within us that allow a such a place to persist, receive mail and receive court appointed residents and to do so without any hope for its abused residents and for so long.

The questions for discussion I have are...

• What dark secrets of the typical American community does this place embody?
• What are we, as a society, failing to realize on a personal level that would allow this monument to our own evil to exist for so long?
• What finally broke the evil spell and allowed, albeit gradually, the light to finally shine in on this abode of doom?

I will share my own thoughts as others offer theirs.

 

[PureX]

The truth is that we really just don't care. We don't care what happened to those boys, or why it happened, which is why it happened. All we really care about is ourselves, and 'our own'. Being indifferent to the suffering of others is what we Americans call "freedom".

 

[sealchan]

The truth is that we really just don't care. We don't care what happened to those boys, or why it happened, which is why it happened. All we really care about is ourselves, and 'our own'. Being indifferent to the suffering of others is what we Americans call "freedom".

A sad thought but apparently true for many. I take it as a sign of culturally sanctified emotional abuse.

 

[Nakosis]

A sad thought but apparently true for many. I take it as a sign of culturally sanctified emotional abuse.

Some adults have a need/desire to cause harm to people/animals that are otherwise defenseless.

They get a lot of joy out of it. I suspect they were abused as children themselves and hated the power adults bigger/stronger/in authority had over them. Some end up with a psychological desire to possess that power for themselves. To be the one in control, with power over others. I see parents exercising this power over their children, for the good of the children of course. Some come out of childhood with a need to exercise this power over others. A subconscious desire they are not consciously in control of.

Most will hide this darker desire out of fear of being ostracized by society. However those given authority find ways to indulge their darker desires.

 

[sealchan]

Some adults have a need/desire to cause harm to people/animals that are otherwise defenseless.

They get a lot of joy out of it. I suspect they were abused as children themselves and hated the power adults bigger/stronger/in authority had over them. Some end up with a psychological desire to possess that power for themselves. To be the one in control, with power over others. I see parents exercising this power over their children, for the good of the children of course. Some come out of childhood with a need to exercise this power over others. A subconscious desire they are not consciously in control of.

Most will hide this darker desire out of fear of being ostracized by society. However those given authority find ways to indulge their darker desires.

I have found that it takes a lot of effort and work to understand another person. Children are at a disadvantage because they often lack the skills to express themselves openly and clearly. When they grow up in an abusive environment this is especially true.

We lack all the scientific knowledge we need to fully understand the psychology of any given person. As such we are still operating under sometimes ancient assumptions about human moral character and motivation. We justify beating the devil out of a person because for many of us we freely indulge in the fantasy that there is a devil and he does take over control of some people. It is easier to fall into such poor psychologies and dismiss anyone who is different.

We still face challenges as a society regarding how we treat people of minority races, cultures, sexuality and other attitudes. Understanding our human psychology may have to take a back seat until we get past these more obvious "beams" in our collective eye.