Anybody who grew up in a dysfunctional family knows one of the cardinal rules: The person who mentions a problem is the person who caused the problem.
Let some low-on-the-family-totem-pole person raise a destructive issue that’s hidden in plain sight and all hell breaks loose.
No, the family doesn’t suddenly wake up and say, “OMG, you’re right. We have to do something about that!” Instead, everyone within earshot rounds on the poor sap who dared mention the family secret and the bullying begins:
“Why are you always such a troublemaker?”
“If you’d just learn to keep your mouth shut, everything would be fine.”
“If you were a better person, your mother wouldn’t drink so much!” (Or your uncle wouldn’t come on to you or your parents wouldn’t argue so much or your father wouldn’t have deserted the family or whatever.)
And so on and so on and so on. It’s absolutely depressing how alike dysfunctional families are. Worse, let said poor sap, in desperation, take his complaint outside the family in an attempt to get help and … well, you ain’t seen hell until you’ve seen that.
Because then said sap is not only a liar, a troublemaker, a tramp, a faggot, a weakling, or whatever else s/he’s being scapegoated for. Then the sap is disloyal. A traitor to the clan. A violator of the code of silence.
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It’s even more depressing how alike dysfunctional governments are.
The suffering of Bradley Manning, on trial this week after three years behind bars (nearly a year of that spent in horrific, punitive conditions), reminds me just how much a dysfunctional government is like a dysfunctional family.
Manning saw evidence that U.S. government soldiers were committing war crimes — and the government was covering those crimes up by classifying the evidence. (Classifying is used absurdly indiscriminately, in any case; and the Obama administration itself leaks classified documents when it suits their own purposes.)
Nobody could be more of a low-man-on-the-totem-pole than Bradley Manning: an Army private; 5’2″; gay; young; and wearing big, thick, blocky glasses. But he bravely — or foolishly, or both — put the evidence in front of the world, especially the shocking, infamous, truly unAmerican Collateral Murder video.
What happened was oh, so predictable. Were the murderers brought to justice? Are their names plastered across the media? Are they in prison? Were their commanders called to account? Did journalists and criminal investigators across this great land start delving into the crimes and the culture behind them? Were presidents and cabinet members held accountable? Anything … anything?
Of course not. Because we’re dealing with a dysfunctional “family” writ large.
Therefore, the problem is not that agents of the state murder and get away with it. No, that’s not the problem at all. We can all just ignore that. The problem is that Bradley Manning brought the matter to light. And the cardinal rule is: The person who mentions a problem is the person who caused the problem.
Bradley Manning is evil. Bradley Manning is a traitor.
Did Manning break laws? Apparently. But so do we all, all day long. Did Manning give the enemy (whoever they are this week) information against the U.S.? He gave the world facts that anyone could use; but those facts and that video only harm the U.S. because of the actions of the U.S., not because of Manning.
Here’s a thought: You don’t want to be hated? You don’t want your enemies to have propaganda tools to use against you? Then don’t commit war crimes.
Did Manning actually cause any problem? No.
He’s just the poor little sap who saw a terrible problem in his government/military “family” and thought it needed to be brought to light so it could be discussed in the open, the issues dealt with, the problem solved.
Maybe with a little more age and experience, he’d have known what always happens after that.
Daniel Ellsberg, the last guy to do something similar, had age, experience, status, solid help, and the fact that people already hated Richard Nixon, on his side. He still got crucified. Poor Bradley Manning, without all of the above, is like the hapless low-status kid in the world’s biggest and most vengeful dysfunctional family.. Without a miracle, they’re going to crush him as only a dysfunctional clan can.
Dang. Who knew porch painting could lead to such insights?
True true true. All of it.
This analogy is extremely apt and can be mined for many more examples and similarities.
I’ve never really known what to make of this guy. Truly screwed up in the head he seems to have been, and I hope he counted the cost because he’s going to be a long time paying it.
Brave? Definitely. Admirable? I don’t know. Dysfunctional family is probably a very good analogy, but what comes to my mind is wrestling a tiger for its prey. It may be brave but there’s only one way it’s going to end.
I’m forced back to pragmatism. He seems to have done nothing about security. On the contrary, he supposedly bragged about it in chat. This way to solitary confinement.
True this… I dealt with many hundreds of families in my nursing career, far too many of them seriously dysfunctional. Never did understand why this kid was so open about everything he did. Hard to believe that he didn’t see how dysfunctional his Army “family” truly was.
I thought you were talking about your Memorial Day post at first. You pointed out the problem, truthfully, and suddenly it was all your fault.
Manning made a mistake by joining the military- in my eyes he paid for that mistake by exposing (more) US war crimes. But when the war criminals are allowed to be the “authority” who decides your fate… well, not a happy situation, and one where justice can’t happen. A clear conflict of interest.
Bradley Manning showed more bravery than judgement. With a little more age and experience he would of learned how to not get caught. He was obviously lacking a mentor for how the world of the Army truly worked. I am sure he enlisted to fight for ‘Freedom” but in reality probably saw a quick way to earn some good bucks for college. He should not be charged with providing the enemy with information, the enemy already knew that atrocities were being committed. Then again, the enemy referred to by the government is probably the general public, media, taxpayers etc. I do not believe he compromised thousands of documents from the entire spectrum of DOD and the State Department.
Speaking of propaganda, I had to laugh when I read this piece:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/23/military-propaganda-operations-poorly-coordinated-often-ineffective/2354235/
I love how their solution to people who don’t trust them is to try to create more believable propaganda:
“It also relies heavily on contractors to produce advertising, leaflets and radio broadcasts, many of them unattributed to the U.S. government because locals do not trust western influence, senior military officers told USA TODAY last year.”
That analogy seems spot-on, Claire. Unfortunately, there is a competing family dynamic, which is “he may be bad, but he’s still ours and we love him”. And here I’m not talking about Manning, although some people may support him for just such a reason; I’m talking about the system he outed, for whatever his reasons.
The psychological differences between the two dynamics don’t seem that great to me–you mention the call of tribalism focusing on the “shoot the messenger” angle; here I’m also thinking of tribalism but from the “we love him because we have to” angle–but maybe this is precisely what causes people to be conflicted about it.
I don’t know enough about Manning the person to know whether I’d call him an admirable character, or not. I just don’t know. But I also am not sure if that matters. An admirable character is not a requirement for honoring an oath, or doing something that needs to be done, etc.
Loyalty is tricky, isn’t it? I’m as loyal as anyone I know, but it still has to be earned–even with family.
Which is exactly why I can support what Manning did. Sure, he can’t be surprised at what’s happened to him since, but then I don’t think I’ve seen him claim to be so, either. But he did something which needed to be done–which needs to be done again, and again, and again, and a good deal more besides.
And “oath keepers” need to refuse to harass him for it, if indeed their oath is more important than their orders.
Yes, Kevin.
Out of the mouths of babes…
“Why doesn’t the emperor have any clothes on?” asks the smallest child in the crowd.
Bradley Manning is revealed by his *major* actions. ( actions not words )
#1 He revealed war crimes.
#2 He has not ratted out any co-actioners.
#3 He has released coherent explanations of his positions.
Compare him to his accusers / abusers…..
Manning gets a 9.7 out of 10 when compared to his competition.
99guspuppet
Bradley Manning exposed the war crimes, the incompetence and corruption of our diplomats, and just plain dysfunctionality of our “family,” as you say.
Our Rulers merely reflect the dysfunctional Americans who vote for them and support them.
Americans are dysfunctional, by and large, and we see how the typical American now abuses one’s credit cards and irresponsibly goes into debt. This is reflected by Congress. And many people buy homes one can’t afford, just as Congress buys “stuff” its budget can’t afford or shouldn’t be including.
We have a U.S. military in which troops sexually assault not only female military personnel but their fellow males. These people assault and beat up their own fellow comrades – so what the hell are they going to do to us regular folks when there is economic collapse, civil unrest and martial law?
Politicians and bureaucrats persecute a whistleblower, yet they themselves get away with the murders and maiming of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq as well as thousands in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc.
And what about police getting away with one crime after another against innocent civilians on a daily basis, but the government disarming peaceful people and prosecuting someone who used a firearm in self-defense?
I think that when the state of Georgia put Troy Davis to death, even though the officials and the governor knew that witnesses recanted their testimony and claimed it was coerced by police, and there was no physical evidence against him – how can anyone with any kind of conscience go ahead with such a killing? Only real sickos.
This is truly a “Hunger Games” America, that’s for sure.
And then there are the Jerry Sanduskys of the world — no, not just in the Catholic Church, but other places as well.
Talk about dysfunctional.
Bradley Manning is a hero. Perhaps not the most practical person, but that seems to be a common thread with heroes.
As to the analogy, I’m thinking there is one element here that argues against it. In a disfunctional family it is mindless reaction going on. In this case I think the perpetrators know exactly what they want to do and why. They want to scare people into not questioning Uncle Sam.
I wrote an article about loyalty:
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle544-20091115-06.html
“It does not appear that loyalty scales very well. What works well for humans in tribal societies, actually can become harmful, that is, working against survival, in societies numbering in the millions.”
That’s an interesting idea, Paul, and has some merit. It parallels cooperation in a small community which doesn’t exist in the large city, and for the same reason – those you know and trust are worth more to you in a pinch. Plus, the consequences of disloyalty – shunning, for example, or not helping the miscreant in an emergency – are more obvious and immediate on a small scale and act as a lesson to others to keep the group together on the same page.
Another common excuse: “There’s worse people out there.”
Frankly, that’s what 99% of political debates boil down to, is “you should support X because something/someone out there is worse than X.”
(Also my mother’s favorite excuse for anything my dad does. The fact that he’s not a murderer is somehow supposed to make everything ok. The dynamics of dysfunction make no sense to the logical-minded. I’m the black sheep of the family because of that.)