The idea of the United States being a “psychological, not sociological nation” and placing blame for corruption on an individual, but not the society comes from a deep-seated human need to shirk personal responsibility and place blame on elsewhere. In everything that we have read for this course there has been a recurring theme that underneath all the artificial sheen and façade that America is burdened with, there is an inherently flawed society. In “Methland,” the author attempts to place more blame upon the circumstances of life, than on the actual people who perpetuate the sale and consumption of meth. Along that same line of thinking, he is blaming society for the situation that has evolved, instead of the individual drug dealers and addicts. I think that people have a tendency to look down upon drug dealers and addicts, viewing them as troubled people in society. This brings about the question of who is to blame for these people living the lives that they do. In most everything we have read, the authors have framed their narratives indicating that those who get involved in illicit business mostly do so because of opportunity, or necessity. In almost every reading it has been a common occurrence that the individuals who are in societal positions that are frowned upon by the general population don’t have any other choice.
In “To Plead our Own Cause,” I learned about the lives of many women who were roped into prostitution under false promises. That narrative gave an alternative point of view that differs from what most of society has come to believe. It is a general assumption that prostitutes do what they do because they are tramps, or because they like to be used. Many people look down upon these women, and find them inferior for whatever reason. I can admit to having made some of these assumptions. If I had never read “To Plead our Own Cause,” I may never have known that a decent portion of the women in that industry had absolutely no choice in the matter at all. Their lives and dignity were stolen from them because someone else wanted to make a profit. The desire for profit propels any industry, including any illicit ones that may exist.
I’d like to mention one real life example that relates well to the stigma associated with prostitution. I work at the Holiday Inn and while I was working yesterday a group of college students were staying at the hotel for a formal. There were several scantily clad women in the lobby of the hotel and at the same time, a few high school girls were sitting there waiting for friends. One of the women, who was wearing a dress short enough to be a shirt exchanged money with one of the guys she was with. The high school girls noticed the exchange and came up to me with a look of shock and curiosity on their faces. The gutsiest one came up to me and said in a seemingly disturbed voice, “Are there prostitutes in this town or something? I think those women were prostitutes!” I couldn’t help but burst out into laughter because I knew that they were indeed not prostitutes, but simply typical college students who weren’t wearing enough clothing. The way that she said the word “prostitute”, and the look of sheer horror on her face told me everything I needed to know about what she thought of prostitutes. I am not surprised by her reaction at all, it is very indicative of the ideology that the individual is to blame and not the environment, or circumstances. It could have been possible, that if the women were prostitutes they could have either been forced into it by traffickers or by economic hardship. We blame the individual because it is easy and it makes us feel better about the world in which we live. We would rather see a troubled individual, then a troubled society. If the society is troubled, then we have to consider ourselves a part of that trouble and really, no one wants to do that. It is easier to look at an individual problem, because it not only takes the blame away from the bigger picture, it also makes it seem easier to fix.
In “Methland,” Larry Murphy did what he could to fix the systemic problems in Oelwein. “Murphy said he had little trouble understanding why people with difficult, low-income jobs would do methamphetamine, and why, once they’d lost those jobs or had their wages slashed, they’d turn to making drugs themselves.” (Reding, 124) He also said he understood how a “pick me up” when working long hours at the slaughterhouse could seem desirable but did not condone it. He wanted so badly to fix Oelwein, but that task would not be easy one to complete. As the economic situation in Oelwein worsened, the prominence of meth labs increased. The town of Oelwein became synonymous with the term “ghetto.” Without sufficient job opportunities to make a living, the people of Oelwein became victims of the environment in which they lived. It comes back to the lack of opportunities for legal employment, and the necessity for people to make due in any way they can in order to survive.
In my hometown I heard rumors that there was a crack house a couple of blocks away from my house and immediately had negative thoughts about the people who lived there. There is a stigma associated with drug dealers and drug addicts as individuals. I never once thought about these people as part of group, or as victims of their environment. Thinking of it now, if I thought about it more I could have justified the existence of such a place by looking at the cost of living. I am from Long Island, and the cost of living there is very high compared to many other places in America. It is possible that the people who were potentially involved in drug deals in my neighborhood ended up in that situation because of the environment in which they were raised. I think that society teaches us to blame an individual for his or her action because then the problem seems much smaller and the solution, much simpler. Allowing for a ‘psychological, not a sociological nation’ makes it possible for the true problem to be ignored. Focusing on individual responsibility enables the scale for potential corruption to be skewed. There is no way to find a solution if the cause is invisible. If journalists perpetuate psychological answers, they are ignoring the truth and creating an uninformed society—which is one of the most dangerous things of all.
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