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The Bad Apple Syndrome |
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I’m a guitar player. Often times, when I pull my instrument out of its case and start to strum, it sounds terrible. The notes don’t at all go together. This is because one or more of the strings have gotten out of tune. Usually when this happens, I can take a few seconds to find out which string is off key, adjust its tuning peg, and bring it back into line with the others. The solution to the problem is finding which of the strings is the “bad apple” and then fixing that particular string.
Occasionally, however, the solution is more complicated. Every once a while, I discover that the problem can’t be isolated to one or two strings. The whole set is worn out, and there is no amount of adjustment that can bring the guitar back in tune. When this happens, it’s time to change the whole set of strings. This requires a good bit more work and the investment in a new set of strings, but its the only way to get the guitar sounding good again.
In today’s society, we are like a guitar player who never invests the time or the money to put on a new set of strings. We have bought into the idea that the solution to our problems always involves searching out and fixing the “bad apples,” and we fail to see the need to make across-the-board changes in our systems and institutions. A few examples:
1) The Economic Crisis. We blame the people who took out mortgages they couldn’t afford. We blame the banks who issued those mortgages. We blame the government officials that loosened regulations. We look extremely hard for a financial scapegoat that we can “fix”, so that we can avoid taking a hard look at our entire broken system of greed-based corporate capitalism. Economically, the Bad Apple Syndrome keeps us locked in a pattern of bubbles and recessions that prevents us from advancing toward a more just and sustainable way of doing things.
2) The War on Terror. All wars need a bogeyman that we can hate, a “bad apple” that if eliminated, will put an end to the threat. First, it was Bin Laden. Then, it was Saddam Hussein. Hussein was killed, but Iraq is now more of a terrorist haven than ever. Bin Laden has been somewhat marginalized, but the threat of terrorism certainly has not. When it comes to national securtity, then, the Bad Apple Syndrome keeps us chasing the individual evildoers rather than being honest about our changing role in the world and addressing the real political, economic, and religious issues that have created the boiling pot from which terror emerges.
3) Domestic Crime and Poverty. From tougher sentencing laws to zero-tolerance school policies to purging the welfare rolls to building a wall on the border - the trend in addressing America’s social ills has been to find the “bad apples” that are spoilng things for the rest of us and to root them out. These “get tough” policies are blind to the oppressive social conditions that are leading to the problems in the first place. If we take the more difficult and more costly steps that will reduce poverty, improve education, and build a new type of economy - we will find that problems like crime and immigration will naturally improve. So when it comes to domestic issues, the Bad Apple Syndrome has us caught in a permanent rotating door. We remove the “bad apples,” but the system we are unwilling to change guarantees that plenty more will be there to take their places.
Over the course of the coming weeks and months, I plan to dig more deeply into this concept of the Bad Apple Syndrome. First up will be the economy. The Obama adminstration has so far seemed unwilling to talk about the need for deep structural changes. Instead, he is focused, like most people, on finding out what specific people and institutions are at fault. Here’s hoping he comes to talk about the whole system being broken.
(Cross-posted at Discipline for Justice)
Fine analysis of seeing the roots of problems