Moral Flatulence

The recent disclosures of child sexual abuse coming from Penn State are horrific, and should be properly a matter of anger and concern.  Whether it's the fact of the sodomizing of children itself, or the institutional coverup that went on for a long time, there was clearly systemic moral failings that should be corrected, and the perps be severely punished.    In a way, it's unfortunate that there is that Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause in the Constitution.

And, of course, there's the attempts to distribute blame.

I have no problem in squarely placing blame on the perpetrator (s), and all of those Penn State coaches and administrators involved in the coverup.  Very clearly, they were more in a damage control than in a child protection mode.

But some people are going overboard, imposing a guilt trip on society collectively and big-time football in particular.  WTF?  This is a bad, bad idea; it spreads out the culpability to a very large number, and somehow lessens the burden of wrongdoing on the perpetrators' parts. 

Remember this?

"The devil made me do this!"

No he didn't, Charlie . . . . you did.

It was not the sexual revolution, or the American Psychiatrc Association removing homosexuality from being a diagnostic category or an atmosphere of "anything goes" that did it, as Cal Thomas implied.  It wasn't big-time football, either, as some generic writer in The Huffington Post implied.  It was the action of a small number of truly despicable men who harmed children or who played along with it, letting it take place over a long time.

I remember the idiots back in 1963 who were wiling to universalize the blame for the Kennedy assassination on society in general.  No, asshat . . . . American society did not assassinate John Kennedy -- Lee Harvey Oswald did!  Don't try to turn that unfortunate event into a moral hobby horse or a stick to beat the opposition.

That's not moral reasoning; it gets us nowhere in making moral decisions but gives for some an occasion for moral masochism.  Moral flatulence is what it is!