We all pay the salaries of public servants. This is mostly a good thing. We expect them to do a good job. But public servants are people, and people fuck up.
When a TTC employee or a teacher is accused of fucking up, no one questions the authenticity of the accusation. Instead, there are calls for collective punishment. Privatize the TTC! Fight the teacher's unions! Those greedy, lazy unionized employees don't know how good they have it. They should get a real job for once!
Police are also public servants. My tax dollars and your tax dollars fund them. But when a cop fucks up, everyone leaps to their defense. He was just doing his job. You don't understand how difficult her job is. You wouldn't be so brave in his situation. And when it's proven that he took that bribe, or beat that guy, well, he's just a bad apple. Most cops are fine, upstanding heroes who do their job. Even when the police en masse act badly, as they did during the G20, any criticism of their actions must be coupled with praise of the police in general.
It's a pity this worship of authority doesn't extend to the classroom, because I think I could really benefit from it, and also because while teachers can fuck up someone's school career, they tend to not actually kill their clientele.
When a TTC employee or a teacher is accused of fucking up, no one questions the authenticity of the accusation. Instead, there are calls for collective punishment. Privatize the TTC! Fight the teacher's unions! Those greedy, lazy unionized employees don't know how good they have it. They should get a real job for once!
Police are also public servants. My tax dollars and your tax dollars fund them. But when a cop fucks up, everyone leaps to their defense. He was just doing his job. You don't understand how difficult her job is. You wouldn't be so brave in his situation. And when it's proven that he took that bribe, or beat that guy, well, he's just a bad apple. Most cops are fine, upstanding heroes who do their job. Even when the police en masse act badly, as they did during the G20, any criticism of their actions must be coupled with praise of the police in general.
It's a pity this worship of authority doesn't extend to the classroom, because I think I could really benefit from it, and also because while teachers can fuck up someone's school career, they tend to not actually kill their clientele.