The inadequacies and biases of “character” checks [Note: Content Warning - discussion on oppression/bigotry/hate, violence/abuse. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/.

One of the principles of responsible government is making sure people with power (politicians, officers of incorporated organisations, etc) are suitable to be trusted with that power; that also gets extended to situations where people can impact others - such as travellers on planes. 

How that extension is managed is a reflection on how suitable people with power are ... and I consider they have been showing clear signs of inadequacies - which in turn is a reflection of the biases we, as a society, impose on the checking of suitability.

Those biases are predominantly patriarchal in nature - noting that the patriarchy inherently supports, enables, and is enslaved to the ultra-elitist “1% of the 1%”, making such checks of suitability to be sock puppets of the rich and powerful, rather than suitability to wield power on behalf of the community. 

Those people have, in my opinion, an overwhelming focus on money and things that indicate status (although rarely as flashy as many people assume). To put that another way:   to the socio-economic-political “powers that be”, money is what matters. 

That means the determination of suitability for power is focused on evidence of financial problems (e.g., being or having been bankrupt) and evidence of past criminality - which is classist (bad faith assumptions about people without documentation or any of the other problems faced by poor people and people in remote areas - police inflexibility on this is particularly bigotted in a systemic way, and shows incompetence through lack of knowledge of circumstances) tends to emphasise crimes against things (theft, vandalism, etc) more so than crimes against people (such as sexual assault, domestic abuse, etc), although that has been changing for the better over the last few decades.

Those aspects do matter - for example, some of them show the potential for being blackmailed, but that can also occur through failings of society - such as when same gender attraction was banned by bigotted societies. 

The issue of assuming past criminality is evidence of future criminality is concerning. Society has determined that deprivation of liberty (not assaults or abuse during that deprivation of liberty) is the means for punishment of crime, and when one has done the time, that should be it. This attitude constitutes double punishment. 

There are, in my opinion, exceptions that should be considered - objectively, and on the basis of evidence, and by means of a proper debate on all the issues (including the possibility of change - which the double punishment attitude actively BLOCKS).

Those include exceptions include child abuse, some tendencies towards sexual abuse, and violent extremism.

There are other issues I consider should be assessed, but on the basis of the character of the person at the time of application for a position of power, which should be checked regularly during the period they hold power. These issues include bigotry - conscious, and also and especially unconscious, and that is, in my opinion, of far greater significance than whether the person has ever been bankrupt. 

I will not trust any person in authority who I do not know to be OK, and has not had an assessment of  unconscious bias and a plan to manage that developed and implemented - including ongoing monitoring. 

That ideally includes candidates to Parliament, but especially people like police. 

Without something like this people-first approach, we are likely to be stuck with the loudest, brashest patriarchal (not necessarily male - consider Thatcher) voice making the sort of short sighted, counter-productive decisions that mean I and many other survivors of sexual assault no longer use air travel, millions of people have had sensitive personal information stolen through a combination of incompetent (partly due to inadequate budget, but also gung-ho amathiac toxic patriarchal sock puppets pushing to get things done in inadequate time) IT and egregiously intrusive and acquisitive personnel departments, and we are facing the existential threat of the climate crisis.  

 

Here are a few other posts of mine which may be of interest / use: 

• “The NEED to keep ("unconscious") bigotry OUT of governance”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-need-to-keep-unconscious-bigots-out.html   

• “Corporations: where did it go wrong? [Note: Content Warning - discussion on, and links to, economic & political systems, inequity and environmental/other problems. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/corporations-where-did-it-go-wrong-note.html   

• “Accountability for the USA’s former dictator”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/accountability-for-usas-former-dictator.html   through predominantly financial means   

• “Toxic loyalty”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/toxic-loyalty.html   

• “At the convenience of racists”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/02/at-convenience-of-racists.html   

• “What to do about the 1% of the 1% [Note: Content Warning - climate crisis, elitism and social division, evil]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/01/what-to-do-about-1-of-1.html   

• “Words can and do kill”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2022/03/words-can-and-do-kill.html   

• “A perspective: now, then, and the yet to come - for the few, and the many”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-perspective-now-then-and-yet-to-come.html   

• “More on relief duty for police”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/more-on-relief-duty-for-police.html  
  

• “An activism email on the introduction of a “positive duty” to prevent sexual harassment [Note: Content Warning - discusses discrimination and effects, including self harm. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/an-activism-email-on-introduction-of.html  
  

• “Cynics are contemptible”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/11/cynics-are-contemptible.html 
  

• “YouTube video on problems with power - and ways to prevent them [Content Warning: cruelty, abuse, violence, atrocities, abuse of power/scandals, bad choices, narcissism, politics, police violence]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-youtube-video-on-problems-with-power.html   Specifically, the main problem of concern was psychopathy  
  

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/