Criminal Minds, We All Have One

The simple fact that there is a popular television series called, "Criminal Minds", is indicative of the depth of ignorance that permeates our culture. It doesn't matter what the program is about; the title alone portrays the ignorance of which I speak. In another age titles such as, "Negro Mentality", or "Jew Psychology" once indicated the same kind of ignorance. It is the ignorance of prejudice and self-righteous superiority. The only purpose such program titles serve is to bespeak a class of people who are deemed inferior and undesirable, so the rest can feel superior and accepted, even though the traits that define the marginalized class are superficial and meaningless.

We know today that Negro's aren't the simple and stupid cretins they were once commonly believed to be. Instead, the culture itself that depicted them as such literally defined and created the circumstances that supported the appearance of the inferior "Negro Mentality". And Jewish people aren't the greedy and single minded herd animals that they were once commonly held to be, not just by Nazis, but by major political factions in the United States, and other countries as well, prior to the so-called holocaust. We know now that the "science" that was used to support both of these prejudicial illusions was itself the cause of so much ignorance. Negro brains are not in fact less functional than Caucasian brains, and Jewish culture does not in fact center around money and wealth. Negroes and Jews are collectively no different than any other people on earth, aside from the color of their skin or religious beliefs. And so "criminals" are no different than anyone else as well, aside from the arbitrary fact that they were caught, and convicted of a crime.

Social studies prove that nearly everyone breaks the law sooner or later. And the so-called "Criminal Mind" is no different than anyone else's mind or mentality, when taken on the average. As a matter of fact, several studies have shown and confirmed that when taken as a group, prison guards and prison inmates share very similar "mentalities" (psychological profiles) and social structures.

While the title of a show like "Criminal Minds" is bad enough, the content of such shows takes cultural ignorance to a whole new level. The producers never hesitate to use fiction while creating characters and scenarios that would and could never exist or happen in the real world. For starters, the real behavior analysis unit in the FBI has never been successful at anything except PR (and "Criminal Minds" is a direct result of this success). Their behavioral analysis have roughly the same predictive success as psychic readings. And before the movie "Silence of the Lambs" came out the only notoriety they received was for their record of failures. But, after "Silence" came out their public image changed radically, all based purely on fictional accounts of their success that involved even more fictitious criminal characters that could no more exist in reality than Count Dracula or Dr. Jekyll.

I personally use the term "criminal" to refer to people in general, not just those who have been caught and convicted. In my book, we are all "criminal" by nature, not by arbitrary "law and circumstance". I believe someday, perhaps even someday soon, I will have a lot of company.

(J.D. January 9, 2015)