Some of us just can't

Because of some interesting arguments in the blogosphere of late, I have been thinking, and did a bit of commenting, on what I call "institution think".  Now institution think becomes a mode of approaching problems, techniques, strategies and even socializing in established institutions.

Anything which is an institution breeds mostly people who think in terms of institutional thinking.

The main reason that institution think exists is for one reason alone: for the continuation of the institution.

I repeat that: The main reason that institution think exists is for one reason alone: for the continuation of the institution.




I got a plummy job one time a long time ago in an academic institution, Early on, one of the faculty members took me aside and said this to me, "You will be fine as long as you remember one thing. The life of the institution is the most important thing in the minds of all here. If anything or anyone disturbs or threatens the life of the institution, that person is expendable."

I lasted 18 months and it was a seminary where homosexuals were still being accepted. It was an institution which hated and still hates the TLM. It is not in Europe.

I have been cautioned as well as been encouraged to think in terms of institution think, but have never been able to do it.

A person with a fierce sense of what it is to be an individual, to have a core of being which is independent of manipulation, that person cannot and does not fall into institution think.

I know many who have. They have lost their souls to their institutions. Some have lost their souls to the devil because of institution think.

These institutions are prone to institution think: large high schools, colleges, universities, chancery offices, seminaries, governmental offices at all levels, the military, organized crime, gangs, political parties.

Some huge families adopt institution think-the only important thing is the continuation of the line and property.

Unless one can find a place in these institutions where one is either protected, or where one can avoid evil, a person who cannot think in institution think is better off being self-employed, or, and this is a blessing, finding an institution where the mode of being is agreeable and livable, where one finds like-minded people.

Good luck. This thinking is not the same as loyalty based on mutual respect and honesty.

I remind Catholics that the prophets of old where not part of the institution, not part of the Sanhedrin or court. Even then, they were killed by those who thought in institution think. Being outside the institution does not protect one, especially in a world which is being taken over by global institution think.