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Derek Young

Thinker and Experimenter,

TEDCRED 30+

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If you could learn or unlearn one thing, what would it be?

Something that you wish you had the time for, but don't have such luxury. Be as detailed as you like.

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  • Grant Sutton

    • +3
    Jun 1 2012: I would really like to forget a police officer lying under oath about a speeding ticket. I would like to go back to trusting the police and not feeling rage inside often. It honestly makes me very uncomfortable around cops in any situation, and less safe for both myself and the officers. I do believe it has benefited me in some understanding of what a lot of minorities feel when they are dealing with officers, but it makes it much harder for me to work a job knowing that a portion of the funds are being used to support abuse. Even if most officers are good people (I believe they are.), it's really hard to know our history, and past abuses and see how to forgive institutions that claim the inability to make a mistake. I got called a liar and a conspiracy theorist when I attempted to report his crime by the officer I reported it to. I have a good life and thankfully this is the most hurtful thing anybody has ever done to me, so I would like to design a police force that is capable of admitting it's mistakes at a quicker rate than the Vatican.

    All our institution have flaws that can tear them down and I would like to learn how to both spot and correct with intelligent discussion the institutions that we need to exist. I think everybody should feel that they have people they can call on when they are in trouble without fear. I would like to learn also how to better feed those most in need of food, and regrow support for building positive structures that will help humanity survive. This is hard in a world with a lot of fear and mistrust. So I would like to work on ideas that bring both those down.
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      Derek Young 30+

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      Jun 2 2012: I like your passion! I most agree about remodeling of institutions that are easily corruptible. =)

    • Aada Jones

      • +1
      Jun 2 2012: Sutton, I hear you.

      We all know what police culture is. We see it lampooned in comedies and struggled against in dramas, and any of us who have been on the wrong side have seen it ourselves. The dehumanizing mode of being the "subject" or the "suspect".

      It's strange to me that you say that cops are mostly good. They are not. They are just people - people in an institution which shapes them into people who do both good and bad things in service of exercising their power.

      Forget your anger. Injustice is everywhere. But stay away from cops. Their cultural power drive is dangerous to someone who demands justice. Justice is irrelevant. (I am being too extreme, please add some "mostly" and "basically" and "often" qualifiers to this.)

      Let's take away their power drive somehow. Replace their role in the community as enforcer and protector with street sweeper and occasional enforcer.

      Or perhaps best, let's find a way to live without power struggles as much as possible. What do you think? What could be done?

      • Barry Palmer 50+

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        Jun 6 2012: I think you are on the right track. Conflict is inevitable, but our current institutions that deal with it are based on cultural ideas that are centuries old. We need some innovation in this area that matches the innovation we see in our technologies. Some schools teach conflict resolution techniques to very young children. That is just a start. Perhaps those children, as they grow up and practice these skills, will be the innovators.

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