The blind leading the blind

Work at the University of Minnesota has an effect upon all of society. That is the nature of the university culture. But not all effects are good. Some are major mistakes that have long-term destructive qualities. And, after they are established, they are almost impossible to eradicate. Ideas do have consequences.

About 12 years ago, on a bright spring day, my next-door neighbor told me that a group home had purchased the large house across the alley from us. He told me that he had heard that six type A violent sexual predators were going to move into the house and use it as a residence. I was shocked. I began an investigation because this would greatly affect how and where our 5 little children would play. It was improper to put something like this in a family neighborhood, next to the little league field and elementary schools.

As I investigated I was horrified to find out that it was exactly like I had heard. In addition to this I found out from the corrections community that there was a very, very low rehabilitation record for this type of crime. Almost everybody re-offends.

These were violent criminals who forced their will upon others. And each of them had been charged with these sorts of crimes more than once. I went to war. I notified my neighborhood and found out that very few of my neighbors knew (although the law required neighbor notification) In fact, it appeared that the city councilwoman, neighborhood police liaison, local high school principle and counselor, and neighborhood committee chairman all knew about it but were in a conspiracy of privacy. (I thought they were supposed to look out for the good of the neighborhood.)

The neighborhood rose up and managed to expel the group home through closing the loophole in the law and the help of the Hennepin county commissioner. The law that allowed these “group homes” in family neighborhoods was then changed in the state through legislation but not without a big battle. It was amazing how helpful everybody was after the “word was out” in the neighborhood and how unhelpful they were before every house was notified.

But now back to the main theme of this blog. The mindset that under-laid all of this activity was coming from the University of Minnesota’s Program In Human Sexuality.
It is the model for most programs around the world. What I found out about it is mind blowing.

What I kept hearing from the defenders of the group home in our neighborhood was that these men had been through “treatment” and were being rehabilitated. But yet the clear statistics, around the world, were that there were almost no positive results in rehabilitation anywhere and certainly no good results in Minnesota. So I wondered what that “treatment therapy” consisted of.

It seems that current scientific thought is that those who cannot control their sexuality are to be taught how to masturbate while watching pornography and while being “monitored” by video cameras and “measuring devices.” Uff da! The goal is to find the right kind of pornography that turns them on and then get them to relieve themselves instead of taking it out on others! I think that common conventional wisdom would say that something is wrong here. How can you rehabilitate someone while teaching them to lust? This whole research area is on the wrong foundation and it affects the whole world. This “model” is being exported to the whole world. The blind are leading the blind. Many are headed for the ditches. And they call this “higher education.”