The Defective People Industry

In the world of disability advocacy there’s a term called "the defective people industry" which designates modes of thinking or organizational conduct that relies on the status quo. The "DPI" is vigorous in its self preservation and it tends to make a lot of dough.

Suppose you wanted to cure something innocuous like loud gum chewing.  (I’ve chosen this one because I have this problem.  Give me a stick of gum and within a minute I’m grinding, snapping, and gnawing like a weasel caught in a trap.)

The first thing you do is gather up a group of experts.  You will want some social scientists, some anti-social scientists, at least ten thousand social workers, an equal number of social security administrators, and you will want dentists and folks from the false teeth industry.  Of course you’ll also want the chewing gum manufacturers and a vast array of representatives from the therapy industries.  You might also want to involve at least one aroma expert.

After you’ve gathered all these authorities you raise a bunch of money.  Sometimes you already have the money before you gather your experts but most often it works the other way.

Then you print some fancy brochures.

You will also need to have catered lunches, new carpeting in your headquarters, and lots of meetings.

You will want to have many studies about annoying gum chewing.

Its really important to foster public debate about the mystery of the phenomenon. For example:

The "loud gum chewing is caused by creepy Freudian anxiety" camp. vs. the "traumatic gum chomping caused by hard to isolate neurological defect in the lizard brain (otherwise known as the limbic node).

While all of this is going on you will want to create a mechanism whereby you give out small amounts of research funding to a vast array of researchers.  These grants should be enough for the researchers to buy coffee filters and post-its.

By analogy the method is akin to giving ten thousand people enough money to study the feasibility of manufacturing one isolated part of an automobile.  No one is given the money to actually make a real car part, much less an operational vehicle.

The DPI can work like this for years.

No sector of society is without its varieties of the defective people industry.

There’s government of course but also don’t forget non-profit agencies, universities, and industry .

In "real life" there are lives in the balance because the DPI is a very entrenched system.

There are people today in the United States who are trapped in hospitals because even though their respective medical conditions will allow them to live in the community, local and state governmental agencies have a vested interest in keeping hospital beds filled.  This travesty continues despite the fact that community based living is less expensive for many of the people who are currently being warehoused.

This situation is no joke.

"Who gets warehoused?" you ask?

People who have been paralyzed in the manner of Christopher Reeve but whose insurance has run out.  One fine day your hired attendant is no longer available.  Then the local state government says, "well, don’t confuse us with the facts, we have a hard to find and dark little room for you far away from your community.  We will put you there even though it would be cheaper to let you live your life among people."

As a friend of mine would say, "In the United States you have the right to live in a closet if you are paralyzed and your insurance runs out."

S.K.