Institutional failure: building a dependent relationship on institutional services

I recently had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine with aspirations to go into the medical field and the conversation ended on the topic of institutions and my feelings about them especially in the American society (namely because thats the only type of institution I'm familiar with). Interestingly enough in this conversation I referenced a blog post that I posted when I first started this blog. located here and one quote in specific that I mentioned was as follows,

I've noticed an institutional trend since a very young age...you are only equipped with the tools necessary to barely get through that institution. This is true of hospitals, jails/prisons, foster homes/orphanages, other service/product oriented institutions, and my focal point schools.

Now, in that post I was talking about schools and the quality of education specifically and I stayed on topic. Here however the focal point is institutions, up to and including school systems; but also the relationship that is created between one and the respective institution and the failure that institution ultimately has on the individual and moreover, the community it exists in. Examining the quote some might say that I am exaggerating a bit but look at it: If you spend any considerable amount of time in an institution you get what's called "institutionalized". This statement is most commonly applied to career criminals who spend extended periods of time in prison systems. Why do you think they are "career criminals" though? Imagine living in an environment like that for lets say a period of 10 years. You're told when to rise, when to sleep, when to relieve yourself, when to exercise, what to wear, when to eat, what to eat, virtually every aspect to your living is controlled and dictated to you. Now imagine being released into the "free world" and having to adjust to making your own decisions, for many it's not an easy task. They go and they do something to land them back in a prison and they continue to live out their life that way.It becomes all they know. It's also true of people in the military. Many people come back from a very similarly controlled environment and don't know how to interact in the civilian world so they reenlist. Even on a less exaggerated level such as hospitals and schools the statement I made holds truth. You are equipped with just enough to get by. Furthermore, in that process you are indoctrinated to accept, believe, and follow up on that interaction with that institution. I recently posted on Facebook a status that asks of my peers what did you learn in high school and I proceeded to list the things that stand out in terms of my memory about high school. Do you know that among the list of things I listed not one did I learn in a classroom? The "academic" tools I was "given" in high school prepared me and allowed me to get through those four years and forget pretty much everything that I "learned" years later. In fact, the things I actually DID learn included information about the street such as there are ways for young people to purchase tobacco and liquor being underage and a crash course on sex and how to approach it and even where and how to purchase marijuana if the need ever arose. As a teenager in high school my education system failed me and prepared me for a life on the street with a high school diploma.

Let's examine lastly the field of medicine and the medical institution here in America. I'm going to use an analogy in terms of how the medicine system here seems to work. How many of us know what causes a headache? Not very many... but how many of us know how to cure one? (hands raising rapidly!!!) Ok Mr. Smith, how do you cure a headache? "Simple, you take a tylenol, asprin, aleve, advil, I mean there are a bunch of pills on the market to get rid of a headache!" ...and you are wrong Mr. Smith sit down please. The aforementioned drugs do NOT cure headaches but rather tricks your body into not minding it. A headache is most often caused by lack of sufficient blood flow to the brain and rather than attempting to find out why that occurs we pay pharmaceutical companies billions in "curing" our headaches rather than 1) determining the real cause of that headache and 2) making the necessary lifestyle changes to prevent that headache from coming back. In this pattern and learned dependency on institutions a cycle develops, our pockets (and brains) are emptied, and we get caught on the hamster wheel running and running and running.

In closing, I'm not saying all institutions are evil and you should stay away. I'm saying that you should make yourself aware of the relationship that develops, the tendency of that institution to fail you due to your lack of preparation and skills/tools on the part of the institution and your taking advantage of what you ARE provided with and making something out of it. The institutions in this country are BUSINESS institutions that depend on a dependent relationship with its users. Like with all business's you have to provide a special kind of service to keep you customers coming back to YOU! If you however, under the guise of an almighty source of "help" to the community via "saving your country" "locking up your criminals" "educating your youth" "healing your wounds" or otherwise...you ARE going to give them your business...and if you're not careful and aware...you'll become dependent on that institution and it will ultimately fail you and drain you of everything in the process if you are not careful.