Once in a while we here at FFFF get a really good comment that we want to single out for its humor, insight or just all ’round pithiness. Here is a Friend called Dr. Ott Says, who deploys the good doctor’s analysis of the police perspective of the world.
He responds to the rather comical cop fixation on what constitutes “reality.” Here’s what Dr. Ott Says said:
Titan of Truth, the hallmark of the narcissistic personality is the confusion of his self-centered universe with “reality.” This is referred to in psychological and philosophical literature as solipsism, a condition in which only ones’ own mind is known to exist; taken to the extreme other individuals are actually denied substantive reality.
This is why a policeman like McKinley must utter the word “alien” when referring to a bad cop. He’s not referring to a little green man from Mars, but to some unimaginable creature outside the bounds of his fairly paltry weltanschauung.
The detrimental consequence of this sort of mindset is obvious as we have seen in the whole Kelly Thomas murder saga.
This is why Dr. Ott advises that such individuals may be useful for basic tasks like frontal assaults on the battlefield and valet car parking. Give them a uniform and some minor authority. But never, never cease to monitor and supervise their activities.