[TRIGGER WARNING] Clout-Chasing and Motivational Speaking.
Friday, January 5, 2024
LinkedIn recommended a person named Todd Dewett and his LinkedIn/Lynda training class "Coping Strategies in Difficult Times" to me. But when I saw this post, I just... I can't, I'm sorry.
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| I mean, a title like that coupled with a really punchable face, like, come on, WTFH? |
You see, some of you may know I am related to someone who was incarcerated unjustly (for those who don't know, my surname is distinct enough that any search engine will find news articles from 5-8 years ago). They were acquitted, but that experience has taught me so much about incarceration, the broken mess that is the government rehabilitation system, and the uncertainty of the future once someone is "free."
While it's true that being behind bars makes persons deprived of liberty or "PDLs" honest (those who are innocent admittedly have very little money to hire a lawyer, while those who have indeed committed some form of "criminal*" act openly admit doing so) it comes at the cost of brutal dehumanisation. One hardly eats a square meal a day, toiletries are rationed, PDLs sleep cheek-to-jowl, visits are tightly monitored (visitors get full-body searches coming in and out; PDLs always get surprise searches), sharp objects and mirrors are forbidden. Where I'm from, there is no purging or expunging of records; once you've been reported as someone who was sent to prison, that follows you forever. Even if you made it out. Even if you're doing extremely well. Even if there is publicly available proof that you were innocent and the judge awarded you an acquittal. The reputational damage is so immense, nobody wants to talk to you, much less hire you, when you've been acquitted; let's not even talk about the trouble the banks gave us even if the incarceration reason was not financial fraud! (Just being related to a PDL forced me to shift away from the marketing communications profession in the Philippines, simply because I was no longer deemed trustworthy. I am indebted to the organisations who hired me, STAFFVIRTUAL and British Council, during those years.)
It's really difficult to be authentic, granted, but it's almost impossible once a person has a rap sheet, a past conviction or a prison stint. So I try to minimise posting about feel-good stunts, and instead share current initiatives that focus on what incarcerated people need and how to help them reintegrate into mainstream society when they get out. Stories like this, while very heartwarming at first read/listen, strike me as inauthentic at best and disgustingly clout-chasing at worst. Of course, I will obviously tank my social media and my online reputation by posting this. But if there's one point I want to leave you, dear reader, it's that the true motivational leaders are those who have lost everything and lived to tell about it, not some PhD with zero lived experience.
PS: I put the word "criminal" in quotes because I've learned there is a sliding scale. Some people will call the act of theft a criminal act; I consider stealing necessities for survival insignificant in a country where the police lead kidnap-for-ransom schemes along with providing fake evidence or "tanim ebidensya" (there's a clue for y'all as to who put my relative into prison) and politicians steal billions of pesos/dollars at face value.
Originally posted on LinkedIn.