Are we losing sight of social justice?

In the future, our society will be remembered with great accolades or deep disdain according to how well we have cared for our children, our elders, and our people with disabilities. This judgment will be rendered through the lens of a fundamental social justice principle: Do we actually value all people equally? Or, do we only give lip service to this principle? Or, do we ignore it entirely?

Typically, we only apply this principle to our actions toward other people or groups, i.e., do we value one person or group more or less than another? However, the principle also encompasses another basic personal calculus, i.e., how much do we value other people relative to how much we value ourselves? We must ask this question to assure that we have not permitted self-interest to displace other-interest. In American society, a great risk exists that “me” and “mine” will take precedence over “we” and “ours” (see  https://www.behavioral.net/blogs/ron-manderscheid/basic-thoughts-about-social-justice-i-and-mine-vs-we-and-ours). This shift to self-interest many be subtle, and it may be gradual, but a clear propensity exists for it to occur.

This shift to self-interest can occur in one of several ways—personally, through our organizations, or through our professions. Each represents a classic example of goal displacement: the replacement of a goal promoting a social good with a goal promoting a personal, organizational, or professional good.

Personal Displacement. Here, the broader goal of promoting social justice has been replace with narrower personal career or financial goals. In other words, we have confused our own personal goals with social justice goals. We readily recognize such characteristics in others, i.e., the “organizational climber”; we rarely recognize them in ourselves. 

Organizational Displacement. In this context, the well being of our own organization has supplanted the goal of promoting social justice. Organizational growth, power, and control become paramount concerns; organizations rarely, if ever, cede them. Typically, the success of my organization is mistaken for success in promoting social justice.

Professional Displacement. At this level, the goals of a profession have replaced social justice goals. Thus, market share, financial resources, human resources, and national influence become predominant. And, over time, a supportive culture and ideology develop to justify and support these goals of a profession. Frequently, this culture will even ignore and resist objective evidence that dramatic change in direction is needed.

As we go forward to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we are being presented with a once-in-ever opportunity to seek and to achieve social justice for people with mental health, substance use, and intellectual/developmental disability conditions. We have the exceptional opportunity to reduce the dramatic health, access, and care disparities these people experience every day.  We must guard carefully against personal, organizational, and professional goal displacement, each of which will undermine dramatically our capacity to achieve what now is possible and is necessary.

Every day, we should ask ourselves the following questions:

• Have my personal career and financial goals caused me to become blinded to the more important social justice goal of service to others?
• Has my organization become so self-absorbed that it has lost its fundamental social justice mission?
• Has our profession developed a culture that asserts field interests at the expense of the wellbeing of persons who are disabled?

How we answer these questions and what actions we then take will determine how history will view us.

This is something worth thinking about very carefully!