Sociology MIA?

I remember taking sociology classes in college and thinking, how much more complex could a set of rules be? The inter workings of culture and society and resulting behavior is not for the novice. Those who have a grasp of this stuff are surprisingly few, right! Is that why I can't even remember the last time I heard the word. Was it relegated to a position near home-economics in importance by a modern world that needs thing quantified with numbers, preferably on a balance sheet or profit and loss statement? Maybe it just got cast into the heap of useless education spewed out by those liberally biased colleges!
I spent some time in the South Pacific years ago on islands that were in some manner under the control of the U.S. Government. There are many such places with most having turbulent histories, in and out of occupations by different countries. Some by treaty and some by war. Most of the residents of these places have something in common. Their self-identities were created in a mix-master of sorts.
We would arrive in large numbers to administer relief after natural calamities. The first impression was always of a friendly people in desperate need and the staff would respond in kind, happy to oblige. As time went on and a portion of the grateful began exhibiting demanding, greedy and less than honest behavior-lets say more like back home, some of the staff responded by taking things into their own hands. Supervising this situation is difficult because it is born out of an idealism gone haywire. It seemed they thought their obligation to steer society in the right direction increased proportionately with their chances of actually making a difference. Often I would see standards set higher than that used on the mainland. These were people I'd worked with back there who I hadn't noticed doing this before. So I would spend a lot of time comparing the two.
I'd also talk a lot about the islanders misfortunes having been through such a difficult history. Things like re-establishing property lines after America took many of the islands from the Japanese during WWII. There wasn't a tree left standing after the bombing of some of these islands. The "Partido" as I recall they called it didn't go well. Surveyors and attorneys descended on the islands and without a sociologist among them, did their work without regard to cultural considerations. Properties were divided haphazardly for many reasons. The loudest and most aggressive often prevailed in disputes and there was a good deal of corruption to. A lasting bitterness resulted. Not a pass for bad behavior but surely something relevant. I'd push these ideas as far as attention spans would allow, over and over again. Not to allow something undeserved, but to beat back this tendency for being judgemental. Id be jokingly called the liberal which I would gladly accept as long as they would resist the urge to judge based on anything but the facts.
So, whats my point? Well I'm always intrigued by how hierarchical organizations sacrifice their low and mid-level to save the top and how these players accept this as fair play. I can't help but think that the Lt. General in command during the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, who retired earlier this month, must be suppressing some serious anger right now over what happened. A basic cowardly railroad job by the worried-about-their-own-neck superiors. A very skilled scapegoat-I mean-Soldier sacrificed for being Miss-cast in an ill-conceived war. It was good to see Gen.Abizaid And Gen.Westly Clark were compelled to say some very nice things at his retirement ceremony. There is honor in their actions.
Five Officers were caught up in the scandal, the Lt. General was the highest ranking. Broad shoulders made the buck stop with him. It was left to someone else to say he was under pressure from Washington to get better information from prisoners during that time. Unfortunately after you read his Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy memo of September,2003,( Google it) you can't help but blame him. But, he shares that blame with the ones who didn't see to it that he knew a whole lot more about sociology than he did.
I bet you can trace that all the way to the top.