Well, I was reading this article by the blogger named Stacey McCain (no relation to John McCain), whom I don't often read, but he had a great discussion of this, in an ongoing back and forth he's been having with some liberal blogger. I only wanted to highlight one section of the article where he says what I try to get at in a much better way; the earlier part of the article is more of his back and forth with the blogger:
Good mental health is characterized by optimism and a sense of agency — that is to say, the belief that we are ultimately in control of our own lives. The sense of agency is critical to success and happiness in every area of life, in large part because it is necessary to self-improvement and problem-solving.There is good stuff after this section as well.
Everyone encounters failure and disappointment, but a person who believes that his life is within his own control will respond to such setbacks in a positive, constructive way — analyzing the cause of the failure, seeking ways to improve, determining to work harder to overcome disadvantages and remedy personal deficiencies. A psychologically healthy person therefore must accept responsibility for his failures and shortcomings just as willingly as he accepts reward for his successes and abilities.
While it is true that other people sometimes contribute to our failures by undermining our efforts, it is also true that our successes generally require the assistance of others. Factors which are genuinely beyond our control tend to even out over time. In a free and prosperous society, few people are so disastrously disadvantaged as to have no hope whatsoever of improving their lot in life.
Thus, it is psychologically unhealthy to blame others whenever things go wrong in our lives, but this is exactly what “therapeutic morality” encourages.
Attempting to comfort people by flattering their sense of blamelessness — “It’s not your fault” — therapeutic morality ultimately undermines the vital sense of agency, in effect telling people that they are neither culpable nor competent. It promotes the notion of innocent victimhood, the blameless self, and encourages people to avoid responsibility for their failures by wallowing in self-pitying rationalizations.
This is a good post. One can really say that liberalism is a DISEASE. The quote goes to the basic human weakness and evil to explain why people follow liberalism and look to mass movements or politics to solve their impotence and how people like Obama will always be with us and how they use this envy and hatred and self impotence of people to further their own power and agendas. This topic delve into other philosophy.
ReplyDeleteI like these quotes by Eric Hoffer from his book "The True Believer: Thoughts on The Nature of Mass Movements" that go along with this topic and somewhat complement it. "Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, 'to be free from freedom.'" And on one of the unifying agents of mass movements being people's hatred, "They are an expression of a desperate effor to suppress an awareness of our inadequacy, worthlessness, guilt, and other shortcomings of the self. Self-contempt is here transmuted into hatred of others--and there is a most determined and persistent effort to mask this switch."
Taking responsibility for one's failures is a hard thing to do. The easy thing is to blame others and absolve oneself of guilt. We all can be found guilty of this at one time or the other.
Good post and comment. Can we blame others though (like Obama) for shitty things that happen? After all, people like him have distorted and destroyed some freedoms. There is a percentage of my life that will be harder because of people like this and it is their fault to a certain extent. But then if we start blaming others for our shortcomings then are we affected by the disease? Is blaming people the beginning symptoms? Is it curable? I'm gonna start wearing a dust cover on my face and when people ask, "what are you wearing that for?" I'll say, "I don't want to catch liberalism."
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. The disease is one of the mind.
ReplyDeleteI know millions of Americans and my life was affected by the policies carried out by the government. But one can't sit around and cry about it. They just have to be more educated about the system so that they can work harder and smarter to overcome the obstacles that are being put in the way of Americans that are trying to pursue their goals and dreams. But the fact is that there will be less opprounity out there thanks to people that vote our current government in office.