The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Death by Political Correctness?

Posted on | August 3, 2010 | 20 Comments

“Everyone must come to grips with and make sense of their own failures. Excuse-making, blame-shifting, scapegoating — ‘It wasn’t my fault!’ — prevents us from learning the lessons of our failures. . . . Persistently attempting to externalize blame for our own failures is a recipe for moral disaster.”
– Robert Stacy McCain, “Lindsay Lohan Begins Serving Two Weeks in Jail,” July 21

If even an overprivileged Hollwyood star like Lindsay Lohan must be permitted to indulge the self-pitying sense of her own victimhood, who would dare question the officially-recognized victimhood of a black man?

Police in Connecticut have confirmed nine people were killed and two others injured in a shooting rampage at a beer distributorship. . . .
A company official identified the shooter as Omar Thornton, a driver who had been asked to quit his job. He refused and instead opened fire.
A union official says Thornton had been caught on videotape stealing beer. . . .
His girlfriend’s mother says Thornton, who was black, complained of racial bias, but the union says it knows of no complaints of racism. . . .
Teamsters Local 1035 official Christopher Roos says Thornton was “a disgruntled employee who shot a bunch of people.”

For all we know at this point, the company and union officials routinely turned a blind eye to white guys stealing beer. It is entirely possible that Thornton was, in some sense and at some level, a victim of racism. On the other hand, I would be willing to bet that there were many other black employees of this company who — whatever disadvantages or insults they may have suffered on account of their race — refused to surrender to the self-pitying victim mentality that appears to have motivated Thornton’s murderous rampage.

All of us live in a narcissistic culture that encourages us to externalize blame as a defensive rationalization for the protection of the sacred self. Yet some rationalizations are more equal than others, and certain categories of victimhood are enshrined in law and culture in such a way that skepticism is forbidden. This is where political correctness becomes such a deadly poison, like an invisible gas slowly permeating the atmosphere.

How many other disgruntled losers, each with his own self-pitying sense of grievance, have committed similar acts? And how many times have we seen their bloody acts attributed to some politically useful motive, or explained away as caused by the widespread availability of guns?

“[T]herapeutic morality encourages a permanent suspension of the moral sense. There is a close connection, in turn, between the erosion of moral responsibility and the waning capacity for self-help . . . between the elimination of culpability and the elimination of competence.”
– Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (1979)

A society that provides prefabricated excuses and ready-made scapegoats for failure is, perhaps unwittingly, depriving individuals of the sense of personal responsibility that is the only solid basis for achievement. If we are not responsible for our own failures — if even on-the-job theft can be attributed to the evil machinations of The Man — then how may we credit others for their success? The externalization of blame turns people into moral cripples, incapable of coping rationally with their own shortcomings and ready to lash out at others whenever their own incompetence or malfeasance is exposed.

As for Omar Thornton, let his epitaph be the same words that came to mind when people offered politically convenient rationalizations for Pentagon shooter Patrick Bedell: “Whatever happened to crazy?”

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Category: Crime, Culture, Racism

Comments

  • Kojocaro

    i blame boooooooooooooooooooosh

    /Sarc

  • Kojocaro

    i blame boooooooooooooooooooosh

    /Sarc

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  • Kojocaro

    i’d rather tear out my brainstem walk to the nearest four way intersection and play rope with it rather than eke out some sympathy to Lindsay Blowhan

  • Kojocaro

    i’d rather tear out my brainstem walk to the nearest four way intersection and play rope with it rather than eke out some sympathy to Lindsay Blowhan

  • http://e3gazette.com The Monster

    Meanwhile, we’re finding out that House of Representatives ethics rules are also racist.

  • http://e3gazette.com The Monster

    Meanwhile, we’re finding out that House of Representatives ethics rules are also racist.

  • http://qwertyalotfuori.blogspot.com Red

    How about everybody stop crying raaaaacism or any other forms of “It’s someone elses fault!” and just suck it up and take responsibility. That certainly won’t kill anyone. On the other hand playing the victim card certainly does. It kills self-esteem, it kills personal justice, and on and on. Grow the hell up already and stop running from ones screw ups I say. Stop planting bullets in other people and making them pay for ones crappy decision making. GAH! I’m over it!!

  • http://qwertyalotfuori.blogspot.com Red

    How about everybody stop crying raaaaacism or any other forms of “It’s someone elses fault!” and just suck it up and take responsibility. That certainly won’t kill anyone. On the other hand playing the victim card certainly does. It kills self-esteem, it kills personal justice, and on and on. Grow the hell up already and stop running from ones screw ups I say. Stop planting bullets in other people and making them pay for ones crappy decision making. GAH! I’m over it!!

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  • Erich Madden

    Screw “crazy”. Whatever happened to “evil”? Is it an obsolete concept in a moral relativistic society that rejects the very existence of right and wrong? “Crazy” is nothing more than modern society’s way to excuse evil behavior by blaming it on something out of one’s control – mental illness. More than that, it is an insult to those people who do genuinely suffer from mental illness beyond their control.

    This guy, so far as we know, did not kill people because he thought they were alien invaders from Mars, nor because voices from his toaster told him to do so, but rather because, through his prior evil actions (theft) he caused misery to himself, and through further selfishness chose to vent his frustrations at his self-caused misery by causing more misery for others. Evil. Evil. Evil. Bring back the word, and reserve “crazy” for genuine crazy people.

  • Erich Madden

    Screw “crazy”. Whatever happened to “evil”? Is it an obsolete concept in a moral relativistic society that rejects the very existence of right and wrong? “Crazy” is nothing more than modern society’s way to excuse evil behavior by blaming it on something out of one’s control – mental illness. More than that, it is an insult to those people who do genuinely suffer from mental illness beyond their control.

    This guy, so far as we know, did not kill people because he thought they were alien invaders from Mars, nor because voices from his toaster told him to do so, but rather because, through his prior evil actions (theft) he caused misery to himself, and through further selfishness chose to vent his frustrations at his self-caused misery by causing more misery for others. Evil. Evil. Evil. Bring back the word, and reserve “crazy” for genuine crazy people.

  • gramercy

    Haven’t used tags in a while. Here goes again:

    For all we know at this point, the company and union officials routinely turned a blind eye to white guys stealing beer.

    Why this silly disclaimer? Do you really believe this? I hope you were being sarcastic.

    It is entirely possible that Thornton was, in some sense and at some level, a victim of racism.

    And it’s entirely possible that he was not. Your pussyfooting around is itself an example of political correctness.

  • gramercy

    Haven’t used tags in a while. Here goes again:

    For all we know at this point, the company and union officials routinely turned a blind eye to white guys stealing beer.

    Why this silly disclaimer? Do you really believe this? I hope you were being sarcastic.

    It is entirely possible that Thornton was, in some sense and at some level, a victim of racism.

    And it’s entirely possible that he was not. Your pussyfooting around is itself an example of political correctness.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Why this silly disclaimer? Do you really believe this?

    Seriously. I do not deny that racism exists, nor do I deny that people suffer unfair discrimination for various reasons. (How much more successful as a journalist might I be if I were good-looking?)

    What I do deny is the liberal claim that prejudice and discrimination are so pervasively powerful as to provide an ironclad explanation for every failure by members of designated victim groups. This proposition was never true — e.g., there were successful women before the rise of the “women’s movement” — and it is now less plausible than ever. At some point, an ethos of individual responsibility requires us to reject the concepts of collective grievance and collective guilt that are central to the victimhood narrative of modern liberalism.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Why this silly disclaimer? Do you really believe this?

    Seriously. I do not deny that racism exists, nor do I deny that people suffer unfair discrimination for various reasons. (How much more successful as a journalist might I be if I were good-looking?)

    What I do deny is the liberal claim that prejudice and discrimination are so pervasively powerful as to provide an ironclad explanation for every failure by members of designated victim groups. This proposition was never true — e.g., there were successful women before the rise of the “women’s movement” — and it is now less plausible than ever. At some point, an ethos of individual responsibility requires us to reject the concepts of collective grievance and collective guilt that are central to the victimhood narrative of modern liberalism.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere

    (How much more successful as a journalist might I be if I were good-looking?)

    Take some solace, Stacy, in that you do have a perfect face for radio.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere

    (How much more successful as a journalist might I be if I were good-looking?)

    Take some solace, Stacy, in that you do have a perfect face for radio.

  • Live Free Or Die

    Ditto what Erich Madden said.

    The only thing that could bury this story faster would be if this was done by a Jihadi shouting “Allahu Akbar!”

  • Live Free Or Die

    Ditto what Erich Madden said.

    The only thing that could bury this story faster would be if this was done by a Jihadi shouting “Allahu Akbar!”

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