Assigning Blame

 

There's really nothing like Progressive talk radio to get the old juices flowing. So I am listening to some obscure left wing talkee named Ed Schultz on my local Progressive talk radio station. I hear some leftee going on about how he wants to throw a brick through the TV every time he watches Fox News. I have a similar response when listening to Left Wing radio, but what I have a desperate urge to do is ask them questions. Also, unlike the leftee's I see nothing to be gained by destroying my own property. But then, I bought it myself, rather that relying on other people’s money to procure it for me.

So Ed is listening to a "99er," which is a person who has been unemployed for 99 weeks. She is going on anecdotally   about being out of work for an extensive period, and how she is about to get kicked out on the street with her three children. She raves on about not being able to get so much as an interview after her phone service technician job got outsourced to India. Ed finds the woman compelling and promises to get her on his show. Someone please get me some tissue. I am sobbing all over my keyboard...  Please.


It is a fascinating, a deafening silence as I wait for the questions that never come. In all of the conversation a father (or fathers) is not mentioned. Ed never mentions the father (or fathers) once.  Not once does Ed mention his/their responsibility in caring for the children.  Nope,  It is All ostensibly George Bush's fault.  Maybe G.W. got her pregnant. Maybe G.W. was trying to become the “father of his country.”  The woman is 42 years old, and was a teacher for eleven years. To be a teacher she must have had a degree. This woman states that she and her children will soon be on the street, yet she cannot find a job, any job, for more than two years. Presumably the father(s) cannot find a job(s) either. Where are the parents, grandparents, and siblings? We have the possibility of both of her parents, both of the fathers parents, and any grandparent in laws. There could also be as many as two other fathers, each with up to four grandparents of their own. This is all without even considering all of the potential siblings, cousins, aunts, or uncles. The woman is forty two and has evidently made no friends in the world willing to allow her and her children to stay with them even temporarily.

As usual this woman is just another victim. There is, and can be no discussion of any choices in her life that may have contributed to bringing her to this place in life. Unfair you say? Cruel, unjustified, and judgmental? Well if she can assign blame to anyone but herself I will feel free to examine her accusations.

So who am I too judge you ask? Well let me tell you. My life pretty much sucks right now. My industry withered over the last few years, and then evaporated… Poof, maybe never to return. I have also been unemployed for a very long time. I am losing my house, My truck, and my dog. (Yeah, I know – sounds like a country song.) And do you know who’s fault that is? MINE.
I made a lot of bad choices in life. Some seemed good at the time, and many I was warned against. I am an intelligent and capable guy, but I have lived an unfocused, meandering life. I ignored the age-old refrain to “stay in school.” I traveled and had great adventures, and this was a trade-off for stability and prosperity. Even my “good” choices were not the optimal choice. Yes there were outside forces that swept me into unfortunate circumstance but these too were either manageable or entirely avoidable had I made other choices.

So where you ask, do I get off judging this woman’s choices without knowing her, or even if I did? Well It seems pretty clear to me that a 42 year old unemployable college graduate, with no father, (or fathers) helping to raise the children, with no grandparents from the mother or fathers side, No brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, or friends that are willing to help; a woman like that must have spent a great deal of the time and energy of her life burning every bridge. It seems to me, safely I believe, that such a person should spend a little time on self reflection, and less time blaming others for the direction her choices have taken her and whining about not receiving more from the public trough.

So in running the rough draft of this by my favorite lefty I was advised that it is really not societally acceptable to pick on the women or the children.  I was reminded that when going into a village we can kill the combatants, but we are not to kill the women or children. Soooo OK, first: I am not killing anyone, nor raising a finger in violence. Second: This woman is on a talk radio station spewing her nonsensical blather, blaming everyone that thinks like me for her circumstance, and I cannot disagree with her? And as usual, the children are used as pawns to bolster the classic Marxist blather. It is obscene.

Decades ago, as a child, I was admonished to “Think with your heart.” I suppose they thought this stirring prose quite wise and enlightened. Years later, if I have learned nothing else, I have learned that the heart does not think. Far from it. Emotionalism is the opposite of thinking. Emotionalism causes us to squander our resources. Emotionalism is evil because it assuages your guilt while squandering your resources that could have truly been used for good had you not poured them down an empty hole with misguided masturbatory euphoria. I really have no problem with anyone doing this with their own resources because they are truly theirs to do with as they will, but I have no patience for your rationalizations as to why you think it ethical to do so with mine or anyone else’s not your own.