I got a bit shirty with a friend of mine yesterday. It was over his reaction to an article with first person stories by people suffering long-term unemployment who described how their skills eroded. To explain the strength of my response I will mention an essay I wrote a few years ago, which made the claim that Conservatives spank their kids and want to spank yours. Until I get around to writing Conservatives take everything literally I will remind everyone that hardcore child abuse is apolitical, and not all conservatives hit their kids. But when you hear someone proudly claiming that only he and his ilk employ corporal punishment that someone is invariably conservative. It is a peculiar thing to want to monopolize, so let them have it. At any rate my point was that there is an element of the conservative mindset that seeks to assign blame, and then wishes to see the guilt punished. The article yesterday was a good example of this phenomenon. Speaking for myself, seeing an article where people talk about their experiences as long-term unemployed, my first thought is: Ah, here is a chance to learn something about the human condition. My friends first thought was: How can I blame them for everything that has happened to them? The article was by no means a set of comprehensive biographies. There is a great deal we dont know about their circumstances. It was narrowly focused (intentionally so) and so we learned that: They were unemployed; That they had been unemployed for a long time, more than one year; That in their occupations they had developed specialized skills; That these occupational skills were eroding from lack of practice. Despite his ignorance of any but the above facts my friend was full of comments on what they should have been doing, and by implication what, by failing to do those things, they had been doing wrong. In other words it was: all their fault. Years ago I would have found his reaction utterly demented. It would never have occurred to me to react the way he did. I had always found Jesus injunction about not casting the first stone to be a good rule to try to live by. But I have found that for most of my conservative friends blaming others is their default setting. (Readers may verify the accuracy of this by keeping an eye on posts by conservatives. If you dont have any on your timeline, watch mine.) It actually explains a great deal about the divide over events such as the murder of Eric Garner. While racial prejudice plays a big part this desire to blame and spank is in the mix. Liberals see a man choked to death over the sale of cigarettes, in a city with a history of its police harassing minority residents, and they are horrified. Conservatives see it and immediately look for reasons to blame Garner and deem the death a fitting punishment. (Though this particular case was so egregious that even some diehard conservatives such as Charles Krauthammer broke ranks to denounce it.) Rather than dwell on Garners murder and conservatives blessing it, lets close on a lighter note. Some years ago I saw an article on long-term unemployment (which has been with us for awhile). This one was a first-person essay by a Las Vegas bartender who had been out of work for two years. Ill mention that he was already a sinner in the conservative playbook. When he was laid off he had been working steadily for many years, and so decided to take some time off, collecting unemployment, before looking for work. No true blue conservative would do such a thing, of course. Why, by the time the human resources person got to Im sorry, but we have to let you ... theyd have already dialed an Executive Placement agency. And before their tires touched the roadway outside the company parking lot theyd have uploaded 300 resumes. And if the government sent them an unemployment check, not only would they send it back, they top it up to cover postage. But our bartender/essayist took the money. When it ran out after a few months he began looking for work. He sent out 200 resumes as the months went by. Finally, after nearly two years he got a call to come in and audition. You do realize that some bartending jobs in Las Vegas are very desirable jobs? A good bartender working a Strip casino can make a lot of money. Which is why someone who has reached that level would not grab the first offer to tug the tap at a shot and beer joint on East Fremont, any more than an I.T. manager would take an entry level coding job. Better to work at McDs than commit potential career suicide. Anyway, he got the call and went in to audition, and things were going fine until: Okay, lets see you make a mojito. During the two years he had been out of work guess what drink had gone from WTF? to trendy? He had never heard of a mojito. I shared the article with some friends, and one of them, you may guess his persuasion, was all over this. Doesnt know how to make a mojito!? I am not sure this friend drinks. I dont know if he could distinguish between a martini and a Millers, and would be amazed if to this day he has learned what a mojito is. But that was enough for him. The writer doesnt know how to make a mojito? He deserves to starve!
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 09:17:00 +0000
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