Thursday, December 07, 2006

Bizarre cultural misunderstandings- I have no idea why feeling guilty or feeling shame is taboo in white culture. Chris Clarke makes a OK post sort of marred by the O guilt and geekery stuff that you often hear. A common cant among white people is that if a white person starts to show empathy for people of color they are suffering from 'white guilt'. I don't get what's so bad about guilt? If you feel guilty, you can do better and improve. How is assuming that whatever you are doing now is the right thing going to improve anything? One thing I've never liked about the right is that you're either born with worth(rich, white, a man) or you're born without worth. There's nothing you can really do to improve. If you hew only to the dictates of those with power and give up any chance of having self respect, you may get some shadow of conditional respect although they are calling you the n word and the c word behind your back.

But with liberalism, anyone can improve if they do the right thing. If I stop making excuses for why I am special and the rules of reality don't apply to me, I can make a real change in my life and the lives of others. Also, I'm confused about what's so bad about shame? I feel ashamed if I don't 'tithe'(give 10% to charity), but that means that I have something that spurs me to do better and be a better person. To me, guilt is what you feel if you do not do your responsibility to yourself, and shame is what you feel when you don't do your responsibility to others. If someone can shame you, the truth is maybe you in yourself feel that you have not done what you need to do.

Then again, why am I even talking? These are the same people who think bigotry is a black single mom getting a scholarship.

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