Tuesday 19 March 2024
The irresponsible charges of resentment
Doubtless she was posing as a martyr before all who knew anything of her story; why had she refused his money, if not that her case might seem all the harder? It were difficult to say whether he really believed this; in a nature essentially egoistic, there is often no line to be drawn between genuine convictions and the irresponsible charges of resentment.
George Gissing – Demos (1886)
A quote recalled when Barak Obama popped up at No.10.
A useful observation by Gissing which is easy to forget. We see them all the time - public figures with a strong streak of egoism. So often we see the egoism as a fault, note the dishonesty which comes with it but forget the other baggage egoism carries.
Gissing was right, egoists are damagingly irresponsible as well as dishonest. The egoism itself isn’t the only damaging aspect, it’s the irresponsible accusations prompted by setbacks or criticism. We cannot draw a line between an egoist’s convictions and their irresponsible charges of resentment. That is to say, their tendency to fire off irresponsible accusations when things aren’t going their way.
To take another prominent example, we have the spectacle of Justin Trudeau leading Canada down the totalitarian rabbit hole in response to personal political setbacks and criticism. With Trudeau there is no professionalism, no pragmatism, merely an egoist showing us yet again that there is no line to be drawn between genuine convictions and the irresponsible charges of resentment.
There are many other examples, so many that it is remarkable that we ever vote for them. Yet we have been warned about egoists over and over again. We shouldn’t vote for them but we do – which is also irresponsible.
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3 comments:
Perhaps what we need are honest egoists; sufficiently egotistic to motivate them, but honest enough to admit that they occasionally get it wrong. Egoism itself seems pretty harmless, and only becomes dangerous when it attaches to ridiculous theories about the world which it can't then let go of. I'd happily entrust power to an egoist if they said "I got it wrong about global warming, but I've put it behind me and I'm up for the next challenge...".
In one:
“ Gissing was right, egoists are damagingly irresponsible as well as dishonest. The egoism itself isn’t the only damaging aspect, it’s the irresponsible accusations prompted by setbacks or criticism. We cannot draw a line between an egoist’s convictions and their irresponsible charges of resentment. That is to say, their tendency to fire off irresponsible accusations when things aren’t going their way.”
Sam - yes, there is a balance to be made. To my mind, if egoism takes people towards the corridors of power then it is already suspect unless there is a robust trial and error culture where it is acceptable to admit failure officially and move on. We don't seem to have that protection, it appears to have been supplanted by an increased tendency to rely on the manipulation of perception.
James - thanks, it's one of those common experiences we neglect to apply rigorously enough where it matters.
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