Prejean? Postjean!

I've seen a bit more of the latest Carrie-Prejean hilarity than I really needed to read about; her bench just didn't have the depth for a nine-inning game. (Sorry; my sports metaphors probably suck because, well, because I know nothing about sports.)

One does wonder, though, how a person could forget having made a video of oneself masturbating. Okay, if you were my age it might be easy to forget — I've forgotten far more interesting things than that, I think — but for the young Miss Carrie to forget seems incredible.

It is, however, far from surprising. Not that she "forgot", but that she did that thing and then so publicly adopted her holier-than-thou attitudes. But then, how surprising is even that? Haven't we noticed that arch conservatives, the "social conservatives" who know exactly how everyone should act, and who think "there should be a law", seem to be embroiled more than average in scandals of what they would deem "morality issues"?

Aside from the well-known fact that the Republican party attracts bullies, I suspect that it also attracts the morally repressed cynics of the there-should-be-a-law ilk, people who, in essence, have deep moral conflicts / issues and are hoping to be saved from themselves. In effect: "there should be a law to prevent people like me from being — like me!"

Now, it is well-known folk wisdom, supported by scientific studies, that the worst homophobes, the real homo haters, have some sexuality issues of their own and are feverishly repressing their own urges. I think it extends further to those bullies who are repressing their own urges to lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top. Lacking empathy‡ (or perhaps merely reluctant to employ it), they have to fall back on projection of their own desires onto others.

So the problem then, with morally craven cynics is that they think everyone else is motivated like they are, and that seems to them such a horrible thought that they try to prohibit such behavior.

Alas, should this be so, I don't see yet how this empowers the rest of us with useful tactics to fend off the morally repressed, but I'll think about it.
———-
‡ We remember how popular "empathy" was as a desirable characteristic during the Sotomayor hearings.

Posted on November 12, 2009 at 19.50 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Current Events, Reflections

One Response

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Sunday, 15 November 2009 at 20.16
    Permalink

    What you said, Jeff, plus somewhere in there a notion that lack of ability to control things, control others, could mean chaos and a lack of ability to control themselves. Scary stuff, probably part genetic and part instilled by autocratic, "my way or the highway" parents. I'm reminded of "Pappy" and Barbara Bush, and the strange way they handled things after one of their children died.

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