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I think I just figured out what's wrong
May. 2nd, 2020 01:13 pmI was watching the season finale of NCIs: New Orleans and at the end, there was this misogynist white male complaining at the person who'd exposed him as a major league jerk and cost him an important appointment.
He was ranting about all the effort and time he'd put in to get the job.
and that's when it clicked. He was equating effort with success.
and *that* is what's wrong. Not merely with his attitude, but with the way society views so many things.
Yes, effort is necessary for success most of the time (when success comes without much effort, people tend to get upset) but contrary to the beliefs of many, it is *not* a guarantee of success.
Thinking that effort ("hard work") guarantees success is why these same people insist that poor people and unemployed people are lazy or "not trying".
The so-called "Protestant work ethic" and related things (like the "you don't work, you don't eat" adopted in some of the Colonies to *survive*) have turned into the worst sort of victim blaming.
He was ranting about all the effort and time he'd put in to get the job.
and that's when it clicked. He was equating effort with success.
and *that* is what's wrong. Not merely with his attitude, but with the way society views so many things.
Yes, effort is necessary for success most of the time (when success comes without much effort, people tend to get upset) but contrary to the beliefs of many, it is *not* a guarantee of success.
Thinking that effort ("hard work") guarantees success is why these same people insist that poor people and unemployed people are lazy or "not trying".
The so-called "Protestant work ethic" and related things (like the "you don't work, you don't eat" adopted in some of the Colonies to *survive*) have turned into the worst sort of victim blaming.
