know they’re dishonest
almost always think there’s a
good reason for it
From the movie, The Big Chill where Michael and Sam discuss life comes this bit of dialogue.
Michael: Nobody thinks they’re a bad person. I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing; they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it. They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Sam Weber: Why is it what you just said strikes me as a massive rationalization?
Michael: Don’t knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don’t know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They’re more important than sex.
Sam Weber: Ah, come on. Nothing’s more important than sex.
Michael: Oh yeah? Ever gone a week without a rationalization?
I first saw this movie 40 years in Ann Arbor at a special screening for film students at the University of Michigan.
I got invited through the luck of just being there.
It was the line on rationalization that I was searching for.
Don’t knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don’t know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations.
It stuck in my mind as I seek to explain folks who I know who support the current guy in office.
I tell my wife that for many, its playing the lottery and for the state of their career, they rationalize that if they can get close to this guy, maybe … just maybe when he dies, he might remember them in his will with a nice tip.
You know, like Charles Foster Kane and Jed Leland.
Anyone for where they are in life, cozying up to the that guy is about they best bet they can make for their future financial security so the rationalization that they are selling out their integrity of the present can be justified.
Then I came across the line leading up to the rationalization statement.
Nobody thinks they’re a bad person. I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing; they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it. They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Read that again, slowly and out loud.
Nobody thinks they’re a bad person.
I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing;
they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it.
They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Now ask yourself.
How can folks support that guy in office?
Ask them.
They will tell you they are doing the right thing and they have a good reason for it.
No Haiku For You 