Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings
Jim Henly on hawks’ obsession with emotional correctness:
The most laughable thing, and I admit we’ve covered this before, is how concerned conservatives like McCain are with feelings, theirs and everybody else’s. These are people who have never hesitated to tell black people or feminists or gays to toughen up. The campaign against “political correctness” was all about how these whiners were just too sensitive, dammit. But by golly, when it comes to Republican leaders (with Democratic connivance) dragging the country into criminal folly, you had better have exactly the right emotions about it expressed in the most excruciatingly considerate way, as defined by the cheerleaders. It’s the most important thing in the world!
This actually applies beyond strict situations wherein someone is trying to drag the country into criminal folly. I recall being scolded by David Greenberg in The New Republic during the Russia/Georgia war for expressing views that, while not inaccurate, failed in his view to manifest the correct emotional attitude toward the situation. It’s a strange set of priorities.
31 Responses to “Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings”
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November 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
1) Maybe if some parent who lost a child in Iraq dug Rupert Murdoch’s eyeballs out with a pocketknife, the conservatives might start to get an idea of what “feelings” are.
Or if another such parent blew Haim Saban’s limousine 50 feet in the air.
I know that I would not convict those Parents if I was sitting on a jury.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Or if one of said parents went after someone who supported the war, a person such as, oh Matthew Yglesias.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
For a while now they’ve been arguing that we have to stay in Iraq or the deaths will have been meaningless. The whole point being that somebodies feelings will be hurt if we leave.
Yet they seem to care nothing for the feelings of those who will die if we stay.
I agree with the post. Time for Republicans to toughen up.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
Re Jimboslice’s comment “Or if one of said parents went after someone who supported the war, a person such as, oh Matthew Yglesias.”
—————-
Unless Matthew’s Trustfund is a LOT bigger than even Petey claims, I doubt that a majority of whores in the US COngress voted to invade Iraq because some obscure Harvard grad wrote in favor of it in 2002 on some obscure blog read by maybe 30 people.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
It’s annoying whenever I see “McCain says this….”, check on the link to find out what our Senator from Arizona has to say about some weighty issue of the day, and then find out it’s some run of the mill blogger with about as much experience and wisdom as Mr. Yglesias.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Hector, you obviously didn’t “check on the link”. If you had, you would know that the McCain in question is not John McCain but political columnist Robert Stacy McCain, and that his piece was quoted correctly and linked to.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
In general I think this puzzlement over war supporters’ sensitivity is misplaced. You are taking their statements in good faith, which is admirable, but probably too credulous. I suspect the actual sequence of events is like this:
War Supporter: The war is a good idea.
War Opponent: No, it’s not, for reasons X, Y, and Z.
WS: (unconscious: I can’t refute those arguments, so let’s go ad hominem instead) You just want us to lose.
WO: [few years later] See, I was right.
WS: Yes, but you *wanted us to lose* so even though you were right you are still a bad person and I am good.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Matt, it’s because so many of them are still Thomists and, thus, Aristotelians. Virtue Ethics is not about doing the right things, regardless of one’s inclinations; it’s about having the right sort of the character, which in turn justifies the actions one is inclined to do.
It’s obviously totally vapid and insane, but it’s not at all baffling.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
“I recall being scolded by David Greenberg in The New Republic during the Russia/Georgia war for expressing views that, while not inaccurate, failed in his view to manifest the correct emotional attitude toward the situation. It’s a strange set of priorities.”
Come on, Matt. Saletan? Sailer? Watson?
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
“Matt, it’s because so many of them are still Thomists and, thus, Aristotelians. Virtue Ethics is not about doing the right things, regardless of one’s inclinations; it’s about having the right sort of the character, which in turn justifies the actions one is inclined to do.”
I’ve never heard Aristotlean ethics called “vapid” and “insane” before, but regardless this is not an apt characterization of it. The idea is that if you have a good character, you will then do good things, so the key to ethical behavior is to cultivate a good character. If take a rules based approach, is this is the right thing do in this situation, that is the right thing to do in that situation, you then either wind up with a rigid set of rules that will steer you wrong once you wind up in a situation you never considered, or a concept of ethical behavior that changes from situation to situation and is therefore no real guide at all.
I don’t think either Aristotle or St. Thomas Acquinas recommended anyone thinking that they had a good character, therefore they could do anything they wanted, and I’m also pretty sure, based on what he wrote on just war theory, that St. Thomas would have condemned the Iraq War (as did the contemporary Thomists in the Vatican), but maybe I’ve been reading the wrong translations.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I hope Henley’s feelings aren’t hurt by spelling his name wrong.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I hope Henley’s feelings aren’t hurt by spelling his name wrong.
You do realize whose blog this is, don’t you Kolohe? You’re nobody until Matt has mis-spelled your name.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
This is part and parcel of Green Lantern theory.
I’ve been perpetually stunned by how conservatives seem to think it’s OK to make catastrophic mistakes if you can adequately demonstrate you really feel bad about it.
George Bush’s whining about how awful he feels when soldiers die is exhibit A in this nonsense. Seriously, if you sent people to find WMDs that weren’t there and they die, then it’s YOUR FAULT for being a bad leader. I mean, if you don’t change your actual actions, it doesn’t matter if you feel OK with it or really awful…we’ve still got thousands dead. By analogy, it doesn’t matter how Genghis Khan felt as he liquidated cities…the relevant point is that he liquidated cities!
Once you’re at a governing level above PTA President, it’s just sociopathic to think public judgments should be based on how you feel about the decisions you make. What matters are the freaking decisions you make! Are they stupid? Are they effective? The bottom line really is performance, and right feelings are (or should be) just a given. I mean, really, does anyone think any President is happy when American troops die? Is that actually on the table?
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Anon points out:
“Come on, Matt. Saletan? Sailer? Watson?”
Yeah, but that’s different, because Dr. Watson and I are _evil_.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
In practice, I’ve found that “I’m sorry that I hurt your feelings” is a pretty effective way to get conservative trolls to go away.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Well, ed, perhaps if you spent less time reading translations and more time reading the posts you snarkily and show-offily respond to, you wouldn’t misunderstand what they said and look like such a div.
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