Its amazing, if not utterly disgusting, how our society has seemed to of outgrown guilt. I’m not referring to people in the context of a group showing guilt, because the presence of white guilt is undeniable as anyone who’s read any Huffington Post article will tell you. I’m talking about how as individuals, it has become taboo to show any kind of remorse.
All you have to do is just scroll through Facebook and see every other word porn quote about always feeling empowered and free of shame regardless of consequence. The general message seems to be “don’t ever dare judge me…….unless it’s to tell me I’m great.”.
Raise your hand if you've seen Facebook posts saying, “I’m un-friending people on FB because I don’t need their negativity” as if they were above any kind of critique. When a teacher tells you you’re weak on a particular subject do you just flip him off for not understanding your personalty? No. So, when a number of people have a particular problem with you is it unreasonable to listen to them and try to do something about that, or at least admit they have a point?
Of course I understand that in a lot of circumstances you have nothing to apologize for. However, saying you’re sorry for some past offense is kinda part of the whole social contract. And I mean really saying you’re sorry and not just condescendingly saying “well I’m sorry this happened but…..”. Why does it always have to be a matter of self empowerment and someone declaring that they won’t apologize for who they are. Where’s the humility? Why can’t one person, when correctly accused, say to the accuser, “Shit. I’m sorry. I really don’t have an excuse. Please forgive me.”
But no. we live in a world where any remorse is seen as a link to depression, and heaven forbid anyone experience that. I’d go on about depression in modern society but I’ll save that for another article. Anyway, nobody admits regret anymore. Again, raise you’re hand if you’ve known someone who told you that they don’t believe in regret.
If your hair, speech, or even your T-shirt offends people, it’s automatically the offended party’s fault. How dare they not think happy thoughts about you. In fact, one of the many things the liberals and conservatives have in common, is that both of them are equally offended by so many things yet think they have license to offend everyone else.
Not for one second do I believe that this is strictly a "Young People" problem. In fact, I would argue that this has been developing ever since we became a nation of consumers. Even Time Magazine defined the 1970's as the era of self absorption and that it was the start of Americans' obsession with self help books and over-consumerism. All of that culminated into an era where it is inconceivable for the individual to imagine that they are not a celebrity.
Why is it that hard for you as the individual to admit that you’re not special? You’re only one person who is just as innocent but also just as harmful as most of us.
