A friend whose opinion I respect and I were talking the other day about the dysfunctionality we’ve noticed in Cape Cod employer/employee relations.
Her theory – and I think it’s a good one – is that because of the high rate of alcoholism, workers here are accustomed to living in abusive situations, so they don’t stand up to it in the office.
This contrasts with her feeling, and mine, that a self-respecting person doesn’t have to tolerate bad treatment. It puts a whole new spin on the supposed virtue of “being able to take it” as neurotic and masochistic, rather than the much-admired “having a thick skin”.
I was thinking about this in terms of the warrior’s and perhaps the athlete’s code, why John McCain and Sarah Palin are so appealing versus the John Kerrys of the world and why the Kerrys of the world so infuriate the McCains. I wonder if the majority of American voters feel the same.
Bud Day, the former POW who was a cellmate of John McCain’s, said earlier this year that “I don’t intend to kneel, and I don’t advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John [McCain] doesn’t advocate to anybody that we kneel.” This was in reference to John McCain’s stance on the Iraq War.
This is the opposite of the whole ugly proclivity toward bullying and the acceptance of bullying that one sees in the average school and business office. It demonstrates the correct perspective on aggressors, and advocates resistance rather than submission. It’s easier to kneel. It takes tremendous discipline, courage and self-respect not to.