August 30, 2012
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I Made It MYSELF…Oh…really?
That comment is the lynchpin of the RNC in Tampa.
They are trying to make much of a remark by Obama, by twisting it like a pretzel.
He pointed out that for every success, there is not merely ONE person…but usually MANY…who helped them get there.
Allow me to offer an example from my own life.
I have a book of poetry in the Library of Congress.
I own the copyright.
It was written by me, and me alone…no one else wrote the work.
But the book is dedicated to my daughter.
Further….there is page called acknowledgements….where I thanked literally DOZENS of people…for adding to the mix that ALLOWED me to write. I was happy and excited to be published…but I KNEW I had not gotten there alone. It seemed only fair to offer credit where it was due…so I did.
In my mind, NO ONE does anything alone…not truly. And it is selfish and arrogant to pretend you did.
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Comments (15)
True.
amen. and i love the pretzel comparison
i pulsed about it last night-
http://bonmots.xanga.com/pulse/14129675/item.html
sorry to spam but thought i’d share with you
I so agree! We have the influence of many people in our lives who make us who we are today.
first, congratulations!
so true. i performed at Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian Institute and many other places. people built by hand the instruments on which i performed. others built the highways, subways and airports without which i never would have gotten to those places. teachers taught me and others helped me in many ways. that’s just common sense.
Not long ago Romney spoke to a crowd with the “I built it myself” theme and small business owners behind him. it was pointed out, not by Romney, that many if not all of those business owners took advantage of financial support offered by the government Small Business Administration.
but here’s the thing. Obama has praised business owners a thousand times over and has made it clear that what he means and has always meant is that people who came before us and who are alive now built the roads and bridges that help make even having a successful business in the U.S. possible. republicans cherry picked one time in which because of the way Obama phrased what he’s said many times they jumped at the opportunity to use his words to deliberately lie.
right now i could say “Galadrial agrees with republicans. she said herself ‘It was written by me, and me alone…no one else wrote the work.”
and that’s how it works.
look at that. i could get a job with the republican party!
That is so true and we totally agree.
Thanks guys…and truly, i am not blowing my horn…but if something as individual as writing can be credited to many, how can something like financial success be the result of just ONE?
One of the many illusions our perspective imposes on us, is that we are anything more than physical manifestations of causal convergence points. In reality, we are each nothing more than a sum of influences. But I don’t intend to suggest that there is no value to that illusion. Reconciling human perspective with reality is no simple task.
In any case, congratulations! And I agree. Obama’s message wasn’t that we should be ashamed of success, it’s that we shouldn’t allow it to send our egos into overdrive.
@Maverick83 - yet there is more than meets the physical eye and the mind’s ability to perceive. one need only consider science which constantly demonstrates this. it was not far back in human history we, at least in the western world believed everything revolved around the Earth. to have thought otherwise back then was considered illusion. we are constantly evolving toward deeper and broader perspectives. some evolve more quickly. some lag behind but we evolve. that does not eliminate causality.
Certainly, very few people build anything completely by themselves these days, and even if they do build their own home by themselves on a remote plot in the mountains using only natural materials from the area, they didn’t build the natural resources. A great deal of what we have in our lives is a gift rather than a paycheck we earned, and should be appreciated as such.
I think it’s very interesting that the Republicans try to trash Obama even more than they did Clinton (and boy did they try to trash Clinton). I think it speaks to their fear that they are losing power to the sort of young idealistic intellectuals they disdain the most. It’s an understandable fear, because it’s coming true.
@TheSutraDude - I’m not so sure it was ever considered an illusion, per se. I think that, when one looks up and observes the night sky over a period of time, the impression one comes away with without applying a comprehensive analysis, and therefore the illusion, is that everything orbits the Earth. Though I would imagine that in those times, just as it is now, those who overcame the illusion were probably accused, by those who didn’t, of lacking the common sense to see the obvious, rather than possessing the knowledge to see beyond it.
I have a problem with “I built it”.
My dad was a hard working blue collar worker. TWO jobs to support a family of six. He never took any “assistance”, never owned a house, rarely had a car. We lived LEAN…and the “I built it people” would say he didn’t work hard enough. He died at 52, after a massive stroke…still working two jobs. But Emil paid his taxes, voted in every election, and even served his country during World War 2, as a Merchant Marine.
He survived the Depression…one of 15 children. I believe exactly three of his sisters and brothers ever reached the point of affluence to own a home. All the rest worked blue collar jobs their whole lives. And every one of them would be dismissed as “slackers” today…not for what they did…but for what they never obtained.
@TheSutraDude - LOL, you’re right. galadrial & I will get along just fine. We both wrote about this topic!
BTW, hello galadrial! New here. Look forward to reading your blogs!
@Maverick83 - i believe people were sometimes arrested and punished for believing otherwise. Galileo was excommunicated by the church and placed under house arrest for the remainder of his years. in any case i’m sure we can both think of many truths that were later debunked that believing those truths today would be considered illusion.
one that leaps to mind is during the dark ages the church believed any musical interval other than unison as in Gregorian Chant and 4ths and 5ths used in Organum were Satanic in nature. it’s hard to believe but that’s what they believed.
@TrueBritt - haha. good!
@TheSutraDude - Absolutely, they were, and Galileo is an excellent example. I didn’t mean that beliefs we now know are correct were never considered wrong, I’m just saying I’m not sure they were considered illusory, as illusions tend to rely on immediate impressions and lack of comprehensive knowledge and/or proper scrutiny. That is, I don’t believe those who criticized Galileo would have accused him of succumbing to an illusion, so much as being unable to perceive the obvious. Though I admit I may be splitting hairs, on this point.
In any case, my original point was that I believe our current interpretations of ourselves, as independent entites, are illusions, much like the view that everything revolves around the Earth.