Opinion

The blame game

Several weeks ago the Bend Chapter of Amnesty International sponsored a program entitled "Why Do They Hate Us?"

The speaker was Homer Hepworth, who spent time in Afghanistan some 40 years ago.

After his talk, it became obvious that many in the crowd were there to play the "blame game."

These were people who weren't there to listen. They were there to fix blame, and they'd already decided where the blame belonged.

These were members of the blame-America-first cabal.

Their declarations-disguised-as-questions went something like this: "The whole problem goes back to American greed for oil, right?"

Or, "This is just another excuse to use military aggression to divert attention from global commercialization, isn't it?"

Liberals like to do that. I think it has something to do with absolution of their personal guilt by blaming Americans other than themselves.

Anyone can play the blame game.

We were all witness to those "religious" conservatives who blamed September 11 on God's retribution for toleration of homosexuals (and other stuff).

Those guys must have some serious personal issues.

In terms of why they hate us, Thomas Sowell, a Stanford columnist, recently concluded that "they" pretty much hate us because we're successful and they aren't.

Sometimes the answers are simpler than we want them to be. But we all like to blame someone; it makes us feel better about ourselves.

If we can blame somebody else, it excuses us from having to do something to improve whatever it is that we don't like.

White supremacists, for example, like to blame blacks for.....I don't know, being black, I guess.

But what the heck? If it works for small-minded, failed white guys, blame can work for anyone.

Sowell, who is black, pointed out that ghetto blacks like to hate Asians who move into their ghettos and succeed. The problem, of course, is that it's embarrassing to have newcomers succeed where you haven't. It's easier to lay the blame on someone else.

Lawyers for American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh blamed his confession on the fact that he was cold and tired.

Silly me; I thought the man was just being honest.

Another innovative use of blame was the purported trauma of Lindh's father leaving his mother for -- are you ready for this -- another man. I suppose Jerry Fallwell might buy that one.

Molly Ivins, with whom I sometimes share this editorial space, likes to blame Republicans. Maybe I should find someone to blame. It seems to work for her; her column has a lot wider distribution than mine.

Blame can be institutionalized, as well.

Military culture, with which I have extensive experience, thrives on fixing blame. As a junior officer aboard ship, I remember completing an accident investigation, only to have it returned because I didn't blame someone.

The fact of the matter, though, is that all the energy spent on fixing blame would be better spent finding ways to fix things.

Last week, the High Desert Forum hosted Zaher Wahab, a Lewis and Clark College professor, who suggested that large numbers of Arabs hate us and blame us for all that ails their society.

As the source of their hatred, he blamed "the white corporate agenda," the "Texas Energy Mafia," the "ruling class in the United States," and "American imperial hegemony." Wow.

Of course, it's all the more galling to hateful Arabs that Americans have built the largest economic empire on earth in a just a couple of centuries, while many of them are worse off than they were hundreds of years ago.

So, if you're a disenfranchised Arab, you can work hard to better yourself and your culture, or you can blame Americans.

It's easier to fix blame than to fix things.

What if instead of devoting his considerable intelligence, determination, and wealth to hatred and destruction, Osama bin Laden had devoted his resources to education, agriculture and economic development?

What if we had helped him? What if?