John versus seeing other people's points of view.

As you know, I've been taking another good long look at how the Pattersons hate the idea of looking at a situation from the viewpoint of the person that they happen to be screaming at at any given point in time. John in particular is quite reluctant to see things the way someone else does because of his idiotic belief that by doing so, he's being more or less castrated; in his mind, once a man forms an opinion, it's a sin to try to get him to change it. This belief that virility and a gutless, dickless refusal to admit to being a colossal screw-up are the same blasted thing is something that limits his effectiveness as a husband, father and employer and is also something that alienates people who might otherwise have reached out the hand of friendship. Since he lacks self-awareness, he isn't going to understand it when someone flat-out tells him that he has better things to do with his time than hang out with a shrill jackass with a persecution complex who's so up his own asshole that his children aren't allowed to screw up like everyone else. This, I think, is a result of the same phenomenon that makes Elly abhor a plate with food on it. As we know, Marian was the sort of crowing idiot who delighted in winning arguments with children no matter what the cost to society so it's likely that John is simply raising his children he was raised. From what we've seen, it's obvious that Carrie Patterson was a humourless perfectionist in her own right and made it quite clear that there was no such thing as a good faith mistake; since John wasn't allowed to screw up, his kids aren't either.