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The recognition problem.
Nov. 17th, 2014 01:44 amOf course, there's yet another way in which the Pattersons destroy their children's ability to feel empathy for those around them. As I'll demonstrate, they do so by lacking it themselves while expecting it in their children. This hypocrisy that's not allowed to be questioned ever is why it is that Mike constantly has to be reminded that other people's pain actually hurts them despite his not being affected, why Liz assumes that having to look at the world as her rivals see it means that she's to be silenced and why April thinks that a lonely outcast sitting in the wreckage of her career plots to crush her with her non-existent star power.
What drives things along came to us a day or so ago when Lynn finally confirmed a long-held suspicion of mine. As you know, I occasionally make surly comments about how the only reason Lynn does stuff for people is so that she can get a cookie, a pat on the head, a ticker tape parade and a means of silencing further demands on her time. One of her Lynnsights confirmed this by saying that we all know that when we do good things, we don't want to have to deal with blowback and we all want to be rewarded materially or else we just plain won't do nice things because there's nothing in it for us. This, as I've said, drives John and Elly's appalling beefing about how the children are ungrateful and selfish freeloaders because Mommy and Daddy don't get anything back like people who do favors are 'supposed' to.
The nifty thing about all of this is that when their children prove that they are John and Elly's offsprings by asking where their cookie and medal are, Mommy and Daddy whoop like God-damned air raid sirens about how selfish and cruel and lacking in generosity the kiddies are. Given that they squeal about what lying liars who lie the small ones are when it's pointed out that they moan about never seeing any return from their niceness, it's not hard to see that Mommy and Daddy's greed, self-absorption, hunger for praise and self-righteous hypocrisy are why the kids are not all right.
What drives things along came to us a day or so ago when Lynn finally confirmed a long-held suspicion of mine. As you know, I occasionally make surly comments about how the only reason Lynn does stuff for people is so that she can get a cookie, a pat on the head, a ticker tape parade and a means of silencing further demands on her time. One of her Lynnsights confirmed this by saying that we all know that when we do good things, we don't want to have to deal with blowback and we all want to be rewarded materially or else we just plain won't do nice things because there's nothing in it for us. This, as I've said, drives John and Elly's appalling beefing about how the children are ungrateful and selfish freeloaders because Mommy and Daddy don't get anything back like people who do favors are 'supposed' to.
The nifty thing about all of this is that when their children prove that they are John and Elly's offsprings by asking where their cookie and medal are, Mommy and Daddy whoop like God-damned air raid sirens about how selfish and cruel and lacking in generosity the kiddies are. Given that they squeal about what lying liars who lie the small ones are when it's pointed out that they moan about never seeing any return from their niceness, it's not hard to see that Mommy and Daddy's greed, self-absorption, hunger for praise and self-righteous hypocrisy are why the kids are not all right.
