Buckley, Individualism, and Gratitude
Feb 29th, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 3 Comments |
As you may have heard, William F. Buckley, Jr., passed away earlier this week. I just found the following quotation by him:
To fail to experience gratitude when walking through the corridors of the Metropolitan Museum, when listening to the music of Bach or Beethoven, when exercising our freedom to speak or, as happened to us three weeks ago, to give, or withhold, our assent, is to fail to recognize how much we have received from the great wellsprings of human talent and concern that gave us Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, our parents, our friends…We need a rebirth of gratitude for those who have cared for us, living and, mostly, dead. The high moments of our way of life are their gifts to us. We must remember them in our thoughts and in our prayers; and in our deeds.
But those who are fond of the word “we” can’t feel gratitude. (I’ve dealt with this a bit before here. See also all the places I’ve talked about the word “we” [e.g., here].)
If you’re convinced that a group of people is a thing, and you belong to a group of people, then you can feel pride or shame about what other people in the group do. But you can’t feel gratitude to them for what they do.
Using the word “we” is a way to eliminate the need for gratitude. That’s why it will always be up to individualists like Buckley to be the champions of gratitude.
That’s a great quote by Buckley-
I’m wondering if you’re making assumptions, though, about the person who uses the word “we”. Couldn’t we use the word “we” in such a way as to identify with someone who did something we didn’t or couldn’t do?
The greatest teams, and groups are diverse; they accomplish more than the individuals who comprised it ever could have. Couldn’t I express grattitude that somebody within my crowd did something I could not have done or that collectively we accomplished something we could not have if we’d not been aligned?
I agree with Jeff. I have long thought that your idea on “we” may be a little much. We do belong to groups and think of ourselves in the context of those groups. For example, I am a member of a faculty of over 100 people. Some of those people are bad employees and I am thus not grateful for their contributions to my students’ learning. Conversely, there are great teachers for whom I am grateful. I am grateful that they are teaching my students in manner that is successful and I am grateful for their example to me as their peer. They are no different from me. We are all part of the same group. I can find no other way to describe this group other than “we.”
Mat–
You just proved my point. You just described what they did as something they did., not as something “we” did. Thus you can feel grateful to them. What I have a problem with is people taking credit and blame for things other people do.
Jeff–
No.
Sure you can. You can always feel grateful to other people for things you don’t see yourself as having done.
It’s using the semantics of “we” to take credit or blame for things you didn’t do that bothers me.
Your statement assumes you can talk about what “teams” do. That’s exactly what I’m claiming is impossible. A “team” isn’t a thing, and therefore can’t do anything.