continuing a neocolonial expropriation of the last thing the islanders had left—they at least still ruled the world-class surf breaks. 7 The brown-skinned Brazilians didn’t quite fit into the “hoale” mold, coming a bit too close for comfort to the local style. But after many sound beatings and much damage to surfboards, Brazilians learned both to fight and to travel in large, protective groups. This worked well. So well that they now regularly take the same aggressive ethos to surf breaks around the world. They trash otherwise mellow and joyous surf lineups in Tahiti or Indonesia in any number of ways: they show up all at the same time, shifting the lineup into a hypercompetitive mode; they break or cheat the rules of position and right-of-way; they threaten to “take it to the beach” when complaints are made; and they do indeed get into a fair number of fights.
That is an example of how a culture can create assholes that might not otherwise exist. We can now offer a more theoretical speculation about how this could happen on a larger societal scale. Perhaps “collectivist” cultures are less likely to engender or tolerate the required sense of entitlement than are “individualist” ones. Consider some individualistic political philosophies. Whether widely avowed or simply in the air, some have a clearentitlement message that may push many mere would-be assholes over the line. The would-be asshole might embrace the philosophy he is already inclined toward and take succor in the fact that some seemingly smart or respected people agree. That may cement his self-confidence during his tender years, leaving him with the easier task of noting how many fools fail to grasp what any sufficiently intelligent and truly worthy person would readily see. Yet were the very same child reared in a culture in which deference and cooperation are seen as all-important, his sense of entitlement would never have developed or been suppressed, and he would never have become the asshole he now is.
So, for example, given that the United States seems to have more than its share of assholes, it would be interesting to know how many impressionable young Americans read Ayn Rand’s Objectivism-soaked novels and how those numbers compare in Japan, where assholes seem comparatively rare. We might also compare the effects of self-esteem-boosting parenting and Internet social networking, which are increasingly making narcissism a sociocultural disease, and may explain the precipitous drop in empathy among college students (especially after the year 2000, after social networking caught on). 8 Without strong collectivist counterpressures, it would be surprising
not
to see a spike in the asshole population.
CAN ASSHOLES BE BLAMED ?
Assholes, then, are made and not born. They are made by a society’s gender culture. A newborn boy in the United States or Italyor Israel is much more likely to live the life of an asshole than a newborn boy in Japan or Norway or Canada. This brings us back to the disquieting possibility that assholes are morally not to blame for their condition. Responsibility for what the asshole does may lie with the culture that made him rather than with the asshole himself. Our discussion has been founded on the assumption that we rightly feel not simply bothered or annoyed but
indignant
or
resentful
about how the asshole treats us. It is now time to take seriously the possibility that this assumption is wrong. While the asshole of course makes a huge mess of things, it may well be that, ultimately, his hands are morally clean: he is foul but not to blame.
Why take this possibility seriously? Here is a serious philosophical argument for the skeptical view that assholes are not morally responsible. According to the argument, reactions of indignation, resentment, or any other form of blame will be appropriate only if the asshole is responsible for what he does. More specifically, the asshole will be responsible for what he does
That is an example of how a culture can create assholes that might not otherwise exist. We can now offer a more theoretical speculation about how this could happen on a larger societal scale. Perhaps “collectivist” cultures are less likely to engender or tolerate the required sense of entitlement than are “individualist” ones. Consider some individualistic political philosophies. Whether widely avowed or simply in the air, some have a clearentitlement message that may push many mere would-be assholes over the line. The would-be asshole might embrace the philosophy he is already inclined toward and take succor in the fact that some seemingly smart or respected people agree. That may cement his self-confidence during his tender years, leaving him with the easier task of noting how many fools fail to grasp what any sufficiently intelligent and truly worthy person would readily see. Yet were the very same child reared in a culture in which deference and cooperation are seen as all-important, his sense of entitlement would never have developed or been suppressed, and he would never have become the asshole he now is.
So, for example, given that the United States seems to have more than its share of assholes, it would be interesting to know how many impressionable young Americans read Ayn Rand’s Objectivism-soaked novels and how those numbers compare in Japan, where assholes seem comparatively rare. We might also compare the effects of self-esteem-boosting parenting and Internet social networking, which are increasingly making narcissism a sociocultural disease, and may explain the precipitous drop in empathy among college students (especially after the year 2000, after social networking caught on). 8 Without strong collectivist counterpressures, it would be surprising
not
to see a spike in the asshole population.
CAN ASSHOLES BE BLAMED ?
Assholes, then, are made and not born. They are made by a society’s gender culture. A newborn boy in the United States or Italyor Israel is much more likely to live the life of an asshole than a newborn boy in Japan or Norway or Canada. This brings us back to the disquieting possibility that assholes are morally not to blame for their condition. Responsibility for what the asshole does may lie with the culture that made him rather than with the asshole himself. Our discussion has been founded on the assumption that we rightly feel not simply bothered or annoyed but
indignant
or
resentful
about how the asshole treats us. It is now time to take seriously the possibility that this assumption is wrong. While the asshole of course makes a huge mess of things, it may well be that, ultimately, his hands are morally clean: he is foul but not to blame.
Why take this possibility seriously? Here is a serious philosophical argument for the skeptical view that assholes are not morally responsible. According to the argument, reactions of indignation, resentment, or any other form of blame will be appropriate only if the asshole is responsible for what he does. More specifically, the asshole will be responsible for what he does
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