Iraq Fiasco: Last Gasp of White Male Entitlement

[StClone]

Here is an editorial which illustrates the sense of dying entitlement that W (Worthless, War-monger) and his gang of White male thugs exhibit.



In many ways, the road to Baghdad began symbolically at Little Rock Central High School, which was desegregated 50 years ago after armed federal intervention.

It was one of the milestones of the Civil Rights era -- and a sign to the white southern male that the era of plantation style entitlement was finally coming to an end. It's hard even, today, to realize that some people felt that they were closer to God and civilized standards because of the color of their skin. It's hard, because some people -- although not publicly proclaiming the belief -- still harbor it.

In fact, one could argue that the entire Bush Administration -- black window dressing like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice aside -- is about white male entitlement.

The mystery of what Bush and Cheney mean when they endlessly proclaim that GIs must die to accomplish the honor of "our mission" and achieve "victory" can be resolved with an understanding of white man's rules.

...more at...

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorials/125

[provis99]

1. yes, when an issue is too complex, just blame the "white man"

[LostInAnomie]

2. "White Male Entitlement" what a fucking load of shit.

It amazes me how the actions of a few dickish sons of privilege, and plutocrats give license to paint a whole group with a broad brush.

[Karenina]

3. READ the editorial before commenting.

It's NOT about YOU.

[LostInAnomie]

6. I did read it.

I don't know why some people can't understand that Iraq is not about white males, or white southern males, or even the "white southern male attitude". It's about plutocrats using their entrenched money, power, and access to gain even more money, power, and access.

For some reason, it's became acceptable to blame white males as a whole for the collective sins of the very few. And, far too many here on DU are buying in to it.

[StClone]

9. Maybe you are right

Maybe it's an attitude brought about by entrenched money, power and access. So how did they get power and that attitude? It was from the domination of others and the resulting assumption of superiority brought about by attaining wealth by controlling others: Slavery is a main one and you can trace old wealth with it's "inherited" belief of entitlement all the way back to the 1700's (Read "Wealth and Democracy") based on piracy and Robber Barons in later years.

I think you have only one more step to attain the place from which the editorial is coming. We agree and the notion of entitlement could, if history were different, be another culture's domination and self-edification to a potent entitlement notion over a white population.

I think we are talking of the same thing from slightly different angles.

[LostInAnomie]

13. The article focuses on "White Male Entitlement" being the reason for our problems in Iraq

Being white and male had nothing to do with it. Either the author of this article is an idiot, or a bigot misplacing the blame.

[StClone]

18. Massive symptom

When BushCo felt so entitled to the Presidency to steal Florida it felt doing so because they deserved it and that is the mindset. That same mindset, and it is NOT the only one at play, is that Saddam is an inferior and that he had slighted the status quo. Taking him out, occupying Iraq, and monumental theft thereof all operate within the realm of: "we can take it because we can. We are entitled. We can outside sovereignty, International Law and reason." They do to satisfy the entitlement belief system that was established within the circles of the rich, powerful and privilege that was nurtured and inflated by past Patriarchy and legitimized and carried forward after Slavery.

[LostInAnomie]

25. So Bush is a selfish, egotistical prick because of the US's history with slavery?

:eyes:

Sounds like someone it trying to make facile connections say a hell of a lot more than they actually do.

[stranger81]

27. why so heated up about this topic??

Do you deny that there ARE white males out there that DO subscribe to this point of view? Seems to me it's just as monolithic a view to say the entire phenomenon is a bigoted myth.

[LostInAnomie]

29. Do I deny that there are white bigots? No, that would be stupid.

Just like it would be stupid to deny that there are black bigots, Hispanic bigots, Asian bigots, etc...

I'm heated about this topic because this moronic article lays the collective blame for the actions of a few plutocrats on a whole group of people. It's the intellectual equivalent of blaming all Muslims for the actions of the 9/11 hijackers. When people do the latter everyone on DU decries it as bigotry. For some reason, when the target is white males, not so many people feel the need to speak out against it.

It wasn't the "white southern male attitude" that got us into the mess in Iraq. It was a lust of the rich and powerful for more wealth and power.

[StClone]

31. All this to get back to that one hangup?

I think you need to be stroked to feel that your ideals shouldn't be ignored or of importance.

[LostInAnomie]

35. Sorry, I feel that bigotry is a pretty big hang up.

Stamping it out seems like a pretty important thing to me.

You don't seem to be up on the whole forum concept. See, on forums when you present an idea people are allowed to critique it. If you reply they are allowed to reply back. Doing so doesn't imply that their ego needs stroking, it just means that they think it deserves further debate.

[StClone]

37. Bigotry is not the aim

The system of entitlement could occur in a Chinese culture, Women Amazons (if there were such a thing) or subjugation of one Native tribe over another. The hangup is not what you interpret as bigotry it's that the power structure in play that happens to BE WHITE.

And forums users display give and take friendliness and inform along with critique.

[LostInAnomie]

39. Give and take friendliness, eh?

That must have been why you implied that I was only posting to stroke my own ego.

My hang-up with this article is that it starts out with a flawed premise that "white male entitlement" is the basis for the Iraq invasion, and then applied this attitude to a whole group of people without paying heed to the many tens of millions of us that were against it from the beginning. Just as you said, domination can happen with any culture. But, it isn't the culture that leads to the domination, it's the inequity of resources, and the will of those with resources to use them to further enrich themselves.

The rich and powerful could give a shit about race, gender, or sexual preference. They just serve as a useful wedge to further their own interests.

[Karenina]

40. Is it REALLY that hard

to understand WHO is the subject of this analogy???

<snip>

If you were the master of a plantation, you could go whoring, drinking and gambling, but you could not be dethroned or fall from your position of ownership, because you had white male entitlement. You remained "the decider" no matter what. That is what the antebellum social and economic structure was built upon.

The unshakable core of Bush and Cheney's base may baffle persons who see the current Executive Branch leadership as impairing the national security of the United States and possibly precipitating WW III, not to mention bankrupting our country and destroying our environment.

But when you owned a plantation in the days of slavery, you weren't accountable to anyone but yourself -- and if a black slave got uppity, you just lashed or hung him.

A white man never lost. That is the heritage mindset of Cheney and Bush.

[stranger81]

24. May have had something to do with it for * and Cheney . .. .

remember, Cheney was an enthusiatic apartheid supporter until the bitter end, well into the late '80s. And Bush -- one only has to look to NOLA to see his attitude towards Americans who aren't white. These two, at least, don't appear to believe in the personhood of those who don't share their skin color.

[LostInAnomie]

26. Or, maybe it's because they are two oil men...

... looking out for the best interest of the oil industry. The Bush family has DEEP personal and business connections with the house of Saud which doesn't have too many white folks in it. As long as their is money to be made plutocrats don't give a shit about skin color.

[stranger81]

28. I subscribe to the theory that almost nothing has a single cause

I absolutely agree that their plutocratic tendencies were front and center, but I also think that their racial views (sublimated or not) were obviously in play.

Life is too complex to believe there aren't multiple factors in play here.

[Rage for Order]

41. The Katrina response wasn't racist

It was classist. If you don't believe that, take a drive along Hwy 90 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Bush let the "white southern male attitude-having" people in Mississippi suffer just as much as the blacks in New Orleans.

edit: That's not to say Bush isn't racist, of course, but he didn't do anything for the white people who were affected by the storm either. Katrina was a classic case of Bush not giving a shit about the American people.

[Rage for Order]

8. Well, don't you know...

If not for the "white man", everything would be good in the world. After all, just look at China, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Rwanda, Myanmar... White men aren't in charge there, and everything is going very well! <sarcasm, of course>

[StClone]

11. China may well have an entitlement belief system

rooted in a rich and ancient past. Saudi Arabia definitely does acquired through Royalty and Pietro wealth. The other countries are pretty much warring place outside the focus of the editorial unless we consider that some of the conflict is pushed by outside interests imbued in entitlement.

[Bronyraurus]

22. Ha! Hey-o!

[annabanana]

4. It is the face of Authoritarianism in our Country. . .

It's a legitimate argument. That the face is white is an historical artifact.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. If they said "rich" instead of "white"

the argument would make more sense. There's plenty of poor white people Bush and Cheney expect to do their bidding in Iraq; and they're more than happy to join with rich Arabs like Ahmed Chalabi, or the Saudi royal family.

[spoony]

38. Yep, spot on

Remarkable how people chase shadows and don't notice the things making them.

[StClone]

12. Yes Authoritarianism

That is the personality needed for the entitlement belief system.

[The Straight Story]

7. Condi and Colin are white males? I never really checked on condi that much

I ain't about to lift that skirt.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

10. Why The Bigotry?

God such ignorant racial hatred in that article. What an ignoramus who wrote it.

[StClone]

14. Merely describing

the basis of the Entitlement belief system. The writer is pointing that out not for the sake of its shock and awe value. The writer understands and distills the history and current thinking that has got Bush, Cheney, Rove et.al to mislead us to utter disaster because they believe they will not and must not fail in the face of inferiors.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

16. Well, The Writer's A Bigoted Moron.

[StClone]

19. Mindsets come in many forms

:hi:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. Yes, Some Of Them End Up Being Quite Moronic, Ignorant And Bigoted; Such As The Case Here.

[StClone]

30. Funny thing

I am white, old, not too bad off and I feel the article was citing some legitimate interpretation of why we are where we are. Sorry if it offended you; it is more or less an attempt to think through then put it down in an editorial. It could easily be off-target but there is enough there to make it a supportable interpretation.

Like why does bush feel he has a respectable military background? Instead of the truth about his shabby military history we got Swiftboating opponents and Dan Rather fired. There was no compunction towards divulging his dishonor. He felt compelled to his entitlement as Commander and Chief to lead other men to death. Where does this powerful notion come from. It comes from a long history of being in the right kind of wealthy, privileged family that has built and staked its being on subjugating others. Right on back to slavery...

[Scout]

15. great editorial

all other things being equal, one is better off being white, male or both.

Why do so many claim to have such a hard time seeing the truth of it?? Methinks some doth protest too much.

[LostInAnomie]

17. Maybe because being white and male had nothing to do with getting us into Iraq

Why is it acceptable to place collective blame on a whole group for what a few plutocrats are guilty of?

When people place the blame on all Muslims for what the 9/11 hijackers did we decry their bigotry. Why not when all white males are blamed for the crimes of Bushco.?

[StClone]

20. That is a fine opinion

Stick with it if it suits you.

[Bronyraurus]

23. Yeah, right

"But they have a different "mission" and definition of "victory" locked inside their heads, one that they dare not speak out loud. It's quite simple: the white man wins."

This article is too stupid to be worth debating.

[StClone]

32. Its a specific point

That there is a history of an entitlement belief system that happens in this case mostly in whites, rich, and those of power. It can happen in any culture.

[Bronyraurus]

33. So what?

That doesn't mean that the US went to war for the greater glory of crackers. That's a breathtakingly stupid idea.

[MedleyMisty]

34. I'm wondering

Why do you think that the majority of people in leadership positions in government and business are white and male and rich, if there is no institutionalized racism and no one has a sense of entitlement based on race and gender?

[StClone]

36. No just BushCo

They could be Amazons, Chinese, one Native American tribe ove ranother. In this case it's BushCo.