We think: Oh, woe is us! | Columnists | theeagle.com – Bryan-College Station Eagle

Its possible many of the woes that plague us today derive from an unexplored dimension of the human psyche. Call it blame-seeking.

When times are unsettled and upsetting, when things go against us, when we feel powerless in the face of immense forces, when we seem to be playing against a stacked deck we want someone to blame. We need someone to blame.

Its not a new phenomenon. The ancient Greeks and Romans invented an entire panoply of gods and goddesses to blame for otherwise inexplicable events. Mars took the heat for war, Venus was behind passions excesses and love gone wrong, Discordia sowed anger and conflict, Vulcan stoked up fires and volcanos, Neptune stirred angry seas and sent ships to the briney deep.

Later, evil spirits, sorcerers, witches and various ethnic groups were charged with responsibility for human misery. More recently, Flip Wilson had a simpler, all-purpose explanation for his own offenses: The devil made me do it.

Finding someone to blame for misfortune provides a flood of relief. We can stop worrying and wondering. Anxiety and uncertainty, both distressing emotions, dissipate.

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Sometimes theyre supplanted by anger, but anger is perceived as an invigorating emotion. Anger demands action and today many of us would rather act than think.

How does blame-seeking play out in 2022? America and the world find themselves confronted with disturbing trials and tribulations, circumstances unprecedented in number, gravity and confluence. This has generated a tsunami of blame-seeking.

Worse, our problems have been exploited by unscrupulous politicians eager to harness our discontent to their own agendas by pointing the finger of blame at political opponents. In this context blame-seeking is better known as scapegoating.

Nobody wants to get sick or live in fear they or a loved one might sicken or die in the pandemic, so COVID becomes the Chinese Virus. China is to blame.

We tire of being told to get vaccinated and boosted, were unhappy wearing masks and staying home, so we ironically blame Dr. Anthony Fauci, Big Pharma or just government in general.

Some of us didnt like the result of the 2020 election so it must have been rigged. The election had to have been stolen by the same groups responsible for our changing demographics, evolving economy, lost jobs, gender issues, an opioid epidemic and rampant political correctness.

Its those darn liberals, progressives, the deep state or all of them acting in concert. Plus now theyre the ones ramping up inflation. Blame it all on one big conspiracy. Thats handy.

You dont have to do the work of thinking through more complex issues. You dont have to face the painful realization that sometimes no-one is to blame as the old bumper sticker advised: Sometimes Sh** Happens.

Blame-seeking doesnt solve problems, doesnt find real answers. Were just having childlike tantrums, stamping our feet and demanding to get our way.

As in the 1976 movie Network we want to scream Were as mad as hell and were not gonna take it any more!

Were understandably angry but the problem is anger can balloon into rage and rage coupled with misdirected blame-seeking can result in irrational behavior, such as attacking the Capitol and threatening your own elected representatives.

Then theres the invasion of Ukraine. Its a rare American who doesnt side with the Ukrainians standing up against a far superior Russian military. We all feel a need to help those brave people.

Most of us feel our country isnt doing enough but at the same time we dont want to send our kids in harms way or risk setting off World War III by going head-to-head with Russia.

We wish there were some solution to this dilemma and because none presents itself, blame-seeking kicks in. Whose fault is this? Is America weak? Is that the problem? If so, whos to blame?

Maybe the president ought to, well, do something. Something more than he has. We have no idea what he should or could do, but we dont like having a feeling of helplessness free-floating around us.

It has to settle somewhere. It has to be directed against someone.

And so, for many Americans, the search for someone to blame, perversely enough begins and ends not with Vladimir Putin, but with Joe Biden.

Nobody said blame-seeking was logical.

Tom Kiske lives in College Station.

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We think: Oh, woe is us! | Columnists | theeagle.com - Bryan-College Station Eagle