Pathetic Self-Exoneration
In the wake of the unwelcome notoriety that Vancouver has suffered as a result of the Stanley Cup party fiasco, some of the young people who, to put it kindly, got 'carried away' by the momentum and thrill of acting out their bad-ass fantasies now understand in the bright light of public condemnation that they have been stupidly irresponsible.
That lack of attention to civility and acceptable social mores appears to have caught up with some, who have taken to the Internet and social networking to ask for public pardon while at the same time going to great lengths to excuse themselves.
So when is an apology definitely not an apology?
When it's conflicted to the point that while the individual has a vague idea that they haven't behaved well and as a result outraged the greater society, they still believe they haven't really done anything wrong. Not all that wrong. After all, it was just an exhibition of exhilaration. Yes that, despite the disappointment in not bringing home the Cup.
Exhilaration because here were all these young people gathered together and there was a lot of built-up expectation, and steam to be worked off. Sometimes young people think of themselves as 'just kids, having a great time', and at other times, 'sober-minded university students'. It's a technique geared to eliciting sympathy and understanding. Except that this time things got much too much out of hand.
Take, for example, the apology posted on line by a young woman who writes "I take full responsibility for my actions and am sincerely apologetic for what I did. What I did was completely out of character for me, but I did it because I was influenced by mob mentality." So she admits she behaved stupidly, but it really isn't her fault, because everyone was doing it, so she did, too.
If everyone is torching and looting and celebrating and having a great time, it can't be wrong, can it?
She considers herself to have become a victim of another kind of mob mentality. Those who are condemning what she and so many others took it upon themselves to wreak in damaging public and private property, in rioting, taunting police, brutalizing onlookers who attempted to talk reason to the marauding kids.
She doesn't deserve their condemnation. Because, she says, she has admitted the error of what she did.
She did not instigate the riot, she merely took pleasurable part in it. Because it gave her a sense of euphoria. "At the time, being a part of the riot was simply to fulfill the adrenaline rush I was looking and hoping for - an adrenaline rush that I previously got from post-winning games: hugging randoms, dancing on the streets, honking car horns non-stop, and high-fiving just about everybody."
It was fun, it was kids enjoying a street party. But these kids are a bit older and muscular and testosterone-laden, and alcohol- and drug-fuelled, and you get the picture? Just got carried away, the way kids do, you know? So Camille Cacnio took possession of a few pairs of large-sized men's trousers, with no intention of using them, selling them, giving them to the men in her life. Just doing it because it felt ... good.
"It was extremely hard to see the consequences in taking a couple pants, when around me people were lighting up cars, smashing windows and inflicting physical pain on one another. My train of thought was that "the place is already broken into, most of the contents of the store have already been stolen, so what difference does it make if I take a couple things?"
Ms. Cacnio just doesn't get it. Thugs and vandals doing what thugs and vandals do, and then there was little innocent her, just along for the thrill.
And then she quotes a sociology professor at University of British Columbia who specializes in mob mentality and criminology, to bolster her own explanation, completely validating as far as she's concerned that she was a victim of mob mentality, poor her. People lose their accountability as individuals, when they're in a mob situation driven by the hysteria of anger or euphoria. So it makes no sense whatever to blame her.
And that smile? It's a smile of someone who is utterly delighted with her actions and her interactions with her fellow mob-sters. Brilliant, that smile, happy, not at all berating herself as in "I'm such a badass I can't believe I'm doing this" negatively, but with a positive spin, kiddo.
A woman runs out of a store carrying merchandise during the Vancouver riot. (CBC)
That lack of attention to civility and acceptable social mores appears to have caught up with some, who have taken to the Internet and social networking to ask for public pardon while at the same time going to great lengths to excuse themselves.
So when is an apology definitely not an apology?
When it's conflicted to the point that while the individual has a vague idea that they haven't behaved well and as a result outraged the greater society, they still believe they haven't really done anything wrong. Not all that wrong. After all, it was just an exhibition of exhilaration. Yes that, despite the disappointment in not bringing home the Cup.
Exhilaration because here were all these young people gathered together and there was a lot of built-up expectation, and steam to be worked off. Sometimes young people think of themselves as 'just kids, having a great time', and at other times, 'sober-minded university students'. It's a technique geared to eliciting sympathy and understanding. Except that this time things got much too much out of hand.
Take, for example, the apology posted on line by a young woman who writes "I take full responsibility for my actions and am sincerely apologetic for what I did. What I did was completely out of character for me, but I did it because I was influenced by mob mentality." So she admits she behaved stupidly, but it really isn't her fault, because everyone was doing it, so she did, too.
If everyone is torching and looting and celebrating and having a great time, it can't be wrong, can it?
She considers herself to have become a victim of another kind of mob mentality. Those who are condemning what she and so many others took it upon themselves to wreak in damaging public and private property, in rioting, taunting police, brutalizing onlookers who attempted to talk reason to the marauding kids.
She doesn't deserve their condemnation. Because, she says, she has admitted the error of what she did.
She did not instigate the riot, she merely took pleasurable part in it. Because it gave her a sense of euphoria. "At the time, being a part of the riot was simply to fulfill the adrenaline rush I was looking and hoping for - an adrenaline rush that I previously got from post-winning games: hugging randoms, dancing on the streets, honking car horns non-stop, and high-fiving just about everybody."
It was fun, it was kids enjoying a street party. But these kids are a bit older and muscular and testosterone-laden, and alcohol- and drug-fuelled, and you get the picture? Just got carried away, the way kids do, you know? So Camille Cacnio took possession of a few pairs of large-sized men's trousers, with no intention of using them, selling them, giving them to the men in her life. Just doing it because it felt ... good.
"It was extremely hard to see the consequences in taking a couple pants, when around me people were lighting up cars, smashing windows and inflicting physical pain on one another. My train of thought was that "the place is already broken into, most of the contents of the store have already been stolen, so what difference does it make if I take a couple things?"
Ms. Cacnio just doesn't get it. Thugs and vandals doing what thugs and vandals do, and then there was little innocent her, just along for the thrill.
And then she quotes a sociology professor at University of British Columbia who specializes in mob mentality and criminology, to bolster her own explanation, completely validating as far as she's concerned that she was a victim of mob mentality, poor her. People lose their accountability as individuals, when they're in a mob situation driven by the hysteria of anger or euphoria. So it makes no sense whatever to blame her.
And that smile? It's a smile of someone who is utterly delighted with her actions and her interactions with her fellow mob-sters. Brilliant, that smile, happy, not at all berating herself as in "I'm such a badass I can't believe I'm doing this" negatively, but with a positive spin, kiddo.
A woman runs out of a store carrying merchandise during the Vancouver riot. (CBC) Labels: Life's Like That, Security, Society
posted by Pieface | 6:49 PM
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