Unthinking people have a natural and foolish tendency to blame the victim.
“Your house was robbed and you live in that neighborhood?” “You were mugged while out walking at 2am?”
Researchers think this is because people like to believe that there are rules to life, and that all it takes to be safe is to follow those rules and you’ll be OK. So whenever they hear of someone going through hard times, the first thing they do is figure out which of their imaginary “rules” the victim violated.
In the case of this out of work union fellow, I’m sure he had rules he followed too. Probably one of them was you could make a living wage and find work if you joined a union.
So just like he had an imaginary rule to follow to feel safe, other people have their imaginary rules, too.
If people don’t wise up and take a skeptical look at their rules, it’s almost certain that in our modern, miserably fast changing world, they will one day get dealt a major dose of reality, and will be left saying like so many before them: “But I did everything right!”
Amen.