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When Should the Beating Stop?
You may remember Adam Smith. No, not the philosopher — the CFO who took a stand for same-sex marriage and against Chick-Fil-A by filming himself acting like a complete tool at a drive-thru while receiving a complementary glass of water from the young girl working the window.
He posted his righteous indignation video online, it went viral, and his employer showed him the door. Well, according to ABC News, the hits just keep on coming for him. Three years later, he remains unemployed and has been reduced to accepting food stamps to feed his family.
My initial reaction is “Good, serves him right for being such a jerk.” But is this appropriate? When he realized the error of his ways, he made amends. He offered his apology and it was accepted by the young lady he verbally abused. So far he’s lost his livelihood, his home, and a significant portion of his dignity.
When is the punishment over for Mr. Smith? When is enough enough? Perhaps he still lacks the heart change necessary because although he regrets how he did what he did, he does not yet regret the stand he took. I cannot muster significant sympathy for him to wish a different outcome, but perhaps that is because of my heart issues rather than his.
Published in General
Your last point is a good one. Humility does seem to be lacking here.
Especially given the quoted blurb from his book about leaving a “lucrative” career for one that paid $200k.
One of the people I knew at IBM was laid off when the company discovered it had more employees than it needed. This guy was a system programmer, hence a unique skill set. However he did not want to settle for a lower wage than he was being paid by IBM. So he waited for the right opportunity. He was still waiting a few years later which is when I lost touch with him.
I don’t know what our liberal friend expected, perhaps CFO money, but maybe he’ll have to settle for less, unless every company he has contacted is concerned that he’ll play the fool again and that the new company will noted in the write up. None of us wants to be associated with something deemed bad or terminally stupid.
Holy heck. How am I the forgiving one? I must be getting soft.
You’re a RINO
It is certainly ironic… when you think about it, what was he attempting to convey? It wasn’t merely his rudeness to the woman, it was his worldview. He’s the sort of guy who would gladly see that guy from Mozilla out a job and never hired; he’d love to see the duck dynasty guys off the air; he probably advocates financial ruin for any baker who doesn’t want to make a cake.
It would be insincere for me to conjure up any fake sympathy for this guy, if only because I know he would desire the same for anyone who disagrees with him on the issue. I won’t say that I wish ruin on him. When I saw the video, I thought he was a jerk, but that was about the extent of it. But when I see ruin, I am not at all sorry for him.
hah! I just read the article (couldn’t bring myself to watch the video), and double down on my non-sympathetic view. That guy should not be given food stamps until he sells his house and car, too… that is utter garbage. And yeah, go get a job at a fast food store and get over yourself. I say the same thing about criminal defendants or anyone else on welfare. It’s not “I can’t get the job I want,” it’s “I can’t get a job at all.”
Of course, we’ve had that “job I want” argument here at Ricochet, haven’t we?
A key point is that this is not punishment administered by a leviathan. Cries for mercy are misplaced, as there is no monopoly of force inflicting retributive or any other sort of justice.
This is a man dealing poorly with the consequences of his previous poor decisions. A call for mercy is an appeal to authority, and in this context that can only bring injustice, and distort the marketplace of popular sentiment.
His video, by description (I haven;t watched it) sounds like a stunningly bad first attempt at getting right with the world. It sounds as though he hasn’t learned the lesson yet, and therefore cannot help himself. Some people never do learn, and the time for “mercy” comes when they are physically hungry, assuming that they are not beyond the pale of mercy. By that time, their needs are human, and difficult to conflate with wants, and with other motives like proving oneself right all along.