In addition to the other disastrous things Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has said of late is this gem: "Am I entitled to one mistake, am I after 35 years? ... Am I entitled to one mistake? It's a terrible mistake, and I'll never do it again." As if years of being a racist landlord never happened.
Then there's a (former) family friend who secretly stashed away money we had invested with him and, when he was finally caught, had the audacity to claim he had acted in good faith and couldn't understand why we were considering suing him. I mean, he had given us half the profits owed to us, right?
How about the global head of the company where I worked a few years ago who visited and excitedly albeit obliviously announced that it was poised to become a billion-dollar enterprise -- to the employees sitting in front of him who hadn't had a raise in two years. We all sat there silently though, in my head, I was all Norma Rae.
The rich and powerful, of course, have been making stupid and insensitive comments since way before Marie Antoinette famously (never) said "let them eat cake." Or presidential loser and trust-fund baby Mitt Romney lamenting the 47 percent of people "who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing." I mean, how very dare them!
Why do they do it? How do the rich and famous not only become that out of touch with average people but manage, as with Sterling or my former friend, to portray themselves as the real victims?
I'm by no means an expert in psychology or psychiatry but I suspect these people didn't fall out of touch -- they were always out of touch. I suspect they got to the top in some part thanks to superior business acumen and charisma but mostly because they believed they were better and more deserving than anyone else and honestly didn't care who they stepped over to get what they wanted. It takes, after all, a certain kind of sociopath to screw and cry misery to the same bunch of people.
Right, Imelda?
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