For reasons that are not entirely clear, I feel like writing about guilt today. Perhaps I should feel guilty for daring to write about guilt when we are supposed to be, um, celebrating. It's a holiday, right? Holidays are for celebrating, right? So what sort of weirdo would feel guilty on the occasion of a holiday? And what sort of double triple weirdo would feel guilty for writing about guilt? Perhaps it's not guilt I feel. Perhaps it's resentment. Guilt and resentment are closely linked, and one fuels the other in an endless cycle of bitter self-recrimination. Especially when the guilt is not for anything the individual actually did.

Not that guilt isn't a great way to manipulate people. Unless we are sociopaths, all of us have a natural reservoir of irrational guilt which can be tapped into by those who gratuitously offer something to fill the void. It's like, if you're feeling guilt about something and someone who seems to have expertise or authority comes along and supplies a reason for the guilt, that can make you feel better in the same way that the explained is always more emotionally satisfying than the unexplained. Still, there are those rationally stubborn people who don't accept guilt for things that they didn't do (much less things that their ancestors didn't do).

If this all seems silly, consider that there was a time when Christians officially considered Jews to be collectively responsible for the killing of Christ. Glad I wasn't a Jew or a Christian in those days. It must have really sucked to be a rational person.

At least now we're all enlightened and stuff.

(Earlier I was toying with the idea of a guilt-free, resentment holiday, but screw it. We should all feel resentful over guilt, and guilty over resentment! Builds character!)