Jealousy and Inferiority in "You Didn't Build That"

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/07/you_didnt_build_itbecause_i_didnt_earn_it.html

Sometimes the obvious answer does not complete the picture. Obama's Marxist outlook has become so obvious that we have come to see it in most of his words and acts.

It is bad enough that Obama sought to belittle the achievements of these brave individuals. It is also sad that Obama was so ignorant as to be unaware that many of the earlier roads were built by private interests. (Terms such as "Shunpike" came into being from alternate roads that were built/used to avoid tolls on private roads).

In Obama's dysfunctional and anger-filled mind, no one is any different from any other person. No matter how hard he/she worked, how much was risked, how many anxiety-ridden nights were suffered, the creator of a business is just another lucky guy who owes most of his thanks to the government.


The writer in the above article has clearly given a lot of thought to Obama's "You didn't build that" line. Abraham Miller hit on something that most of us never even considered; Obama needed to detract from the accomplishments of others because he himself was carried through his career by others despite his lack of any appreciable substantive attainments, especially in his college years.If Obama could not have done what others did without substantial governmental assistance, then nobody could.

Bolding is added.

"Obama knows he didn't have what it took to get into Columbia, and he didn't have what it took to get into Harvard Law. Let's face an inescapable reality. If Obama had great grades, his transcripts would be in a full-page ad in the New York Times.

Obama became president of the Harvard Law Review (HLR) without ever having an article published in it, a status that separated him from every other HLR president who preceded him. In fact, while Obama was the HLR's first black president, few people know that 70 years earlier, Charles Houston had become the HLR's first black editor, contradicting the myth that black people cannot succeed without affirmative action. Obama didn't possess the skills to be on the HLR, let alone to be the review's president.......

If you come of age in an environment where nearly everyone around you competed and worked hard to get where they are and you didn't, the way you defend against the inevitable ensuing feelings of inadequacy is to create a psychological rationale that no one, absolutely no one, got anywhere except with a leg up and a helping hand from others. Their "affirmative action" is just less conspicuous than yours, but the bottom line is that you are no different from them.

When faculty make affirmative-action hires, each of those hires knows that there were people passed over who were eminently more qualified for the position -- people who worked harder and published more in better places. In an environment that truly valued achievement over ascription, they, not you, would have been hired. Your very presence is a testimonial that the system is corrupt.

So, the inner voice says, I didn't build it; I know that, but neither did they. I assuage my guilt by making my reality their reality. I am redefining success and all that goes into it to conform to my own reality.

For Obama, the psychological dissonance was made even greater when he was granted a Nobel Peace Prize not for what he accomplished, but for what he was supposed to accomplish and obviously hasn't."


Mr. Miller has made a very valid argument. Jealousy and a sense of inferiority are prime motivators in the mind of Obama.

Obama's ego is so fragile that he cannot admit to himself that others made tremendous accomplishments without any of the help that he received. He is unable to admire anyone but himself, therefore he needs to bring everyone else down to his level.