Remember the scenes in old cowboy movies when a gang of townspeople, gathered at the door of the sheriff’s office, gets all riled up, and then, one of them shouts out “Hang him!”?  

Then someone else gives brief thought to this idea and face red, arms flailing right and left joins in ranting, “Yeah, hang him!”  This brings the unruly crowd to the breaking point, handguns and rifles go bobbing up and down, and you just know if this crowd isn’t brought to reason very soon, someone is going to get hurt.

Usually, the guy they are trying to get hung is our movie good guy hero.  

At those times in these movies, even though those scenes were cliché, there was always a part of me that had a slight fear these agitated grousers would actually hang the innocent guy. That’s the image that comes to mind for me now with the current outcry we see or hear on TV, in magazines, and on the Internet spewing forth from the wronged current owners of AIG; that would be us, the citizens of the United States; Jane and John Q. Public.

There’s an inherent resentment Americans have when they discover that people are being excessively overpaid not only for failing at their jobs, but for sharing responsibility in causing economic hardship on others.  There is good reason for everyone to be outraged.  

However, there is something that seems to me to be a mass mob mentality within this kind of rage and finger-pointing.  I know these bonus-getters were smack dab in the middle of the derivative and bad mortgage shenanigans.  Yet, I think that there is also mass denial about the wrongdoings in which we are often complicit.  Lots of people fudge on their taxes, maybe get paid more at times than is actually due, take advantage of a situation and perhaps get something for free that he or she should have paid for, get out of a ticket, avoid retribution, or commit some minor infraction in economic morality.  I also realize that glomming on to the excuse that everyone does it or “my competitor is worse than me” doesn’t right a wrong.  

It is important for us to be aware of abuses committed by people in public trust or call attention to those committing infractions against the common good.  We would be even more easily lied to or taken advantage of if we didn’t gather together to point out wrongs against our collective selves.  So as I applaud those people who speak out and bring our attention to what must be corrected, I am also repelled by the “blame-everyone-in-sight” or the “all-the-rich-are-evil” mindsets that result from this overkill.

I really believe that we are they.  I think the AIG people, bank VIPs, CEOs of gigantic companies, and politicians taking money from financial lobbyists are people like you and me.  I think that to a large extent most of us at some times in some way are prey to getting caught up in excess.  

Much of what we get angry about is justified.  It is that the over-blaming and vilification of wrong doers that is unnecessary and like the old cowboy movie gangs’ mentality, ill-conceived and could be dangerous.  I think it is important for each of us to stay informed and become educated about the complete truth of someone’s offense.  President Obama, in his most recent press conference, said that he likes to think about something before he speaks.  In the same sense, we have a responsibility to know all the facts and then to calmly figure out a reasonable and beneficial course of action.  In the case of the AIG bonuses, and any other talking heads topic of the moment, jumping on some wild bandwagon of shouters, moaners, and criers will likely not breed the wisest course of action.  To me, it is just too easy to want to lambast the nearest bad guy without getting a complete picture and rationally deciding what intelligent action would best serve our society.

Some people tell me that I cannot relate to those less fortunate than I and that if I were in their circumstances I too would reach a boiling point.  I do feel for the struggles many endure and still do not see the collective win in griping, mobbing, and displaying public angst.  Even when I confront one person who has annoyed or offended me in some way, I must still analyze my responsibility in this relationship and circumstance. Then I consider options towards generating the most effective and fairest results.  I believe it would serve us all best if we did the same before grabbing a rope, a horse and the nearest tree.