ARROGANT WE

The plurality implicit in the first person. I could have been, I might already be, I barely avoid, I am sometimes, I know myself truly to be, I feel I would have been (if conditions had been different). Are you and I so unalike? Or, Haven’t we gone through some of the same things? This is a first person plural that writing ought to speak for, speech ought to represent with a pronoun rather than a name or noun: we. The plurality implicit in the first person can be phrased as a first person plural. We who believe, we who work together, we who care.

There is an arrogance to this. It is a formation speaking for others who it only takes a moment to imagine through its own terms. It presumes to represent things that it has grasped in only an instant, people it has named by one single trait. The terms are unilateral. We, good citizens.

The significance of this arrogance is not obvious. Is it the useful presumption by which leadership can secure something for the represented that they would not have otherwise? She makes promises about what we will do and wins us a contract; she says what we feel and changes policy for the better. Is it the haughty presumption of someone who thinks they know, but really does not? Intellectuals say things about our culture that a person can’t help but disagree with. Is it the self-serving presumption of one who claims to represent others to strengthen his own position? Corrupt politicians.