Chapter 8 of Johnson

In Chapter 8 of Johnson: “Getting Off the Hook: Denial and Resistance” the author goes into detail on how today’s society uses denial and blame to make events in life look better than what they really are.
In Chapter 8 the author states that “no one likes to see themselves as connected to someone else’s misery, no matter how remote the link”. (108) Not only is denial a problem but minimization of the trouble by acknowledging that it exists but then claiming that it does not amount to anything is just as big a problem. When people in dominant groups such as white males practice denial, it hardly seems to occur to them that they are in a poor situation to know exactly what they are talking about. If a dominant group acts like they know better than others do about what they are up against is just the kind of problem society is facing. Denial is also seen as taking the form of having lesser known groups actually being better off than dominant groups. “One can acknowledge that terrible things happen to people and still get off the hook by blaming it all on them” (110) The result of putting blame on others is that it is putting blame on the people who suffer most from it, while the more dominant groups are not effected. The combination of denial and minimization often results in the claim that everyone in today’s society actually likes things the way they are.
How can others stay away from denial and minimization? I believe that denial, minimization, and blaming others will always be around. We must understand as a society that even though this corrupt way of thinking will probably be around for the long run, we should still try to do what is right and look past the way others get by in life. We must not stoop to people’s levels who think this way that it is alright to blame others for ones own actions.
I enjoyed this chapter a lot because of the way the author gave specific examples in which we encounter and probably gone through in every day life. I learned a lot about not only how our society works but how you must look out for yourself because there are people out there who will want nothing more than to run you over.