I’ve started to think that there is definitely something to the cookie-jar hypothesis. That notion that we want what we can’t have. Specifically to a point this morning a take off this classic idea which might be called the inverse cookie-jar hypothesis. I see this a lot in people who behave in a very outspoken fashion, beyond all rationality about a certain topic. For example, the people who are so preoccupied with homosexuality that they go to extreme lengths to stamp it out, are intolerant to the differences of other people and in general can’t stop talking about it. In my hypothesis these people are themselves struggling with their own internal battle of their gender roles and sexuality. The gender and sexuality issues could be abstracted away and a more general theory could be that any topic that people are irrationally obsessive about indicates that they are wrestling with that very same topic in their own lives. So in a way, bigotry is a masquerade of self-loathing. If you see a bigot, whatever it is they are a bigot about, is the definition of the thing that they are struggling with.

If this theory is correct, not only does it explain a lot about the behaviors of people who are really out of control, but it helps those who are victims of the bigotry understand that it really isn’t hate-directed-outward, but hate-directed-inward. That’s important, and people shouldn’t lose sight of that, if the theory, you know, is true. 🙂