April 14, 2003
A few years have passed since I first put this up, back over at
Internet Trash, and the political winds have shifted some more, not really
in favor of Christopher Petro, Suba and others like them. As Political
Correctness slowly but surely goes out of favor, some of its apologists
have made an effort to rewrite history a little and make PC seem more
lovable, more sensitive and more honorable than it ever actually was.
The historical reality lives on in the records of incidents like this
one, and those far worse. Some will speak of the tender compassion for
women, minorities and the downtrodden they showed during the 1990s, and
hope that we'll forget that their "tender compassion" took the form of
joining a mob of people as they chased somebody across campus wielding
baseball bats because he was accused of being rude to a woman, or
of trying to get somebody fired from his job because he disagreed with one
of their wackier opinions. The unsavory historical reality is that
Political Correctness was a homegrown form of fascism radically empowered
by the cowardice of the masses - a form that cost many of us much of our
freedom through many of what should have been the best years of our
lives.
Forgive and forget, and let the offending parties live this one down?
I don't think so, and I hope the reader doesn't think so, either. The
point I once made on alt.abuse.recovery to an allegedly "recovering" child
molester applies here. What is wrong with the Pop Christian ethic of
"forgive and forget" is that it allows people to evade responsibility for
their actions. It tells them "if the disgusting injustice you feel like
working is one that you can get away with today, go for it, because there
will be no consequences for you down the road".
That's not a message that a civilized society can send, and remain
civilized. The ethical incentives become perverse. Doing the wrong thing
as one backs up the aggressor, or the mob, wins the offending party
immediate rewards, at no cost, while standing up to the mob ends up
carrying a heavy short term cost, with no eventual reward. Such a system
strongly encourages the very kind of behavior that leaves an ever growing
number of former victims "seething in impotent rage", as I once put it,
denied even the meager satisfaction of eventual vindication.
And this is done in the name of "peace"! How remarkable.
So, where did you enter "An Open Letter to Suba" from? Click on the answer below, and
you'll end up in the right place.
- "Stumbling into the quackmire"
- "The Fred Cherry Story"
-
Some other site
- My blog
Or would you rather just go
back to your ring?