Sorry for the absence, I was fighting a mild case of pancreatitis the week before Christmas and an intestinal flu the week after. I just haven’t felt any great ideas or frankly felt like I could express myself that didn’t make me sound like a blithering idiot..which I can be…but I prefer to not be. So..
CDR Salamander had a tweet about two members of the entertainment world, both comedians, both who had known each other as friends for many years but who had come to a watershed moment when one took exception to the other regarding a stand on a popular topic regarding how we look at gender. The problem is that while one is of a “protected class” (as I was taught in Harassment training at Shipyard From Hell, Inc) the other was not, at least for values of gender. The “protected class” friend sort of hemmed and hawed in sort of support of his long time friend, but mostly letting hang in the breeze. In microcosm, it’s a symbol of how we as a culture are failing…and failing badly.
We’ve allowed “Cancel Culture” become a means unto itself. If societal segment “A” decides that the actions of person “B” are not in accordance with their world view, then it is right and proper to make this person a pariah, an untouchable, unable to walk the hallways of “decent” people or engage in commerce with same. Literally, we are allowing people to be cast out, to lose their means of providing for their families and themselves simply because of a difference of opinion. Seriously. We are damn near to the point of killing people just because of a difference of opinion.
Now see, when I was in my senior year of high school, it was 1969 and it was the year of Peace and Love. Really. Yeah, Vietnam was a big thing but as he promised, Nixon was getting us out of Johnsons effing mess (don’t get me started). Everyone loved each other. Our Senior Prom Queen was the head cheerleader and the daughter of the championship swim team coach. The King? Star football player, spent 11 years with the Bears, and black as the Ace of Spades. Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. Our principal threated to cancel prom but we reminded him that WE raised the money and WE along with our parents booked the venue and entertainment. He had zero say in the matter. We had a blast and everything went off with a hitch. They danced one dance and then went with their dates. End of story.
Here we are over 50 years later and with the noble assistance of the print, broadcast and social media and with a bit of help from some governments, we’ve allowed the yapping noise of a small portion of our society to build pyres and burn at the stake those people they decide are pariahs. We have allowed the noisy to become the rulers by apathy alone. No longer are the courteous allowing differing opinions or ideas to flourish on their merits alone, no, the simple utterance of heresy is enough to call the rabble to a howling rage. This is WRONG. This is bad on so many levels it isn’t funny.
Where the hell would we be in the 50s and 60s when black people were demanding and deserving of their civil rights? Did some white people cling to the Jim Crow? Sure they did. But did the majority understand that the time had come to LISTEN? I listened to Martin Luther Kings speech at the Mall and I literally shivered at the words. This man insisted that his vision be a force of peaceful majesty that could no longer be ignored…and he wasn’t. Sadly one POS shot and killed him but his dream could not be killed. The point to this is people listened and many accepted. We didn’t listen to the loud few, we listened to the quiet many…because it was courteous. Change happened because it was right to listen and be graceful. I know in their hearts my parents would not have accepted a person of color into our family…but in the late 70s my sister met and married a Syrian. He’s a wonderful husband and father…and my mom came to love him as well.
Now we have these groups of self-appointed arbiters of what is acceptable and not acceptable. I hate to categorize but in general they are so-called “Liberals”…and worse misnomer could not be found. “Liberals” are far from being liberal in thought, instead, they are for the most part, strident and rock bound in what is Right and what is Wrong. The hideous part is the weapon they employ called “Cancel”. By cancelling someone from their society (meaning from the view of people who might listen to their ideas) they do not encourage thinking; instead they actively discourage thinking. This is absolutely criminal! New ideas are what pushed the rock down the road and making a better society for all of us. It doesn’t matter if the idea is bad, because if it isn’t people simply won’t listen to it long. Give us some credit, we’re not all dumb.
So my whole point to this rant is very simple. Listen to different opinions. They may be as full of the brown smelly as a constipated hog. They may be a single gem of truth in there. But be COURTEOUS and LISTEN…don’t cancel. And it’s time and past time to stop the few from shutting out the thoughts and ideas of others. It’s a big world, it can take a little stupid without breaking.
Courtesy and Cancel
Nicely written Sir