Ugh, why do I do this to myself?
That MassResistance site I linked to earlier today is disgusting. Just read the "Introduction" on this page about a bill that has been introduced in the Massachusetts legislature. I'm sure I would find plenty to disagree with in the bill itself ("hate crime" = one step away from "thought crime"), but... the language is just dripping with... well, I'll go ahead and say it, hate.
Can't we disagree without vilifying--or quite literally, demonizing--those with whom we disagree?
That MassResistance site I linked to earlier today is disgusting. Just read the "Introduction" on this page about a bill that has been introduced in the Massachusetts legislature. I'm sure I would find plenty to disagree with in the bill itself ("hate crime" = one step away from "thought crime"), but... the language is just dripping with... well, I'll go ahead and say it, hate.
Can't we disagree without vilifying--or quite literally, demonizing--those with whom we disagree?
posted by Matt | 2:03 PM
4 Comments:
I'm not sure this is a fair comparison... but your final question reminds me of Hillary asking if she can still be patriotic if she doesn't support the Iraq war.
Life is really quite a bit easier if one stops caring what other people think.
... so your answer to both me and Hillary would be "No"?
Also, one can "care what other people think" for many different reasons. You seem to impute it with a sense of seeking acceptance from others. I would say that "caring what other people think," at least with regard to controversial issues, is the first step towards getting people to actually think seriously about things, which is in turn a first step towards changing minds/hearts. Maybe even--*gasp*--my own.
(Re: the hillary thing--that's just a joke. No real connection, just a funny mind blip...)
But as far as your second comment... See--this is really interesting, because I value your opinion. And it's been really interesting for me to discover what I actually feel and believe, and then reverse engineer to figure out why. It's something that I think most people don't appreciate (or maybe cannot appreciate--I don't know).
Anyway--I'm confident that I've learned, out of self-preservation--to largely ignore or undermine concepts of public acceptance. And the reasoning should be pretty self evident. Had I listened to the social main stream, I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't have even gotten a degree from Wheaton, because Profs there would flat out say that I shouldn't take their class, or otherwise so unintelligible that communication was largely impossible. As a result, I got sick and tired of getting sick and tired, and gave society the finger. Probably started at an earlier stage in life, but that's where it became a conscious decision. (Having a prof tell you to your face that you can't take a class (and therefore graduate w/ that degree) may do that to you. Then, you begin to investigate all the previous social messages, and realize the lies embedded within them.)
As a result, public acceptance means very little to me--because that was never a game in which I could win. (Or at least, felt as if I could win. Or have a fair shot at winning.) And that world view has likely been carried over into all things--over-generalized, I would imagine.
So now I get to look back, and perhaps look for that baby... The bathwater has long since evaporated, but maybe there's a baby there too.
Interesting stuff, self examination is...
Interesting... I think the closest thing I have to your experience--that is, the decision to stop caring so much about what other people thought--happened to me not in academia, but in romantic relationships. All through high school and college, my desire to be accepted (by females) pretty much paralyzed me. At some point, I think I gave myself a little talking-to. This obsession with how you might be perceived by others is getting you nowhere, fast. Knock it off already, for cryin' out loud. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was about that time that I started using ChristianCafe.com. I think I just decided that I was going to make it work, and in order to do so I needed an attitude adjustment. Yes. There are things about me that women could find attractive. Yes. There are women out there with whom I could truly be myself, and who would actually appreciate that self.
It's almost as though I conjured Michelle into being.
So while I didn't really give anyone the finger, literally or metaphorically, I did just kind of decide to stop caring so much. And that seems to have been a good decision.
I'd say I wish I'd done it sooner, but then I most likely would not be with Michelle now. So all in all, I'm quite happy with the way things played out.
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