I met a seer.
He held in his hands the book of
wisdom.
“Sir,” I addressed him,
“Let me read.”
“Child-“ he began.
“Sir,” I said,
“Think not that I am a child,
For already I know much of that which
you hold;
Aye, much.”
He smiled.
Then he opened the book and held it
before me.
Strange that I should have grown
So suddenly blind. - “The Book of Wisdom”, Stephen
Crane
I have been following the story of
George Will since he wrote an incredibly insensitive column in the Washington
Post a short time ago. As one result of
that column I even signed a petition for the removal of his column from the
Post.
George Will - from "Wikipedia"
Yet, after listening to his somewhat
grudging and hedged apology in which he even had the temerity to once again
attack those who he had so offended, I now definitely believe that the best
interests of the public would not be served by the removal of his column by the
Washington Post.
So, I would
like to make a couple of points. First, like it
or not, Mr. Will does, unfortunately, represent the views of a significant
number of people – mostly men, but some women as well. While the verbiage did not stoop to an
outright hatred for women as did Limbaugh’s ad hominem attack on Sandra Fluke
in calling her a whore because she sought insurance assistance to meet her
medically required contraceptive needs, or one long-term radio commentator’s
characterization of black female college basketball player’s as “nappy headed
whores” (I have thankfully since forgotten his name), it definitely showed
little empathy or sympathy for women who had suffered sexual assault,
especially if they knew the perpetrator, or if they had been either drinking
and/or using drugs prior to the occurrence.
I would argue that from my experience
this lack of empathy for those in difficult circumstances or situations is one
resulting from one of the basic philosophies which underpins the unbridled
capitalism oriented, ‘conservative’ movement.
That philosophy is one of ‘individual responsibility’– that is each
member of society must contribute his or her part, whatever that part may be,
and the value of that part must be at a level generally determined by a ‘somebody’
to be the value wherein the ‘giving’ is greater than the value of the ‘receiving’. If, despite circumstances, one currently receives
from society more than one gives, they are then simply defined as a parasite.
Unfortunately, this measure of life
in terms of ‘wealth value’ or capitalization value is really a view that
creates tragic consequences.
Foremost, it
is a denigration of life, not just human life but all life (with the possible
exceptions of kith and kin, and perhaps a few friends). For example, Romney’s 47% remark included everyone
living on social security - despite their productivity during their working
years - (which includes most US citizens over the age of 65), everyone who
works two or three jobs, yet because the jobs pay minimum wage or close to it
and the current value of minimum wages are so low that these people live below
the level of poverty (this includes a vast number of Walmart workers and
employees of other big box stores, restaurant employees – especially the
employees of fast food restaurants - whose minimum wage can be as low as $2.30
per hour), a great many currently working in the US military services, and of
course the many unable to work due to handicaps, mental and/or physical). Under this philosophy, these people are a
negative drain on society and they need to disappear (with the possible
exception of the members of the military), one way or another – and in the 1930’s
and the 1940’s, my parents, many Europeans, many Koreans, and many Chinese,
among others, unfortunately became witness to one potential endpoint of this
philosophy.
Worse still, under this philosophy,
land only has value if it has been or is under development. The wilderness, wildlife, and old growth
forests have no value if they are not being utilized to make someone
money. That the earth is an
interconnected living system is not recognized and thus global climate change
and species extinction is not only perceived as unimportant, but worse,
irrelevant, thus condemning and sacrificing the future generations at the altar
of today’s profits.
Even though Will is a purveyor of
this philosophy, it is one held by many people in the US so it does need to be
heard and properly addressed.
As for my
second point, there actually are some underlying issues obscured in Will’s text that important. The most important is that the US has an
established system of jurisprudence for dealing with situations in which
established laws have been violated.
This system is legally bypassed when colleges and universities are
allowed to handle these cases or inappropriately interfere with the proper,
established legal approaches, a situation that is inappropriate given the
seriousness of the violations.
Overseeing the investigations of murder, rape, sexual assault, and other
such charges should not be the purview of a college or university, but the
responsibility of the local law enforcement authorities who perform these
functions on a daily basis. Will also
makes one other point, that is, would this not be a good time to review the
legal definitions for rape and sexual assault given the dynamic nature of
society?
So, please understand, that educated,
erudite conservatives such as George Will, may often obscure valid points of
observation beneath clouds of rhetoric, even hateful rhetoric, but that does
not make their points any less valid.
And that is why the First Amendment exists, for if we allow our emotions
to deafen ourselves to valid argument we diminish ourselves just as surely as
those conservatives who would diminish us for not being properly monetized. The web of interconnection of life not only
exists for the earth and all forms of life living upon it, but we must
understand that that web exists within ourselves for ALL others; those who came
before, those who live now, and those who will come later – the Circle of Life
otherwise known as the Yin/Yang (Korean – Eum/Yang).
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