Saturday, June 13, 2015

WHY ARE WE SO ANGRY AT PEOPLE WE DON’T KNOW?

I spend way too much time on Face Book, I admit.  I’ve tried not to get entangled in endless, fruitless debate, but sometimes my reptile brain wins out and I jump right in.  I do read a lot of posts about a lot of different issues, and I’m troubled about the current emphasis on “celebretizing” issues and really troubled by how personal people can become about people they don’t know. 

Why the incessant focus (and venom) about Caitlyn Jenner, Tony Campolo and Rachel Dolezal?  I know that the news media loves to make the story about a person and their motivation.  It makes it easy to avoid hard analysis and honest discussion of what the societal issues are about.  But why do we do it?

Especially many friends on the left—where I find myself most often—have been as celebrity-focused and judgmental as Fox News is.  I’ve heard such absolute moral certainty about what Tony Campolo’s and Rachel Dolezal’s motivations are, and how wrong they are.  (This is mirrored by the right’s moral indignation about Caitlyn Jenner, of course).

To the best of my knowledge most of us have never met them. (I have met Tony Campolo a couple of times, but I can’t say I know him.) We're basing our opinions on what we've read on-line, from our favored sites, mostly, I would guess.  I have a feeling that all three of them may have complicated motives, and probably are complex people.  I don’t think labeling them and condemning them so strongly is all that helpful to understand them.  And the real danger, to my mind, is that we become convinced of our righteousness, because we “know” what they are doing, and why they are doing it, and why they are to be rejected.

Beauty is bright colors, for sure; but also various shades, including gray areas.
Justice is diminished when we make it black and white.  I’d rather be a little uncertain about what motivates folks.

So…be beauty, be justice, be uncertain.


Patrick

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