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Grace Must Prevail Over Cancel Culture
Cancel Culture is an unfortunate development in our world born out of the social media hell we all seem to live in. It feels as if social media has given us a binary choice which most gladly follow: either conform or be destroyed.
The pressure to conform to a certain ideology is immense for young people. I am worried young conservatives trying to separate themselves from progressives who try to be offensive in order to “own the libs”.We must realize just because our time has abandoned civility does not mean we should not take steps to restore it. Fighting back is not going around a college campus in a Native American costume; that is simply provoking. I have been told many times that the time for being “civil” is over because progressives will not be civil. The problem with that perspective is that while online outrage monsters probably will not be civil, your progressive neighbor might be.
Conservatives have long said to turn off the news and talk to your neighbor, and I strongly recommend we do just that. The 2016 moment has passed, and the time for trolling is over. We are better than our current culture and we must be better to one another.
This is not to say we should not fight back against progressivism, but we cannot become what we are fighting against. In a society where a social media mob acts as judge, jury, and executioner it is hard, but important, to keep dreams alive after everything collapses one needs to breathe fresh air.
Young minds today are poisoned by the idea that any disagreement culturally or politically is an affront to their personal well-being and ego. The cult of open-mindedness has shunned and cancelled anyone they perceive as a threat to their death grip on culture. This “cancel culture” has created a toxic environment for discourse, but more importantly, mental well-being. This mob is relentless in its pursuit of control. Due to this Orwellian thinking dreams can evaporate as quickly as they appear.
The New York Times published an article titled “Tales From the Teenage Cancel Culture;” telling a story of 17 year old girl named “L.” “L.” was “cancelled” by her classmates and when inquiring as to why she was told she was, “an emotional leech who was thirsty for validation.” L would later state, “I am very prone to question everything I do; ‘is this annoying someone?” she would go on to say, “I have issues trusting perfectly normal things, that sense of me being some sort of monster, terrible person, burden to everyone, has stayed with me to some extent there is still a sort of lingering sense of: what if I am?”
These online rage sessions grown adults are having is showing kids how to treat one another. This anxiety sticks with children. Society now acts as a court of law trying to make bad people look good and good people look bad. Unfortunately, grace has left our society. Someone saying or doing something bad in their youth will now define them. The proponents of “cancel culture” seem to think grace is a quality to be overlooked, until they need it. The societal pressure to conform is an issue that deserves great urgency. Society now needs to breathe fresh air. A new breeze must blow. Author Jonathan Haidt writes an article for The Atlantic titled, “The Coddling of the American Mind” in that article he states, “Safe spaces where young adults are shielded from words and ideas that make them uncomfortable. This movement seeks to punish anyone who interferes with this aim. You might call this vindictive protectiveness. It is creating a culture in which everyone must think twice before speaking up, lest they face charges of insensitivity, aggression, or worse.” The guise of equality has been an excuse for abhorrent behavior and causes everyone to act irrationally. It is simple when doing something wrong, correct it not for them but because it is the right to do. Not bowing down to the altar of cancel culture is important, but so is being decent in the process. This movement wants control, not an equitable society. The mob goes after anyone, which is why it is important not to bow down. As French philosopher Albert Camus said, “The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.”
Published in General
Some 35 years ago, I filed a motion where I went on and on for over a page. The assigned Judge, Ed Rapp, ran into me the next day. He said, “Gary, we need to introduce you at ‘our friend, the paragraph.'” I was just a few years older than you are now, and that advice has stuck with me.
The piece here is well written. It should be considered by others. But it is 35 sentences long! A reader needs to come up for a breath! My suggestion would be to have each paragraph be no longer than three to six sentences long. Consider having headings which allow the reader to pause and reflect. I will sometimes draw a line to announce that I am going on to a new thought as shown below.
______________________________________________________
I would not change a word of this piece. It is all good. But I wonder how many people have simply flipped past it and not read it because they do not have time to devote to reading such an undertaking.
At Ricochet, the style directory is to present the first two paragraphs of a piece before one must press the ubiquitous “More” button. If you will present “bite sized” ideas, I am sure that readers will be sufficiently hooked to press the “More” button. Otherwise, I fear that your excellent post will be ignored by readers who are time limited.
Please keep writing. You have a gift and a flair. I hope you will take this advice in the spirit it is offered.
Gary, I certainly appreciate the advice! I am not an experienced writer so I appreciate any feedback. This is my first time writing in anything other than a class. Thank you, sir.
Ditto. Break it up into smaller paragraphs. And welcome to Ricochet! All the best. Look forward to reading more from you.
Thank you, Brian. Appreciate you, sir!
To break the post up into smaller paragraphs, click the “Edit” near the headline of your piece, then add some hard returns. Then hit the “Update” button at the bottom of the draft window. Cheers.
I think this is a profound and important instruction for all of us.
Ouch! I did not realize that. There is a great saying, criticize in private and praise in public. If I had realized that this was your maiden voyage, I would have send you a private message.
You already have three “likes.” This is an excellent start. I will look forward to reading you in the years to come.
Agreed, Mark. And like everyone else here is saying, welcome, Antonino!
Where’s @percival? He’s still fighting the good fight for chivalry. As for me, I still fight for my culture, and that includes Southern manners, thank Cod.
Antonino, I read your whole essay on the Member Feed page because, when you break up into paragraphs, R> only shows the first two paragraphs! Clever you…
Which are based, imperfectly but intentionally, on chivalry.
Welcome Antoninio!
Nice gentle thoughtful coaching.
Can I call you Anton for short? I am glad to hear from someone so young, but still searching for grace in all this. Here’s the good news. While this terrible virus has changed many good things, it put a stop to many bad things, like a giant wheel that just stopped turning. Young and old are being forced to share safe spaces, to shelter in place and learn new ways to be civil. You are seeing the good that was always there at work. Don’t expect the crap in the world to disappear – in fact, it will probably increase. Look for inspiration elsewhere. The online worship services are a good start – my friends and sister have shared their services with me and visa versa. Grace is always there.
The lack of grace is what has struck me as particularly ugly about the “social justice” movement.
As a Christian, I appreciate the value of grace because of the grace God has extended to me. But I practice grace very imperfectly. Nonetheless, I have been astonished at the increasing tendency in society to actively refuse grace to others. To deny any opportunity for redemption.
And the failure to recognized that we all need grace from time to time. If I refuse grace to others, it becomes less likely that others will extend grace to me. And the result is a world full of people separated from one another.
You could call Antonino “Anton” for short, but the most brilliant legal writer in the last half century was Antonin “Nino” Scalia.
This post is up to “16 likes” which is exceptional for an early or first post. I was on Ricochet for years before I wrote my first post, and it took me well over a dozen posts before any post garnered 12 likes.
A Star is Born.
Morning Antonino,
I am probably a fair bit older, 72, so as I look at the conservative movement from Chambers, through the neocons, through WFB and National Reivew, through Friedman, and even the Tea Party movement, I see little success. During all of these contributions, our leaders and most of their followers have been models of civility, even the Wacko birds were civil, what has been conserved? How has this civility born fruit, do younger folks look to conservatives as civil political thinkers, or do they trash the most civil among us like they trashed Scruton. Thinking about how cultures are shaped by political energy, could you show how civility has been successful in this modern era? In reflecting some of the big changes, they have not been times of great civility. Thinking of the late 60’s in race and the war were thrown in the faces of the WWII generation. Yes there were peace marches but there were also daily bombings during 68 and 69, and there were race riots in many cities. It seems to me that part of change has a component of retribution as @techera would say and that one might say there is a righteous anger at an injustice and there is an energy to restore justice. I would be interested in your understanding of how grace could be an instrument of change and is there another component that address injustice in a determined fashion. In general, I would love to know your thoughts on how cultures change.
Antonino, good first post, and welcome to Ricochet.
I agree with much of what you say. Where I would disagree is with the position that we must always be civil, if you’ve taken that position, and I’m not sure that you have. I tend to be skeptical of criticisms of the tactics of the opposition, rather than criticism of their underlying views.
I find that “canceling” is a perfectly appropriate response, in some circumstances. It is possible for a person to hold truly horrid, reprehensible views, and to engage in immoral or inappropriate conduct for which social ostracism is a proper result. I find this to be a question of degree, and an area for the exercise of discernment, which is difficult.
The problem, I think, is that the modern Left considers perfectly reasonable, mainstream conservative views to be utterly reprehensible, and worthy of ostracism (and worse, like legal suppression). In fact, many on the Left have bizarre and irrational views of many issues, in my estimation, and want to ostracize or “cancel” anyone who disagrees with them.
I do not think that the fundamental problem is the tactic of ostracism, though I do agree that its use should be tempered with grace in most circumstances. I think that the fundamental problem is an evil ideology. This is much more difficult to deal with, and it is not generally persuasive to a person to tell them that they are adhering to an evil ideology.
That’s not what our family has experienced. We’ve been deprived of most of the once-in-a-lifetime experience of being with three of our new grandchildren, helping with the challenges of giving birth, and of giving much-needed relief to their mothers–our two daughters–in their time of need. This the normal role of grandparents in human society.
It is true that every case of imprisonment exposes one to some good experiences of life that one wouldn’t have gotten if one had been free. Your point reminds me of Corrie ten Boom’s sister, who in the days before she died of starvation and illness in a Nazi death camp, unexpectedly had a chance to read the scripture to other inmates every day. The guards had suddenly disappeared from the barracks. The sisters discovered that the reason was that the infestation of fleas that Corrie had been cursing had driven the Nazis away from their daily duties of watching for such unlawful practice.
Another positive is that in my humble opinion, a small percentage of the American people have had their eyes opened by this experience, and will be better prepared to be recognize these techniques of mass deception and fear-mongering when the left launch their next offensive of mass deception and abuse of power.
We simply need to bring back dueling.
You cannot have peace with someone who refuses peace. The Left is not civil and nothing other than making them pay a price for it will make a difference.
There was this fellow a few thousand years ago who had a different plan. Something about “turning the other cheek,” I think.
He also told his followers to carry swords at one point. And he over turned the tables in the temple.
And they murdered him.
I have no doubt of the Grace of God, and I can forgive people on the left for they know not what they do.
I will not, however, let people beat me to death.
I fear we are seeing the beginning of a nationwide snitch culture, not so much grace, in the government and media induced and sustained hysteria.
Stasi.
Jim, you have given me some things to think about! I think I may write on that next.
I thought we cancelled you, Gary? ha ha! Just kidding! Literally I was thinking the other day “I haven’t seen Gary posting in a while, I wonder if he quit?”
Antonio, I don’t understand what you are saying here…
When did conservatives become the Sopranos?
The Sopranos were part of a very old and conservative organization.