I Don't Care

[Belacqua]

XII. Whatever another person does or says, you must be good; not for the other person's sake, but for the sake of your own nature. As if either gold, or the emerald, or purple, should be continually saying to themselves: "Whatever another person does or says, I must still be an emerald, and I must keep my color."

-- Marcus Aurelias

Sod that Marcus. Doormats never keep their colour.

This has been fascinating for me. I haven't found any other point on which I differ so much from mainstream American ethical views. 

Back on the old Amazon religion forum there was an eccentric older lady who said some offensive things. She was a very bad poet and a kind of troubled soul -- clearly not at peace with the world. Once in a while she would say something not-at-all-PC and make herself the target. 

After that had happened she was judged to be fair game, and people would type just about anything they could think of to rile her up. And she was the reactive sort -- people could make her lose control of herself and type more and more intemperate things. 

I and one other guy would argue that there was no point in trying to get her even more offended. That we were all grown up enough to ignore her lapses. But we were the only two. Other people would write elaborate justifications for why, once she had crossed some line (judged, of course, by them) that she had it coming, that she should be made to suffer and if possible driven from the forum. 

Doormats are lying down to begin with. If you're standing up on your own, what's the problem?