RE: "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us..." should we be grateful?
July 20, 2015 at 3:51 pm
(This post was last modified: July 20, 2015 at 4:00 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Imagine a society in which it was thought to be "out of bounds", taboo, socially..or even legally - to criticize or otherwise comment upon a persons opinions from a particular source...such as the quran. Imagine, for a moment, that you advocate for the maintenance of this taboo...on grounds of respect (just as one example). Now imagine that you are a moderate living -in- this society. People will express views which, frankly, disgust you...but due to social or legal coercion you are compelled to remain silent, and it would be difficult to do otherwise..particularly after having advocated for this situation in the first place.
Now, when (not if...when) a fanatic -uses- the platform that you have helped to create in order to commit some heinous act, it will be, at least in part...because you provided them with the platform in the first place - perhaps with the best of intentions, but simultaneously with a dearth of foresight that can only be described as tragic. Your society, perhaps your religion..will have been perverted, subsumed, and completely debased.......and you will have been an accomplice in that, a willing partipant...an advocate, even.
This happens with regularity, it happened with your church in the inquisition, for example....it happened in the US with McCarthyism (though it was a different sort of taboo).....the production of these sorts of taboos leads almost -inevitably- to misery. People stayed silent as their own institutions made their inexorable march towards predation....out of respect, until it was no longer respect which kept them silent, but fear.
Now, perhaps had people opened their mouths, resisted, spoke up...things would have played out largely the same - but we disincentivize this a great many ways (this is what you're suggesting), even so...had they spoke up and failed - at least they tried...or allowed -others- to try by not enforcing such a taboo themselves or lending any credence to it as social etiquette.
Now, when (not if...when) a fanatic -uses- the platform that you have helped to create in order to commit some heinous act, it will be, at least in part...because you provided them with the platform in the first place - perhaps with the best of intentions, but simultaneously with a dearth of foresight that can only be described as tragic. Your society, perhaps your religion..will have been perverted, subsumed, and completely debased.......and you will have been an accomplice in that, a willing partipant...an advocate, even.
This happens with regularity, it happened with your church in the inquisition, for example....it happened in the US with McCarthyism (though it was a different sort of taboo).....the production of these sorts of taboos leads almost -inevitably- to misery. People stayed silent as their own institutions made their inexorable march towards predation....out of respect, until it was no longer respect which kept them silent, but fear.
Now, perhaps had people opened their mouths, resisted, spoke up...things would have played out largely the same - but we disincentivize this a great many ways (this is what you're suggesting), even so...had they spoke up and failed - at least they tried...or allowed -others- to try by not enforcing such a taboo themselves or lending any credence to it as social etiquette.
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