(no subject)

[kradeelav]

"2000 years after the birth of Christ, forgiveness and compassion—even for the most wretched among us—is still a radical concept. Even after the scales of justice tip in the correct direction, there is still room for compassion for the perpetrator. The same people who wanted to see Chauvin acquitted, I would wager, are the same who give little care for the mass incarceration of Blacks in the United States. And the same people who want to see Chauvin executed with no trial, I reckon, are the same people who want leniency for other types of violent criminals.

For most people, morality is solely based on social pressure. People don’t even know what they stand for: 15 years ago, the majority of Americans were against gay marriage…the same people who signal their pronouns now are the same people who would have been homophobic when it was the norm. No, “morality” for these people is the politics of the moment. Their causes are strictly determined by the mainstream media’s incitement. They sacrifice nothing for their beliefs, they live in social circles where everyone mirrors their beliefs, and they would have followed the “morality” of any age: drowning witches, accusing supposed Satanists, killing Christ. All the mobs who did those things were convinced they were doing the right thing.

Real morality isn’t supposed to be easy and it’s definitely not popular. In every age—why would ours be any exception?—the most moral characters are censored, imprisoned, and crucified. It takes courage to hold fast to the belief that all people are innocent before being proven guilty, to show empathy for those you see as evil, to resist the temptation to celebrate over your enemy’s demise. Snarky gloating may be rewarded with clout in the short-term…at the long-term price of one’s soul.

The truly moral, I believe, accept victory with humility and defeat with grace. It’s not an ideal we always live up to—I certainly don’t—but it’s one we should strive towards. The joy of winning the Super Bowl is because your team won, not because the other team lost. Cheering bin Laden’s death is far easier than trying to make a point not to. But this value is worth it. It’s worth believing in and it’s worth fighting for. If only to teach our children."

- Don't Celebrate your Enemy's Death

Comments

[lukadian]

Damn, this was well written, this line in particular stood out to me:

“Real morality isn’t supposed to be easy and it’s definitely not popular.”

Boy do I ever feel like current social media takes on morality go for both popularity and false “easy” routes, or at least, -misrepresenting- morality as easy. |D

[kradeelav]

absolutely everything you said. Personally feel like this is where a lot of the 'fickle and/or vicious' attitude comes from on social media, as we've touched on before.

[duskpeterson]

Thank you for quoting from this. I checked out the essay and thought it was well stated.

[kradeelav]

so glad to hear! :D Yeah, it's one of those things i think you could only find in quiet alternative parts of the internet that's allowed to thrive on the fringes, away from social media. sometimes i feel like that's where the good stuff is these days.