I remember reading the syndicated comic strip, There Oughta Be a Law! From 1944 to 1985, Harry Shorten and Al Fagaly highlighted many of the ironies, absurdities, and hypocrisies of the time – the worker who was often late coming to the office but was always on time for golf – the neighbors who paid close attention to the woman upstairs, except when her apartment was burglarized – the product that looked great in the ad, but not so much in real life – the homeowner who thought the rules applied to everyone except him. Implied in the title was the sentiment that somehow someone ought to do something about these things. But what can be done? It’s not illegal to be a hypocrite. And, as Thomas More pointed out, it’s not illegal to be a bad person. Laws can only address harmful or negligent actions. Perhaps humor is the best way to address human foibles. Still, many people feel life would be better if only we could control what others say and do, or in some cases how they look.
We hear demands that books should be banned, groups of people should be shunned, or certain individuals should be “cancelled.” Some of these calls are repugnant not just because they turn a blind eye to the faults of the accusers but because they are the product of religious beliefs or political ideology. In a sense, some are calling for those who do not parrot the same words as “true” believers be labelled infidels or evildoers, regardless of the good they might be doing for society. And of course, those who break with the party over certain issues are labelled RINOs or DINOs. The “No True Scotsman” fallacy could be renamed the “No True Christian” fallacy or the “No True Conservative/Liberal” fallacy because there is always another condition to be met, one more yard to go to reach the goalpost. And the grace to just let people live their lives is difficult to find these days.
The harm that can be done is incalculable. Are other people the enemy just because they don’t agree with us? Is one party or one religion the sole arbiter of truth? If we believe God hates all the same people as we do, doesn’t that say more about us than about God? It’s easy to find reasons to criticize or condemn others. It’s considerably harder to give others the benefit of the doubt, to presume them innocent until they actually do something harmful.
Are drag queens, trans people, or gay couples really the problem or is it simply easier to find scapegoats than to try to understand those who are different from us? It seems to me the end of civilization will not result from the existence of homosexuals, but from our general failure to live up to the name homo sapiens (wise humans). We spend far too much time trying to control others and much too little time trying to control ourselves.
Socrates put it this way: “If you think that by killing men you can prevent someone from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves.”
We all have faults and prejudices. Any of us could be wrong. [I’ve argued elsewhere that in the end, we might all discover just how wrong we are.] So, we must remain humble. While we might think “there oughta be a law,” unless they have done harm, trying to control others is not the way. Far better thinkers than I have shown us what we should do (See Matthew, Chapter 5). The challenge is to stick to the task of becoming better human beings.
MurrayWorks 