Some thoughts on some recent events..
(yeah it is going to be one of those posts)
What we are seeing, i think, is a problem inherent with those times when the layers of tolerance and freedom to think are not equally spread to all the participants.
The scientific community is well aware of this little gem, even in this day and age when we think of things as more "advanced" than before. Speak your finding on the Earth not being the centre of the universe..bam ,..there is an organized group with the power to toss you in prison for saying things that do not jibe with their belief system. Sure you can wait a few hundred years for them to come to their sense and apologise…but who has that sort of time?
Are things much different today? In some cases not by very much. the teaching of Darwin's observations causes so much sound and furry here in the states you could easily suppose the participants step out of the Way Back machine from 100 years ago.
Getting back to the point though, I think what we are seeing now is nothing new, it is the same friction and reaction to the uneven spread of tolerance and free thinking that has played out over the recorded history of our species. It is the very same violent reaction of the dogmaticlay entrenched chosen faithful of (fill in any one of a number of true beliefs) who see any derivation from their edicts as real and proper justification for eradication, adjustment, violent protest. [1]
Thus have we seen crusades, fatwas, inquisitions, pogroms, cleansing, purifications, purges etc etc unfortunately etc. We see them through out history , we see them today and sadly our kids will see them down the road.
Sure you can posit that this one thing was the culprit or that thing was the cause or this and that was the spark…but a spark does not catch to flame unless there is fuel and oxygen for it to spread. This recent video is the blame de jour…what was it before..a cartoon, a novel, a song, how a teenage girl dressed,. In the future there will be something else that does not jibe with some group's "one true way" and enough, not all but enough, will be justified to yet again cause all manner of muck and mire.
Bonus points….What is the current body count for the followers of the various deities of Love and Compassion? as was said very well by a wise sage.. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
As to this often raised debate topic of "Freedom of Speech is Boundless/Bounded "…. It is tiring to see the same nut being cracked over and over again…
There is a thing called a Social Contract. it is hardly ever written down as it is hardly ever stable enough to not go all fluid and morph into something else. It can even be said that the cluster of people who make up your local area of the social fabric can, often do, change what Social Contract you are all working with.
Where you are, when you are and who you are with all make up a sort of Ad Hoc Social Contract. When it is broken it is blindingly obvious to most everyone in the local area. When groupings of people with widely differing Social Contracts mix the result is often a clash.
What is acceptable to say to those in your local area/social grouping will vary. Asking Mary Todd Lincoln if she enjoyed the play hours after her husband was killed….that might not be acceptable in many Social Contracts. Telling a kid there is not Santa Claus…very much depends on the local setting and contract. Answering truthfully to the question "Does this dress make me look fat?"…yeah,
Killing others over a cartoon, a film, a novel, what is being worn….I think it is safe to say for many people this is not in accordance with their shared Social Contract. For some it is in accordance with their shared Social Contract. Maybe having those two groups in local proximity of each other is not the best of ideas…as we have and are seeing play out. Ok, drop the maybe…historically it is pretty much a given that mixing that level of divergence in shared Social Contracts leads to many a bad event.
Does this mean only like minded groupings can be at peace with other like minded groups? I do not think so. Much like the often used early school Venn Diagram I think there can be peaceful coexistence where groupings can overlap, respect each other and in turn form a more complex layer of Social Contracts. Will there still be disagreement and the like. I am pretty sure that will be the case well past the time when we have given our species a new name..or two.
The chance of this almost utopian thought being played out over enough of the globe so that incidents like the one that started this thread are rare? I am still fool enough to hope it is greater than 0.01% but old enough to know even that might be an overestimation.
I would love to be proven wrong.
[1] N.B. not all the reactions to this are violent. There are the more subtle ways to get other back in line with the "one true way" that have, and still do, play out over people. Ostracization is a popular method; the threat of being separated from community, family and friends unless you act according to the "one true way". There is a popular Hollywoodcentric group that is well known for using this method, so it is not just the old organizations who are practitioners. Peer groupings are often very good at keeping the herd in line with this method as well.
