I just finished, in succession, biographies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. (The recent Joseph Ellis ones.) The latter one particularly revolves around the central question of Jefferson's character-the slaveowner who believed that all men should be free. Ellis, essentially, argues, that Jefferson believed BOTH of those things-that slavery must continue and that all men should be free. It makes your brain hurt.
We all know that the founders, and the ancient Greeks, and most of the people who have walked the planet, lived very different lives from 21st century Westerners. Thus, it is unfair to look at say, John McGraw (New York Giants manager from the pre-integration years) and castigate him for not signing black ballplayers. The late Buck O'Neil, bless him, said as clearly as he could that he was not bitter about the fame and glory denied him by his skin color, and he has a lot more right than I do to judge. So my brain hurts, and I move along.
I don't understand homophobia, either, here on National Coming Out Day. I have an academic interest in what homosexuality feels like, in the same sense that I want to know what any human whose life is different from mine has experienced. I don't honestly know any gay people. I mean, statistically I know I must. But no one I know has told me that they are gay. I wonder what it is about homosexuality that inspires such a virulent dislike-Christians who profess to love thy neighbor and simultaneously hate thy neighbor. My brain hurts
I understand that feeling-the often quoted words from Fitzgerald-to hold two opposing ideas in your head at the same time is the mark of superior intelligence. I know that I need to schedule flu shots, get my finances in order, begin to plan for a trip this weekend, not let another day of vacation (my first in four years!) slip by...and yet I have spent the day communing with Jefferson, agonizing with the revealed civilian death figure from Iraq, and blogging, and posting angry political screeds on bulletin boards.
I feel like Michael Stipe sounds when he sings "All The Way To Reno".
I guess I'm fairly intelligent. I don't know. But whatever intelligence I do have feels like a curse today-there is too much misery to breathe. Too much information to process, too much to know and read and feel and understand.
Jefferson knew he had more to learn. Could it be that I want to learn less?
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with your head. Consider this: Jefferson was at worst a hypocrite and at best, a savvy politician willing to compromise his beliefs in order to move the rest of the agenda to create a nation forward. It's total rationalization to claim that there is any reconciliation between such diametrically opposed philosophies. If one genuinely believes that all people are equal, with certain unalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness then the only logical conclusion is that slavery, which takes away liberty, pursuit of happiness, and therefore life, is morally reprehensible and incompatible with the first premise of the equality of all. One of the greatest difficulties that humankind has with moving forward in truly respecting the worth of all people is our insistence on finding some justification for our prejudices and bigotry instead of acknowledging that both are inexcusable. We are all guilty of some degree of prejudice and perhaps even bigotry. Having those feelings is not the problem. The problem is when we try to justify them instead of admitting to ourselves that we have an issue. Once we acknowledge our own level of bias, then we can guard against acting based on it and make an effort to rid ourselves of it.
ReplyDeletePS Thanks for reading my blog.
http://journals.aol.com/aimer/on-my-mind/
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with your head. Consider this: Jefferson was at worst a hypocrite and at best, a savvy politician willing to compromise his beliefs in order to move the rest of the agenda to create a nation forward. It's total rationalization to claim that there is any reconciliation between such diametrically opposed philosophies. If one genuinely believes that all people are equal, with certain unalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness then the only logical conclusion is that slavery, which takes away liberty, pursuit of happiness, and therefore life, is morally reprehensible and incompatible with the first premise of the equality of all. One of the greatest difficulties that humankind has with moving forward in truly respecting the worth of all people is our insistence on finding some justification for our prejudices and bigotry instead of acknowledging that both are inexcusable. We are all guilty of some degree of prejudice and perhaps even bigotry. Having those feelings is not the problem. The problem is when we try to justify them instead of admitting to ourselves that we have an issue. Once we acknowledge our own level of bias, then we can guard against acting based on it and make an effort to rid ourselves of it.
ReplyDeletePS Thanks for reading my blog.
http://journals.aol.com/aimer/on-my-mind/