An
Empty Intellectual Arsenal?
In the euphoria of the two decisions from SCOTUS last Wednesday
that struck down DOMA and upheld the lower court’s striking down of Prop 8, I
shared a poster on my Facebook account that I now have second thoughts about.
It was a tweet attributed to actor Morgan Freeman.
Supposedly this lion of the screen said the following:
I
hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You are not scared. You are an
asshole.
Generally speaking, I think people who resort to name
calling indicate that they have exhausted their intellectual arsenal. Worse
yet, as Snopes.com
reported, there is no substantive evidence to connect this to Freeman. It does
sound like his laconic wit, at least of the persona we see on film, but that
doesn’t make him the author of this blunt ad
hominem.
But
There is a Reason…..
I would plead temporary insanity in this case. My relief
over the court’s decision (even with the disappointment in the final vote)
certainly contributed to this lapse of judgment. But there is actually a reason
that I ultimately chose to place it into the Facebook cyberspace.
When I clicked on the tweet, I found an extended Facebook
discussion of the tweet. That’s not surprising given how incendiary the comment
was and how it was attributed to a fairly well known and loved actor. But this
comment really hit me between the eyes:
Courtney
Brull - Why does someone HAVE to be an asshole jist (sic) because
they don't agree with you on your view?? No one can say they're an asshole.
They simply have their opinion just as you have yours. Everyone should respect
each other ESPECIALLY WHEN WE DISAGREE
In all fairness, the author of this comment appears from
her photo to be fairly young. So, the superficiality of the comment is somehow
expectable if not excusable. Truth be told, most of us tended to think fairly
superficially when we were young. Indeed, some of us have never developed much depth
despite the years of opportunity and experience to provide them.
Everyone
Thinks Like Me....
The problem is, she reflects the response of many people called
upon to confront their own demons. Just down the Facebook feed from this posted
tweet was another tweet from a source identified as “Tea Party Cat.” It supposedly
quotes Justice Antonin Scalia as saying
"We don't need the
Voting Rights Act. That was for when there was racism. Nowadays the South is no
more racist than I am."
As with the Freeman piece, I can find no independent verification
of this comment. But, sadly, it is fairly consistent with the kinds of comments
Scalia has made on this subject and a number of others involving civil rights
and discrimination. And it raises a crucial point here.
The epitome of unrecognized narcissism is the tendency to
think that one’s own perspective somehow forms the norm by which all other
thinking must be judged. The comment attributed to Scalia operates out of the
presumption that everyone is like me or ought to be. And, of course, that
presumption is based on a second presumption that one’s own perspective is not
only valuable but somehow the best position, indeed, the only possible
understanding, that human beings can hold.
Why would that be so?
The
Brighter the Persona….
What is even more problematic is the way such
presumptions prevent the holders of the perspectives they would see as
normative for everyone else from ever critically reflecting on those
perspectives, how they arrived at the same and whether their basis for arriving
at that perspective is sound and thus defensible. In the Scalia tweet, the
presumption operates like this: “Since the behaviors of the officials in the
jurisdictions we are considering reflect my own views and values, and I don’t
see myself as racist, therefore they can’t possibly be racist.”
Again, why would that be?
What’s avoided here is the distinct possibility that an
adult human being who has been raised in an overtly racist society might
actually harbor racist views, unconsciously if not consciously, perhaps by
means of repressed consciousness. Any time I hear such special pleading, I hear
the voice of my seminar classmate, a black school administrator originally from
New Orleans, who reminds me, “In America we breathe racist air.” Indeed, I have
had my own unrecognized racism brought to my attention more times than I would
like to admit.
Denial can take many forms. The “I can’t possibly be bigoted
because it’s inconsistent with the persona I wish others to see” variety is
common. Herein lies a major reason that purity-driven constructions of religion
have such a hard time coming to grips with their homophobia. To admit that a
deeply held understanding such as homophobia is not only not righteous but
actually sinful would require a major self-examination and critique of one’s persona. As Jung observed, “The brighter the persona, the darker
the shadow.” Little wonder so few are willing to engage in the painful
self-confrontation that repentance will require here.
It’s
Just Your Opinion…..
The comments of Courtney Brull reflects another variety of
denial – disingenuity. Brull would have us believe that this is simply a matter
of opinion, that anyone’s views on same sex marriage are somehow sacrosanct
from any kind of critique because everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Unarticulated here but clearly implied is the relativist corollary of that
assertion: Everyone is entitled to their
opinion and no one’s opinion is any more
valuable than anyone else’s.
Of course, the corollary is not true and anyone with the
capacity and the willingness to think critically recognizes the problem with
it. The evil nature of the 9-11 attacks is not simply a matter of opinion. And
the fact that some danced with glee upon seeing America poked
in the eye with a stick after all the suffering America has caused around the
world makes those events no less evil.
The right to hold opinions is sacrosanct in a democratic
society. It is the guarantee of any value system which includes freedom of
expression. But that does not mean that all opinions are born equal nor should they
automatically be seen as equally valid once articulated. In fact, they rarely are. And an
opinion based in faulty reasoning and disowned prejudice, which advocates or
affirms outcomes harmful to others must – out of intellectual honesty if
nothing else – be called what it is: evil.
Contrary to Courtney Brull’s assertions, homophobia is
not merely a matter of opinion. Like any common prejudice, it is a socially
corrosive force that has the potential to poison and debilitate community.
Worse yet, it serves to dehumanize both the target of the prejudice as well as
the holder. It makes us less than we can be as human beings. As such,
intellectual honesty requires it be called what is: evil.
Sins
of Misanthropy Compounded by Disingenuity
Common social prejudices are never a mere matter of
opinion. No matter how we dress them up or how we would seek to legitimize
them, they remain at heart what they are – species of misanthropy. Intellectually
honest human beings don’t get to simultaneously construct their fellow human
beings through negative stereotypes in irrational and harmful ways and at the
same time hold themselves free of any accountability. To do so is to compound
the sin of misanthropy with the sin of disingenuity.
Morgan Freeman may not have actually said that homophobic
attitudes are the marks of an asshole but it should hardly be a matter of
contention that such is true. And attempts to avoid that judgment by dishonest appeals
to free speech and sophistry suggest at a fairly basic level that the avoider recognizes
the truth of that assessment. In such cases, it may well be that the crude
assessment is all that really fits.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino
Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy
of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
If the unexamined life is
not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or
political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound
bytes. ++++++++++++++
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