Toughen Up

The link at the bottom of my comments here is a commentary from The Washington Times about something that got me riled up:

What is happening to us? It appears we've become not only a nation of wussies but a wussy nation. What's with all the pandering and political correctness? It continues to get worse. The movie, "Gran Torino" illustrates that a person who uses so-called "derogatory" or "offensive" terms toward people is not necessarily ignorant or insensitive or -- most importantly -- "hateful" toward a particular group.

Was it the 1960s when our nation's practice of pandering began? Like a snowball gathering size as it rolls downhill, so has the culture of politically-correct pandering. And in so doing, the "offended," i.e., weak people, have become strong.

How could this happen? Apparently easily: The panderers have repeatedly accused non-panderers of being "ignorant" for using "hate speech" (like displaying a Rebel flag, stating the belief that marriage is between a man and woman, or using the term "Islamic terrorist"), and have thereby established themselves as being intellectually superior. Non-panderers may not have agreed with the panderers' nonsensical "reasoning," but were in the inexplicably complicated position of being unable to defend a position of "hate." Therefore, over 30-40 years, the panderers' ranks have snowballed, gathering people who were, in fact, too ignorant to cognize and articulate the defense that pandering to weakness begets weakness.

But my accusation of the ignorance of the non-panderers who succumbed to the pandering way is not said with the same disdain and intellectual superiority of the panderers. It is simply a fact of nature that some people are deeper thinkers than others. The trouble is, too many people succumbed -- it does take work to think these things through -- and we all know that many panderers are actually closet non-panderers. A nation of wussies. Too afraid to come out of the closet and proclaim their intolerance of weakness. As in Clint Eastwood's character in "Gran Torino," he used a downright cornucopia of politically-incorrect, stereotypical slurs, but he had more strength, guts, and tolerance than any weak panderer could ever have.

Now we have a president who can repeatedly refer to the Koran as "holy." Even if an American politician did refer to the Bible, he certainly couldn't get away with calling it "holy," even though it is part of its title.

We need to turn this around. We need to develop a defense that even inarticulate people can easily argue. The panderers' weapon of intellectual superiority -- however false in reality it is -- has proven powerful enough to weaken us more than I could have ever imagined.

Oh, and by the way, I'm guilty too: I didn't want to offend when I said, "It appears we've become not only a nation of wussies but a wussy nation." I'll amend that by saying we've become not only a nation of pussies but a pussy nation. That's more accurate. No offense.

Victoria


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/09/americas-first-muslim-president/?feat=article_top10_read