I should have left the house the last two days. Not because there was anything I particularly needed to do. Not because I needed the exercise, not because I needed the fresh air. I needed the change of scenery to reset my mind. I’m having a bad attack of holier than thou. I was planning an entry on it, a philosophical tract. Then I realized that writing under those conditions is against the very principles I want to write about. Let me try to address this with no specifics, not calling out any specific people.
There was a time when I was young that 2% milked was deceptively called 98% fat-free milk. You see where that comes from? If it’s 2% fat then it is 98% not fat. Makes it sound like they took out 98% of the fat. That’s not true of course. Whole milk is 4% fat and so by that logic 96% fat free. The marketers tried to take advantage of people’s ignorance. I saw someone try to use exactly the same reasoning with COVID-19. Look how great we are doing, 98.6% of the people live. So, what if that adds up to 170,000 people dead. So what? That if we opened up the country and let it spread so everyone gets it that would mean almost 5 million dead. “But everyone won’t get it.” True the latest evidence is that we get herd immunity if only 60% of the people get it, so it’s only 3 million dead. No big deal. A small price to pay to not wear a mask.
See there I am getting angry and sarcastic. That’s what I’m trying to not do. Let me try again. My problem is that people want one set of rules for us and another for them. Our sins all have deeper reasons that if they don’t justify them, at least mitigate them. But if you point out a mitigating factor for one of them they you are a traitor to the cause and supporting their position. People hate that the world is complex and want simple solutions. They don’t want justice, they want revenge. If someone is hurt then someone else needs to be hurt to make up for it. Whether that’s fair or not is besides the point. I’m a progressive and my fellows are quick to find blame when conservatives do that. They see that it’s wrong to react to 9/11 by attacking Muslims, by treating anyone peripherally involved with terrorist organizations, even if through coercion, as guilty as the masterminds and those that do the killing. But too often they lose their progressive perspective when the perpetrators are from groups that they don’t like. I was aghast when a friend of a friend gleefully fantasized about Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old that shot and killed two protestors, being anally raped in prison. When I posted about it and described 17-year-old Rittenhouse as a child people got angry, as if I were defending him. Legally he is a child. When countries send 17-year-olds to war we call them child soldiers. Progressives are aghast as they should be. When the US defended that we allow 17-year-olds into the army we condemned that. You can’t change the rules because this 17-year-old did something horrible that gets you angry. And it isn’t as if he went there to shoot people. “He was there with his mother and in his mind they were defending the shops.” Did you know that he offered medical assistance to protestors [Tracking the Suspect in the Fatal Kenosha Shootings]. Then came the deadly mix of anger and guns. A shot was fired, not by Rittenhouse, and he responded by firing his weapon. He carried a military weapon that he was not old enough to own into a potential conflict. That’s criminal. He killed people. That’s criminal and immoral and horrific. None of that changes the fact that he’s a child. I’ve supported not trying minors as adults my entire life, under any circumstances. As always the weight of harsh policies falls harder in blacks than whites, far harder. Blacks are far more likely to be tried as adults. But that doesn’t mean that we should change our ideas of what’s right and wrong depending on who does it. Isn’t that exactly what Black Lives Matters is about? Equal justice?
I could have emphasized the Trump supporter using innumeracy to downplay COVID-19. I could have written about the Met fan that wants to trade Dom Smith, who is having a marvelous season, because he took a knee in protest. But that would be preaching to the choir. I would get lots of support, people would think say good things about me, but how does it make the world better? The world gets better when people get better, and people get better when they see they recognize their faults. I’m trying to not watch any of the RNC, but I took a survey and had to watch parts of it. I saw speaker after speaker objecting to any criticism of the US. One even said that the country always fought for equality; the Fugitive Slave Act was fighting for equality? Jim Crow laws were fighting for equality? Redlining black neighborhoods by the U.S. government was fighting for equality? But the RNC see any criticism as condemnation of everything, and so reject what it takes to improve. I don’t want progressives to follow the same path.
I ended up writing exactly what I said I wasn’t going to write. Why? Because this wrote itself. It’s where my mind is at, and this is my blog. I’m being true to myself and hoping that it does no harm, and maybe some good. The words and ideas flowed. As a blogger that’s precious. Sometimes that happens when I write about chocolate, sometimes about bacon, and today about fairness. That is how I see the theme. That we must be fair. One set of rules for everyone, including ourselves.
I’ll try to not be as self-righteous tomorrow. I hope the words flow as naturally as they did today. That’s the second theme, perhaps the bridge, and this is the resolution.
Wise Madness 