By now most of you should have heard about the hullabaloo in Seattle over the Christmas trees in their airport. If you have not, here is the link.
There has been much said about this uproar already, so I will not waste your time rehashing all the arguments about this event itself. What is more important is the backdrop that allowed this situation to occur.
American society and culture has fallen under the power of an ominous tyranny of the minority.
We have entered an era where any discomfort, any disparity, and any irritation that is suffered by someone in a non-majority group requires that the majority change. This is not just happening with Christmas trees, but in all types of areas involving all types of people. Take for example the case involving U.S. currency. Recently an advocacy group for the blind sued the U.S. government, claiming that American paper money is discriminatory because the blind can't tell bills apart. Rather than using the democratic process to affect this change, they went to the courts, who could subvert the system through judicial activism.
Our paper money has been "discriminatory" for decades and decades. Why sue now? Why now take this issue to the courts? Two reasons: 1) As I've discussed before, judicial activists now feel it is their duty to push their "enlightened" perspective onto the rest of us; and 2) We've come to the point that our society bends over backward for anyone who is not in the majority. Our society has changed.
For generations upon generations it was understood that being in a group other than the majority meant having to deal with this reality. Obviously, gross abuses like discrimination, racism, sexism, and the like cannot be tolerated and must be addressed by any means necessary. But we have long since left that realm when dealing with things like seeing a Christmas tree in an airport, or having to ask the banker which bill is which, or having to hear Christmas music in the mall, or having to go to the office Christmas party.
We live in a country that is predominately Christian, even if only culturally so. We live in a country that can mostly see. Because you do not like the fact that you live in a country that is unlike you does not give you the right to demand that everyone else change so that you can feel like you are part of the majority.
Yes, the government cannot endorse one religion over another, but to a certain degree the government reflects the people it governs.
So we've changed it to the "holiday tree", we've changed them to "holiday parties", we've changed it to "winter break", we've changed them to "holiday concerts". We bend over backward for the minority. It is their country now. The minority, no matter what minority, may make nearly any demand of the majority, and the majority folds. Racism, sexism, and outright discrimination must be addressed by the system.
The problem is, this is more than just a systematic, governmental problem. In the nuanced areas where this battle is being fought it is a battle for control over our culture. Will we have a moral, religious society, or a secular-liberal one. Culture must be democratically decided.
As for now, it's not. It's a tyranny of the minority.
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4 comments:
Recently I was thinking of affirmative action. Racisim is a terrible thing in our country. I think in general that it is better than it was but I think it is still a major problem that has taken a more subtle form. For that reason, affirmative action is great. For the cases when it is two equally skilled people applying for the same job, I think it is good practice to hire the minority because it is hard to deny the fact that the minority does not have the same chances that we have.
But, and a big but, I really think that it is not the case of two equally skilled people 90% of the time. With that, I think affirmative action is horrible because what it is doing is lowering the bar for minorities. It is teaching them that they do not have to work that hard because it will be given to them. Because of that mindset I think success, on many levels, has not become a strong pursuit in many minority cultures. I also think that this is the reason why across the board white students outperform minority students and because the culture is the way that it is, there is no reason for minority students to make themselves better because they have been blinded by their culture.
I hope people reading this are not getting offended. I'm not intending to racist so please don't take it that way. What I want is to see a change and I just feel that the way things are now, it is impossible to do so.
Gern, your sentiment is well taken. High standards force everyone to strive, innovate, work hard, and perform. We should not expect any less of any one group just because of skin color. It would be super-insulting to my black friends to suggest that they can get away will doing a half-ass job just because they are black. It would be like saying "your skin color means that you have different standards. You need lower standards. You can't meet the standards everyone else has." Lowering the bar is no good. What we need to do is find ways to get everyone to not only exceed expectaions, but raise the bar. I think that's the point you are getting at, and I think it's a good one.
It's tough these days for people who have common sense...people like Bill Cosby (one of our favorite comedians). He said what was on his mind, and he gets in trouble. Why?
Because he said that certain "knuckleheads" need to do something with their lives. This seems like a good idea. However, he got in trouble because the people he refered to were black youths.
We still live in a very racially charged world, unfortunately. Pure affirmative action is not a pure solution though, to increase diversity. I believe Bill has some more suggestions for a solution, but he sure has been criticized a lot...
gern...do you really think that we live in a greatly unequal society? It’s a debate that I have been kicking around with many friends lately. I say no. Whatever racism that still exists is a from a whacked out few that causes a great deal of problems for those of us who are indeed not racist in the least….not to mention, it is much easier to prove someone has acted like a racist than it is to prove someone has not acted like a racist…which creates a false negative impression. Secondly, I feel as though there is way too much attention given to the negative perspective on race: it goes like this, "Minorities, especially black people, are still not 100% equal and we are still fighting for the rights the over-privileged white. The only way it will ever happen is through laws that force people to hire us, admit us in to college, or even provide some small form or reparations. Its disgusting, this world." To me that is an argument that is forever divisive and will never lead to a solid and diverse coalition of humans working hand in hand to stop the few who still are divided by color. In my mind society has made, and continues to make great strides on the issue of race…the debate on race should be phrased in this manor: "Minorities and black people have more rights and more equal opportunities to succeed than any people of any color of any era. Now is the time and opportunity to attack poor reading and test scores among our youth, so that they are prepared to be extremely successful in life. Now is the time to work on social issues like black on black violence and the infatuation with gang culture. Now is the time to bring families together instead of breaking them apart. Now is the time to be accountable to mistakes made...to be accountable for our actions...now it the time to take the rights and privileges and opportunities we have and make our ancestors proud. Make them proud by doing what's right...showing them that their fight for freedom...fight to sit at a lunch counter...fight to drink from a public fountain...right to be heard in government did not stop there...but propels us into a glorious future!" If I made those comments at an NAACP convention I would be called the spawn of David Duke. Why? Because it does not fit the action line of almost every civil rights leader since the death of MLK (whom I believe is a great American hero and different from Jackson/Sharpton/etc)...the action line of we have been wronged...we still are being wronged...and someone must pay.
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