At the risk of being canceled, I’d like to suggest that we - a thinking, educated, literate, reasonable and tolerant people - cancel the “cancel culture.”
This so-called “culture” is odious to anyone who wants to appreciate difference, debate ideas, understand history and fathom the complexity of the human person. It threatens the future of free speech in our society and, consequently, our common search for truth.
The founders of this nation were not afraid to proffer freedom of speech as a bedrock value. They knew that the freedom to speak one’s mind, whether with popular or unpopular ideas, would contribute to a more vibrant nation…a nation of individuals who would not be arbitrarily silenced by government or by each other.
John Milton, writing in the 17th century, envisioned a “marketplace of ideas” where Truth would battle Falsehood…and win. His marketplace requires the use of reason to engage with opposing views. It requires challenging what we see as “error” with the “truth” of which we are so certain.
But in the 21st century we’ve developed legions of like-opinioned thought assassins to surround and conquer the marketplace of ideas. Their role is to identify perspectives that might contradict “acceptable” opinions – and follow the order, “shoot to cancel”. This is bullying at its worst. Bullies make no attempt to change contradictory perspectives because civilized conversation would entail listening to opposing views, thus running the risk of learning what the hated persons actually think…and why they came to their conclusions. It might even lead to changing ones’ own mind, which the cancel culture does not allow.
Canceling a person means we don’t have to recognize complexity - we just vilify, ostracize and justify hate based solely on perspectives we don’t make the effort to understand. Let’s get back to using “cancel” for appointments, and for streaming services we join just to watch Hamilton a single movie, and for orders we place in haste (or under the influence) on Amazon. Cancel is not a verb that should ever apply to a human person. It’s tantamount to covering our eyes, plugging our ears, and turning off our brains so we don’t have to think about alternative viewpoints.
If a “truth” can’t stand up to disagreement, it is probably not true at all.
