The Big Smoke

Do you know what I hate about blogs? How much they block communication. I mean, I could read a book, and it would be a lot less half-assed than most blogs out there (including this one), and the author would be so distant from me they might as well not even exist, right?

Now, I mostly made this blog as release for my spam gland, which plagues the sites I frequent to no end, but surprisingly, according to Google, it actually is getting readers after only a few weeks on line. That’s pretty fucking cool.  I also got a shiny new comment way at the bottom there, and it probably would be lost forever, as happens on Blogs. But I’m not going to let that happen. If someone actually takes the time to write something well thought out and interesting here, I’m going to take the time to reply. But here’s the trippy part: Apparently this post was made by Jack Marshall, proprietor of a site I read and get angry at often, but also love (link here). Is it? Maybe, maybe not. Doesn’t matter for the purposes of this, but if it is, cool.

Jack, who I’ll assume it is for now, responded to this post and said something very interesting on a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about lately:

It doesn’t matter what bile they may hold in the darkest corners of their souls. Are you saying that it’s cowardly not to act on your worst biases? People also say stupid racist things to friends and families to blow off steam, to joke, to avoid arguments…so what? What matters is what people DO.

 Touché. Honestly, I’ve been trying to think of an honest argument against this, but I can’t come up with anything solid enough for my liking.

 Say I disagree with a taboo, and let’s say, for the sake of argument, that this is a good taboo to agree with, and I’m just an asshole. Now I may never break this taboo, or at least try not to, because I don’t want to offend my good company. But can I easily separate my actions from my beliefs? Or am I just going to channel my actions subconsciously, maybe even without realizing it? I mean, my only motivation for not breaking the taboo is public shame, not inner guilt. And if I don’t get caught, so what? Right?

 What’s the best motivator to be on your best behaviour: Shame or Guilt? We all have dark impulses, and those are pretty much the only two things keeping us civilized, when it comes right down to it. From personal experience, and what I’ve seen of others, I would say guilt.

I’ll spare you some long stories, but I live in a part of Canada with a lot of Natives - a lot more than you tend to see in other parts of North America - and when I think of white people saying racist things in casual settings, but acting perfectly respectful otherwise, it’s usually about the Natives. Of course, in the big city, no one is going to say those kinds of things, say, at work, or to a Native. But to a friend while having a drink? Sure, all the time.

George Bush often uses a phrase I love, "The soft bigotry of low expectations."  You just don’t hire a Native. They’ll get drunk and not show up one day. Now, I’ve been to a few different reservations in two different provinces. What do you find there? Drunks. But also doctors, and other people who work regularly and stay clean. One of my favourite people in the world is a Cree elder who has a PhD in psychology and a long career in social work. But the Natives who have their lives together almost without exception work on (and usually for) the reservation and at low wages because in the city people treat Natives very respectfully and never let them get past an interview.

So, for that and other reasons, I really have to think that guilt, not shame, is the driving factor for ethical behaviour. I really do believe that people act on what they feel, not on what society accepts or demands. Disagreeing with a taboo just leads you to be a little more clever at breaking those taboos.

 As for Sasha Cohen having balls… well, he has the balls to do things I would never do in exchange for millions of dollars, and people’s reputations. And I get to sit back and enjoy it comfortably without taking those same risks, or hurting those people. Not as great as I made it out to be.

  Then on the other hand, he’s not "the Beverly Hillbillies", and out just to make fun of rednecks. He makes something that’s ugly, and that makes you uncomfortable, and is just there, for the world to see. At the risk of sounding like a angry hippy idiot university student: Everything good about Western Civilization has been ugly, has made people uncomfortable, and has been right out in the open, from Socrates, to the Declaration of Independence. We need to be made uncomfortable about our problems, or else we ignore them, and let them fester and get worse. I’m not saying Cohen is going to change the world, but he is going to make some people think about things they’d rather not think about.

 I have a whole other rant here, but I think I’ve ranted enough for the time being.