Thinking of Leaving

[Chirs]

I hear you biblemonkey. You are right about people taking offence but I think you'll find that this is a culture-wide phenomenon. (Warning: I tend to view the world from a wide, academic perspective. I have little skill when dealing with the individual.) We live in what has been called a "Risk Management" society. Originally, Risk Management was a business model that did exactly what the name would suggest: it managed any possibility of threat to a company. As with most things 'business', this has seeped into the culture and is now a standard mode of interaction at the personal level.

Risk Management is, in my opinion, an unfortunate way of doing things. While it may work well in a corporate environment, it has little to offer at the "human level." RM tends to be a negation; i.e. it is not focused on doing, but on avoiding. Political Correctness is an aspect of RM. Consider: what is it to be PC? To my understanding, PC is all about not offending others. We think about the words we cannot say, the things we cannot do, the clothes we should not wear... everything that needs to be avoided. At no time does it concern itself with what we can say, do, wear... It is a mindset that offers nothing 'good'; it simply tries to avoid all things 'bad'.

The obvious argument that comes to my mind is: Do anything you like so long as no one is offended; everything is good so long as it's not bad. Of course, now that it is written, that argument seems a little trite but it does seem to be a guiding light in our culture at this time. We have become so desperately egalitarian that we are totalitarian in our implementation of it, giving meaning to everything everyone has to say until all becomes meaningless. However, as with all things, this too has a context. We didn't get here without cause. We have a terrible history of ignoring what others have to say, and of offending as if it were the most natural thing, as if we were merely describing the way moss grows on a tree.

Because it is undesirable to direct people in their every action we simply attempt to offer direction away from what is not wanted. This is the model of most laws in our culture: they tell us what to avoid instead of listing all that we can do. Well, at least, that is the idea. Like so many other good ideas, we have taken things a bit too far. Because we have become so focused on managing risk, we are overly focused on what could possibly be offensive. So, rather than seeing a statement made by another as the opinion of that person, we see "that which must not be!" When offence is what we are looking for, we will find it everywhere.

(Please bear in mind that this is only a glimpse at one aspect of some very complex social theories and is in no way complete. Add to this the Culture of Entitlement to begin, then more after that... You get the idea.)

Now, all that being said, I have read your comments are disagree with you most stridently! However, I tend to take the position that everyone is free to hold what opinion they like and, should they avail themselves of the right to express said opinions, they must prepare themselves for what rebuttals may come.

[biblemonkey]

...I tend to take the position that everyone is free to hold what opinion they like and, should they avail themselves of the right to express said opinions, they must prepare themselves for what rebuttals may come.

Exactly! I had noted before that if someone has an issue with a post they need to talk it out with the individual first and not cry to teacher at the drop of a hat. That's the thing that really bothers me. No personal yet polite confrontation, just report 'em!