I'm rather cross with everyone today. So I'll start off with a quiz. What is this?

Think about it for a few minutes while I ramble on in my usual fashion.

To me, one of the most urgent messages we need to convey to humanity as a whole is that the horrors and atrocities we associate with war, civil unrest, or the breakdown of civilisation in general are not caused by particularly monstrous people. Most of the people I know believe this, and they are wrong, wrong, wrong. They think the Holocaust was perpetrated by monsters in human form. They think serial killers are subhuman.

The human race doesn't get off that lightly.

People do these things. I didn't say all people do these things. Maybe you wouldn't, ever. Maybe you belong to Milgram's sane one-third: you remember. The ones who wouldn't administer electric shocks to a stranger just because some guy in a white coat told them to. But are you absolutely sure?

Here are some questions for you:

• Is there a group of people on this planet that you secretly feel superior to? People with a different race/nationality/educational level/set of ideas/entertainment preference/religion/set of abilities? What lengths would you be willing to go to in order to make sure you didn't have to deal with those people, ever again?
• How badly do you hate change? To what lengths would you be willing to go in order to make sure your way of doing things, which is of course the right way, remained the norm?
• Are you uninterested in the how/why of messy political or economic situations? Do you feel that 'they' should fix this without its being your problem?
• If someone tries to tell you that the people you're supporting are doing something wrong, do you listen? Or do you hurry to say, 'yes, but…' or 'what about…' Are you aware that 'whataboutism' is now an actual word?
• Do you tend to make excuses for the bad behaviour of people you like for some other reason?
• Do you feel that membership in a group that has been persecuted entitles you to persecute some other group? Just a little, maybe? How long ago can your group's persecution be and still entitle you to a free atrocity or two?
• Do you wish that 'those people ' – meaning a group you don't belong to – would quit 'being so sensitive', meaning insisting on their right to the same recognition as everyone else?
• Have you ever come up with a really clever explanation for why giving equal rights to other people is a bad idea? Such as 'we don't want an Equal Rights Amendment for women because then they wouldn't have to put more ladies' rooms in the building?' (Actual example from the 1970s. I won't tell you who said that to me, so don't ask.)
• Have you ever gone out of your way to tell a joke that you know makes fun of someone else for something they can't help and didn't do on purpose? Does the excuse 'no offence meant' or 'it's only humour' cut any ice with you? (It cuts zero ice with me.)
• Do you think there is any excuse, ever, for people telling 'Helen Keller jokes' or pretending not to believe in her accomplishments?

And each of us who has allowed the shape of another person's nose, or the color of their skin, or the manner in which they worship their god to poison our feelings toward them, have known the loss of reason.

–   The Eichmann Show

And here's the answer to the miniquiz:

Dmitri Gheorgheni

08.03.21 Front Page

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