No Offense Intended

Victims of the Colorado theater shooting are “offended” by the reopening and remembrance ceremonies. Liberals are “offended” by conservative efforts to uphold the 2nd amendment. A female employee is “offended” by a Gaugin print of semi-nude woman in a co-worker’s office. An atheist parent is “offended” because his daughter has to say “under God” in the pledge.

Our society has allowed offense to be confused with harm. A different opinion is now considered offensive. Marcus Aurelius said if you remove the opinion, you remove the complaint; remove the complaint and you remove the offense. Our society needs to pause and remember the basis of its founding. Many of our founders came here because they couldn’t openly express their opinions. They fought a war of liberation from England to establish a place where contrasting opinions could be freely expressed. We are gradually losing that freedom.

Greg Gutfield made a good point on Fox News' The Five last week. Liberals generally see their ideas as open-minded while they see conservative ideas as evil. Gutfeld's liberal co-host, Bob Beckel, repeatedly called the NRA a "bunch of thugs." He conceives of those who champion the idea that US citizens have the right to bear arms as "thugs," but liberals who seek to undermine or redefine the Second Amendment as noble. Beckel's "thugs" employ rational arguments about the meaning of the Constitution; his liberal peers attempt to cash in on the emotional trauma following shootings like Newtown. As I tell my Comp students, arguments based solely on pathos (emotion) are weaker than those based on logos (reason.) The real thugs are the ones who would manipulate others with tear stained pleas instead of rational arguments.

The same kind of disparity occurs in debates about the place of religion in society. Sharing Islam, Buddhism or Eastern mysticism is fine, but mention anything having a Christian connection and it is immediately singled out by the ACLU as a First Amendment violation. A corollary to this is found in what might be called nationalism. The manic emphasis on multiculturalism that infects academia today seems oblivious to the fact that America has a culture too, and by virtually criminalizing any act of patriotism or expression of national pride, they discriminate against the native culture. How we came to despise national pride is befuddling.

According to Neil Cavuto, his Mom used to say you can tell a lot about a person by what upsets them: little things -- little person; petty things -- petty person. Neil included this in his monologue, "Life is short; that doesn’t mean we have to be." It is on my list of recommended viewing. An exchange one might have heard years ago seems unlikely today: "No offense intended," says the gentleman. "None taken," responds the scholar. Or as the Apostle Paul recommended to the Romans, don't go around picking fights (12:18, my translation.) Open, rational debate is the sine qua non of our government and society. But when debate descends to dismissive demogoging and derisive name-calling it ceases to be helpful. It becomes offensive in the true sense of the word; it creates harm.