Over the previous 12 months, there are various posts left unwritten right here. To my thoughts, there was normally a purpose. Possibly it was one thing I had already written about over the 15 years of SJ’s existence. Possibly it was one thing that appeared untimely to put in writing about, a risk of a submit with too many unknowns to be ripe for dialogue. Possibly it was one thing that many had already written about, such that it was simply beating a useless horse. Possibly it was one thing to which I had no worth so as to add. Possibly it simply didn’t curiosity me.
For some, my failure to affix within the refrain of individuals praising or condemning one thing meant I took a facet, and it was the “different” facet if it wasn’t the facet they wished, anticipated or demanded of me. The simplistic woke platitude if “silence is complicity.”
Silence is complicity. https://t.co/8YS4XhLyka
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) December 30, 2022
A philosophy prof at Dickinson Faculty, Crispin Sartwell, argues that we needs to be judged on the “gates of pearl” not solely by the nice or dangerous issues we do, however by the dangerous issues we didn’t do.
Permit me to begin with this declare: We people, as ethical beings, might be as culpable for what we fail to do as for what we do. Whereas some wrongdoers commit wrongs proactively (historically generally known as sins of fee), others achieve this via inaction or sheer negligence (sins of omission). A coldblooded killer, for instance, is an energetic wrongdoer, whereas the sleazy actual property developer who fails to keep up a constructing that subsequently collapses, injuring and killing his tenants, is a passive one. Clearly, each have completed fallacious. However whereas the killer shows an apparent ethical reality (that it’s dangerous to do what one shouldn’t do), the developer provides a extra delicate one (it’s dangerous to not do what one ought to do).
It’s the type of declare that may enchantment to many, offering cowl for his or her misdeed by the false equivalence of the dangerous issues they didn’t do, as if that may be a stand-alone advantage.
Certainly, oh Everlasting Bouncer, you’ll agree that whether it is dangerous to not do what one ought to do, then it’s good to not do what one mustn’t. In different phrases, if omissions might be blameworthy, they are often praiseworthy, too.
“Certainly,” one would hope a philosophy prof would acknowledge the apparent and deadly flaw of this declare, as his metaphorical sleazy actual property developer (is there another type?) has an obligation to keep up his property. He assumed an obligation when he bought a constructing and leased it to others, took their cash after which failed to satisfy his accountability.
This basic ethical perception has beautiful implications. If embezzling cash is fallacious, as an example, then not embezzling cash is true. Nevertheless a lot cash I’ll have embezzled through the years, there may be a lot extra that I’ve commendably not embezzled, if you happen to observe me. Consider all these banks, all these charities, all these legislation corporations I didn’t steal from. The sum of money I stole, if I stole any cash, is infinitesimal in comparison with all the cash I may conceivably have stolen. Certainly, my restraint ought to earn me a couple of factors within the plus column.
That the majority of us selected to not embezzle, whether or not in any respect or greater than we did, provides us no factors within the plus column. Not embezzling is the norm, very like not doing a litany of wrongs we may have completed however didn’t. I didn’t kick a pet at present. Yay, me?
Having written many instances, maybe too many, about cops doing dangerous issues, a authorized system that produces fallacious outcomes, fails to forestall hurt, falls wanting its responsibility to offer a way of pretty resolving disputes in order to finish the necessity for trial by fight, I let many instances go by the wayside as being one other instance of the identical factor, the identical failures that I’ve parsed in excruciating element years in the past.
A few of my associates from these days (a few of whom are not very pleasant towards me) persist in writing and rewriting the identical posts and similar tales. Some do it for cash, getting a gig because the “prison legislation man” for a newspaper or web site whose responsibility is to rile up the groundlings and feed them crimson outrage meat. A few of them have amassed enormous followings of shallow individuals who continually starvation for one more story of an evil cop, as if to refute some declare that police by no means lie, cheat, steal, rape, beat and homicide.
Years in the past, it was useful to make this level clear when the circumstances have been proper. Most individuals had no concept that cops typically beat a perp after which lied about it. Somebody wanted to be the man who informed them that this was occurring as a result of so few have been doing it and so many have been saying that this stuff by no means occurred.
As we speak, the pendulum has swung to this point that too many are consumed by the idea that every one cops are bastards, that police homicide tens of 1000’s of black guys within the streets like canines yearly, that everybody and all the things is racist. The place it was as soon as useful to inform those that dangerous issues have been occurring, it’s now useful to inform those that whereas the dangerous issues nonetheless occur, they’re comparatively uncommon, there are sometimes trigger and impact causes for why and the way they occur and that typically, the cops are the nice guys. There are dangerous dudes on the market. Not everybody who loots, mugs or shoots does so to vindicate their societal oppression. Some simply need new Nike Air Jordans or an enormous display screen TV.
Have I fallen wanting my aspiration to offer helpful, considerate, useful ideas to the gates of pearl? Most likely. However I attempted to not be dishonest in my discussions. I attempted to not make anybody stupider for having learn SJ. If I’ve dedicated sins of omission in 2022, I apologize. However no less than I didn’t embezzle, so there’s that.
Glad New Yr.
