It is easy to stand against long dead evils that virtually everyone agrees was an evil. The evils of today which are celebrated as good by powerful forces takes a fair amount of courage to stand against.
Defeated and Undefeated Evils
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Well done, Professor George.
My third son paraphrases something he heard some years ago, and I like how he does it. He says if you see yourself as one of the great heroes of history bravely standing up against the evils of the age, there’s a 99% chance you’re wrong.
And he’s right. If I’m in the South back then, knowing me now, the best you get out of me is grumbles – and that’s the best you can hope for. In Germany in the 30s? My biggest hope is that I would have loathed the Nazi system, but would have kept my head down and mouth shut. I might have stood up for blacks in the 50s. My mom did, and perhaps I would have spoken out more then, as it was becoming easier to do.
My biggest feather is that I’m resisting the new racism against whites, or sexism against men when convenient, or political discrimination, even when I disagree with those targeted. If nothing else, the last decade of the Left has allowed me to think I might have done better in the past than I use to imagine.
If nothing else, the last decade of the Left has allowed me to think I might have done better in the past than I use to imagine.
^^that^^
Part of why the students are being sophomoric is because they haven’t been taught the range of what folks did; it’s possible that they may not have been Brave And Outspoken Abolitionists…but they may have worked to do good where they were, and supported/defended Those Crazy Abolitionist religious fanatics. Pointed out horrible things that slavery involved.
Done the right thing when it was right there.
…at least, if someone had suggested that was a reasonable way to Make A Difference.
Rather than that if they weren’t going to be Good People unless they were full-bore charging for the immediate removal of slavery.
Yeah, you do need to stand up even when it’s unpopular– not that “it’s unpopular” is a great selection method, but it’s when you’re going to be tempted to find a way out– but there are a lot of ways to stand up, and individuals are best positioned to figure out how they can best help.
If they are armed with the world-view that it’s fine to be other members of the Fellowship, besides Frodo.
…that doesn’t lend itself well to back-patting tweets, though.
Look at Roe v Wade.
Nope, I don’t go march for life. I would be a really bad face for it.
But I do look up information, give aid to those helping Women In Trouble, say something when people spread falsehoods, etc.
It works. When I was a teen, no group of a dozen random young adults would reflexively and openly make pro-life statements, not unless it was an explicitly religious group, and even then it wasn’t very common.
The Geek+Gamer guys, on the other hand, before the Supreme court leak, did. (Note, they cuss and are rather impolite/crass. But not a one was OK with abortion. Not the gals, not the guys.)
That kind of a cultural change takes folks who are against a thing, but aren’t defined by it. If you’re defined by it, you can be demonized.
Very much what Dave said. I will not deny my cowardice.
But what I find concerning is that many of those students probably would answer the tweet above with all their activism. Because the left regularly preaches and convinces their adherents that they are still the underdogs and society is still oppressive and evil and racist, etc etc . Just go look at any of Shea’s posts where him and those commenting are convinced we’re in a libertarian hellscape.