Where do we draw the line?
Recently, I have been watching a lot of YouTube/ MySpace videos of Chris Crocker - the boy who cried for Britney Spears. When I first started watching them, I was appalled at some of the things he had to say - saying that we should teach our children to swear, that personality means nothing - only looks matter, or he hates gay men who say "flamer" and date straight-acting men.
For the most part, I try to live my life by the Voltaire quote
"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
I have always said that I'll never tell you that an idea is wrong - I may disagree with it, but if it's your belief, it's your belief, and there's not much I can do to change that. So, I suppose that my problems with the Chris Crocker videos came from the comments, not the videos themselves. People are commenting on his videos, telling him how retarded he sounds, even going as far as to tell him to go kill himself. This may be just me, but that's where I draw the line. I'm fine with whatever you have to say, as long as it isn't attacking someone. I know I may sound like a hypocrite, since I know I've said my fair share about a certain president. But, I've also never said anything about his beliefs, only his policies - which force too many of his religious beliefs onto the entire country. Then, on the other side, I often wonder how I would react if I met a hardcore homophobic person - who honestly felt that gay people are wrong, sinners and should not be alive; Fred Phelps for example. I like to believe that I would be able to stay calm and get my ideas across in a civilized manner, but I honestly doubt that I would be able to once he started telling me that my friends and I should be burning in hell because of our faggotry and "fag-enabling." I don't know if I could do it, but who would be able to if someone was taking such an attack against who we are? I think that that is where a lot of today’s problems are coming from; people don't even want to try and see something other than what they are. There's a lack of trying to understand where people are coming from, only about themselves. Especially in western culture, we focus on the individual - the individual comes before the population. If you loose your individuality, you have almost died. In the eastern cultures it is completely the opposite - the population comes first; the good of the culture before the good of the individual. I think both sides need to learn something from the other hemisphere. I certainly agree with individuality and free thought, that's how we get new ideas, but we also need to recognize that we are part of a society with many diverse kinds of people and we can't force our beliefs on others, or tell someone that they're wrong, for that will be what brings down our society, not terrorism or global warming - it will be our own intolerance. I know it.
For the most part, I try to live my life by the Voltaire quote
"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
I have always said that I'll never tell you that an idea is wrong - I may disagree with it, but if it's your belief, it's your belief, and there's not much I can do to change that. So, I suppose that my problems with the Chris Crocker videos came from the comments, not the videos themselves. People are commenting on his videos, telling him how retarded he sounds, even going as far as to tell him to go kill himself. This may be just me, but that's where I draw the line. I'm fine with whatever you have to say, as long as it isn't attacking someone. I know I may sound like a hypocrite, since I know I've said my fair share about a certain president. But, I've also never said anything about his beliefs, only his policies - which force too many of his religious beliefs onto the entire country. Then, on the other side, I often wonder how I would react if I met a hardcore homophobic person - who honestly felt that gay people are wrong, sinners and should not be alive; Fred Phelps for example. I like to believe that I would be able to stay calm and get my ideas across in a civilized manner, but I honestly doubt that I would be able to once he started telling me that my friends and I should be burning in hell because of our faggotry and "fag-enabling." I don't know if I could do it, but who would be able to if someone was taking such an attack against who we are? I think that that is where a lot of today’s problems are coming from; people don't even want to try and see something other than what they are. There's a lack of trying to understand where people are coming from, only about themselves. Especially in western culture, we focus on the individual - the individual comes before the population. If you loose your individuality, you have almost died. In the eastern cultures it is completely the opposite - the population comes first; the good of the culture before the good of the individual. I think both sides need to learn something from the other hemisphere. I certainly agree with individuality and free thought, that's how we get new ideas, but we also need to recognize that we are part of a society with many diverse kinds of people and we can't force our beliefs on others, or tell someone that they're wrong, for that will be what brings down our society, not terrorism or global warming - it will be our own intolerance. I know it.