I don't pretend my blog is apolitical, and I don't pretend my beliefs aren't primarily conservative with a dash of libertarianism. But in more recent years I've tried to keep political posts more about thinking and policies than personalities and characters -- and not just because 98 percent of those are, um. icky. I'm trying to model behavior I'd like to see, even if the number of people who read what I say is not large and the number of people who consider themselves guided by my opinions is even more not large.
But I really do feel I have to make a political statement: It's wrong to follow people into the bathroom with a camera, cell phone or otherwise. I am saddened to make this statement, not because I find the position a difficult one to take or because it represents some deeply divisive political position. I'm saddened because that statement should be one of basic courtesy, common sense, and a whole host of other things that have nothing to do with politics. But because of people without courtesy, without common sense and without manners, it has become a political one.
I think that's more a moral statement than a political one.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in the 21st century, the political is the moral, but the moral is not necessarily the political.
Yeah, it's should be moral, or mannerly, or etiquette or something like that. But the people who think they don't have to respect the boundaries of people they don't like have done their best to turn it political.
ReplyDeleteI would go further and say not that they do not respect the boundaries of the people they don't like, but that they do not believe in humanity of their opponents.
ReplyDeleteThe long march of materialism at work.
In too many cases across the board, exactly so.
ReplyDelete