Can you make people better by force and fear? A response to John McWhorter’s anger about a writer for the NYT being fired just for referring to the N word during a discussion. Not using it, referring to it.
I’ve always had a rebellious streak. When I was told I couldn’t drop the flag during the flag ceremony, I let it drop just a bit to figure out why. Would it somehow bring disaster? Would the nation fall if I did? I also remember not standing for the national anthem at basketball games. I’m not saying that I was being brave or clever. I was just stubborn and didn’t like being expected to do something without being told why.
I’ve never had any motivation to use the N word. These days I feel tempted to, not as a pejorative, just to say the word out loud so we can see that it won’t destroy us. To break its hold. Not so we can say it, there’s no need to say it, unless of course you had a good technical reason to refer to it (as John pointed out). But so we can not say it freely.
I understand now why you’re not supposed to drop the flag. It’s not about the flag. It’s a ceremony with certain conventions that are symbolically allowing you to participate in a ritual that teaches you about the need to maintain some level of basic respect for your country, because without it your world could fall and you would lose something important. It’s the same with the anthem. The song doesn’t really need us to stand or somehow it will bring literal disaster, but by standing we reaffirm our collective belonging and commitment to this unity of nationhood, and show that we value it.
I still don’t think that dropping a flag or not standing is a big deal. I could do them and it wouldn’t harm me or America. I know where I stand with America. We have that negotiated. But because I see the value in the symbolism I can now freely choose to engage in it, freely choose to not stay sitting, instead of being mechanistically compelled. And for a rebellious person like me, that’s a pretty good conclusion. A more reasonable person would have just engaged in the ritual and learned the implied lessons from doing it and wouldn’t have had to spend decades puzzling it out intellectually.
Tyranny and fear, as tactics, aren’t great ways to produce good character. They work somewhat on small children, and past that point only work as a restraint or limit on evil. They aren’t a positive force. You need more than mere force and threat to actually make people better than they are.
Making Nobody Happy 