Silence Being Right or Reward Being Wrong: A New Hobson’s Choice
Joel B. Levine MD
Three recent stories illustrate how unanchored our society has become. Clarity creates order and when we align social standards with normative behavior, we feel a collective comfort. When we become confused as to what is moral and reasonable, seismic cracks develop. These rifts weaken us and threaten something foundational.
The first story is about Union Square, a centerpiece of urban San Francisco. The image was of boarded upscale stores responding to the wave of robberies and in- store thefts. I will put aside any discussion of cash bail or sentencing laws and focus on a different and even sadder outcome.
For a very long time, the “segregationist “South argued the “uncivil nature” of Blacks Americans. It created an instinct of fear that is essential for racial dissonance. Haters rarely acknowledge their own views as hateful but find a rationale to support their bias. In the countless stories about current wanton crime, the vast majority have been linked to African American men. Again, I put aside causality and just state a disheartening new reality. Nothing harms the acceptance of the “other” better than fear of them. The scenes of “looting” have set racial justice back a decade.
The second was a story of a woman at a gym. She confronted a man, working out nearby, for making her feel “uncomfortable “. This was captured by a now perpetual Tik Toc recording referring to the man as a “creep”, both in the clip and in the newspaper headline. The man had said nothing to the woman, was far from her physical “space” but was openly castigated for “looking”. His photo and identity may well put his career and public standing in jeopardy. Again, the complexity of male-female dynamics aside, it now takes only her perception of “feeling uncomfortable” to upend a man’s life.
The third is the most remarkable by any standards of “woke”. An elderly Orthodox Jewish couple were on an American Airline plane waiting for takeoff. The flight attendant saw a pouch containing a religious shawl, a Tallit, in the overhead. She took in down and told the man to put it on the floor. He removed his hat, showing his traditional skull cap, and said it was a Jewish sacrilege to put a prayer shawl on the ground. The attendant insisted and the man refused even saying that if it was a Bible or Koran, he would feel the same way.
His point, in a public retelling of the story, was that not a single passenger, crew, or ground staff, came to his defense. This late 70’s couple was taken off the plane and simply abandoned. All that was missing was tacking on the American Airlines ‘Yellow Star of David” to identify potentially problematic passengers.
These are 3 cautionary tales. In the first, we see how easy it is to rekindle a deep and unspoken racial fear. A decade ago, leading Black politicians illustrated society’s “bigotry” pointing out that “hoodie” Black men were, predictably, avoided by Whites. Yet, now, in plain view of scores of random urban crimes, the cogency of “fear is prejudice” is far less persuasive. I will bet that many think twice about casual trips to Walgreen’s. Fear is the DNA of prejudice.
The second story is a reminder of how easy it is to do harm even in a theoretically good cause. No one would argue that women have been subject to a lot and imagining Harvey Weinstein in an open bathrobe says it all. Men are frequently petrified by women and respond by imagining that oafish brutalities are roses. Male foolishness abounds but we must carefully decide where to set the bar. I have no idea if the man in question was looking or leering or simply lost in his own thoughts while at the gym. She did not either.
The third story is remarkable in many ways. First, social justice cannot be a selective embrace of one group. Just yesterday, I saw a newly appointed US Attorney, in an encounter with a reporter, ignite in racial language and bias. She had come to understand the utility of race animus as a path to her success. It was her currency to be spent freely. After a while, successful prejudice can be perceived as a political virtue.
Which brings me back to the third story. Anti — Semitism remains a societal roach for nothing stamps it out. Over half of Jews attest they simply no longer report religious based affronts showing that some victims will not even claim victimhood. The other cheek is turned for the wrong reason.
I am not sure if the others on the plane shared bias or ignorance, were cowed fearing punishment from those who controlled their flight. Lack of conscience can make cowards of us all. Worse, but still feasible, is that the opening up two seats on the aisle, which each of the elderly Jews held, was temptation indeed on a long flight. If you think that unduly cynical, recall the long lines of Berlin apartment seekers snaking along hallways after the Gestapo cleaned house.
I am not yet sure if these are tales from Chaucer or Poe. They are descriptive and possibly predictive of a more dystopian future. When the biased take power, the unbiased almost always choose the wrong side.
It matters little if it is fear of a race, of material loss, of social castigation, take your pick. It is not that people forget what is right or wrong but respond to the societal price for pursuing the right or the seductive lack of consequence for being wrong. A nice apartment or two on the aisle is how damaged societies come to reward the silent.
