The Gospel of Woke
Blazing Reader,
In Bruce Pardy's short but thought-provoking article "Freedom and Virtue: Friends or Enemies?" he says:
"In the political sphere... Freedom People expect their governments to keep the peace and protect the individual – and otherwise to not interfere. Virtue People expect their governments to promote the Good with laws and policies. Virtue People support laws that prohibit behavior that is, in their view, immoral, damaging to human flourishing, or inconsistent with common good. Assisted suicide, prostitution, divorce, pornography, even heresy, just to start, shall not be permitted."
Despite the fact I am personally opposed to everything on that anti-virtue list (though, "heresy" is a fuzzy one), I would never want such things restricted by law. Laws are ultimately enforced by violence: do the right thing or we'll kidnap you and lock you up in a cell. And if you resist or fight back, we'll shoot you.
Hardly a great way to spread virtue.
Plus, who is to decide what virtue is?
Some would say, God.
Fine. Let's run with that logic. The Being who created the universe would probably know the best way to live in it.
But how do you know what God advises?
Some (many) would say the Bible — a complex book with some rather deceitful star characters and bizarre stories involving a lot of severed foreskins. I'm not putting it down, just saying, it's hardly a clearly written, step-by-step guide to a virtuous life. You're going to end up with many differences in opinion. Just ask a Mormon and a Catholic to discuss the "thou shalt nots" over a cup of coffee and you'll see what I mean — Mormons believe coffee is a harmful substance that God has decreed should never pass through the bowels of man.
So should we outlaw coffee?
What about cards, alcohol, and dancing? Skirts? Poker?
Bring in the Jews and Muslims and pork and shellfish is also off the table.
Then Hindus will ban meat and eggs.
Then the Christians will retaliate and ban yoga classes.
Where would it end?
Other than dancing, I've no interest in any of the items above. But what right does anyone have to ban them? As long as I'm not forced to drink coffee or wear a skirt, it all falls in the "none of my business" category.
Likewise, I recently talked to someone neck-deep in the woke movement. She's convinced that she's on some spiritual crusade to help humanity transcend beyond the shackles of gender, family and work. She even suggested that Jesus, Krishna and the Buddha were all transgender.
And she wants you to believe it too.
She wants you to sign her rainbow flag and preach the Gospel of Woke.
This is why I'm against any form of government based on virtue. The government should be based on harmlessness. The virtue-signalling "ahimsa" movement would claim that harmlessness is a virtue. I disagree. Harmlessness is not a virtue, just the absence of malice. The fact I didn't kill anybody today doesn't make me good.
That's why I stand in the freedom camp. I don't want to waste time forcing other people to be "good" when it's a full time job trying to keep my own life on the virtue track. It's only when the actions of others impede on my freedom that force, and even harm, is justified. Otherwise, Christians, Muslims and any other persons who want to outlaw "sinful" actions that only harm the person doing them are partly responsible for governments spreading their Gospel of Woke.
— John C.A. Manley
PS I originally heard Bruce Pardy's "Freedom and Virtue" essay on episode #842 of Just Right. You can listen to the full episode here: https://justrightmedia.org/blog/archives/14069
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/
