There could be no single example underscoring what is wrong with the international woke movement than by what occurred during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Paris, France, on July 26. What happened there was wokeism “run amuck.” It totally ignored two simple rules that should govern human behavior in free societies to nurture fairness and civility.
Let us examine what occurred at the opening ceremonies.
Many observers were shocked to see the famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci of the Last Supper of Jesus with his 12 apostles grossly mocked, depicted in a scene involving sexualized drag queens. Some advertisers were so repulsed by it – such as Mississippi’s largest telecommunications company C-Spire – that their advertisements were immediately pulled.
While the Olympic Committee issued an apology the next day about the depiction and removed their video of the event from the internet, its statement was somewhat shocking in itself. It claimed the depiction was not intended to “be subversive or shock people or mock people.” As much time as the committee had to prepare for the opening ceremonies and with Catholicism being the world’s largest religion, it is absurd to believe committee members gave no thought as to whether any offense would be taken by the depiction.
One can only imagine the violent fallout that would have resulted had Olympic organizers decided instead to portray the world’s second largest religion – Islam – in such a light by having Prophet Muhammad depicted by a drag queen. Obviously more thought was given as to why that should not be done, remembering the 12 staff members of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo who were killed in 2015 by Muslims upset about Muhammad’s depiction on its cover.
What progressives seem to lose sight of, however, is any call for societal balance. It is obvious that in a free society like the U.S. with a population of 330 million, it is impossible to achieve unanimity concerning an issue. But two reasonable rules exist that should be logically acceptable to all.
The first has been stated a bit differently for thousands of years and in many different cultures.
Whether it was written by the ancient Greek rhetorician Isocrates, or the influential Chinese philosopher Confucius, or Epicteus from the ancient School of Stoicism, it is also found in a multitude of holy books including the Talmud, the Koran and the Mahabharata. Its words of virtue are known as the Golden Rule. Its simple message tells us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
In 2016, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-Missouri) took on the task of providing an historical perspective of the Golden Rule and encouraging compliance with it as a new Congress was seated.
Cleaver recognized, “The most significant building block necessary to develop a federal government that actually inspires peace and tolerance across our bifurcated country is the practice of the Golden Rule.” It is also a societal building block that calls for common sense ethics – i.e., the ethics of reciprocity.
For example, applying such ethics of reciprocity would encourage one who finds transgenderism unacceptable but who is asked to refer to another person by a preferred pronoun, different from such other’s biological gender, would do so out of a common sense of respect for that individual. (It is not unlike others honoring the First Lady’s request to be addressed as “Dr. Jill Biden.”)
However, this is where progressives lose sight of balance in failing to apply a second behavioral rule known as the rule of the Common Good.
It is contrary to the Common Good to mandate transgenders be accommodated to the point of discomforting an opposing biological sex member majority, allowing the former to share segregated facilities based on biological sex just because one has mentally shedded one’s own biological sex. In some cases, such as housing transgender females in women’s prisons, a serious and unnecessary risk to the biologically female majority population has been created.
Thus, application of the Golden Rule would have a transgender’s request – to use a preferred pronoun – being honored while application of the rule of the Common Good would have the transgender honoring the request of a member of a different biological gender for gender privacy.
What is so divisive in our society today is the wokeist effort to disrupt everything that makes common sense by imposing a progressive mindset that ignores the interests of the Common Good, assisted in this endeavor by a government content to allow the ensuing disruption to occur.
Implementing the Golden Rule and the rule of the Common Good jointly would work wonders towards establishing tolerance and mutual acceptance in society – a society that today is chaotic because wokeness ignores both rules.
Foregoing any attempt at eloquence, former President Donald Trump perhaps bluntly said it best with his observation about a basic reality of wokeism. He noted, “Everything woke turns to sh*t!”
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