Ignorance Of The Past Leads To False Claims ABout The Present

Abdu Murray (bio is at the end of his article) has written a naive article on how the West is becoming more like the East in terms of the use of shame on people who present ideas that challenge cultural norms (click here for the article). His claim also includes that while the West use to allow for rational discussions between individuals on new ideas, it has now followed the Easter tradition of  shaming the individual who thought differently in order to protect the group.

Now what Murray gets right is that we do use shaming more often to discredit people whose views we don't like or to disqualify them from positions they seek. What he is naive about is that this use of shaming is new to the West. Here Murray is showing just how old he isn't by making that claim.

Those of us who are old enough to remember the 1950s, I remember a few things about them, would be more than happy to inform Murray that then there was a witch hunt by certain federal politicians to find out and punish those who were were communists. The plausible application of that term could make a person unemployed or an inmate. Then during the protest years of the 1960s, the term 'communist' became a pejorative while the n-word was used quite often. In fact, when watching civil rights protests of the 1960s, it was not uncommon to see signs that said something to effect that integration was communism. Other derogatory terms were use to shame people into conformity. In addition, violence was used to silence dissent as well.

Going into the 1970s, we saw a continuation of some of the protest movements from the 1960s. These protesters were often falsely accused of being communists or anti-American.

During the 1980s, unions and government intervention into the free market were attacked and portrayed as anti-American. I believe Rush Limbaugh was gaining a national audience then as he eagerly trashed anything, and anyone, who was not promoting conservative beliefs. His basic message was conservatives are good and liberals are bad.

During the 1990s, Limbaugh continued to gain fame opposition to the Persian Gulf War was viewed as unpatriotic.

Starting with the Bush Administration's response to 9/11 came the mindset that one was either with Bush's policies or with the terrorists; there was no middle ground. If one opposed Bush's invasion of Iraq, one was accused of either being a supporter of Saddam Hussein or a supporter of terrorism. Later on, Obama was severely criticized for his apology tour and was accused of dividing whites against blacks. In addition, the division between Republicans and Democrats became stunningly obvious, more obvious than the Berlin Wall before it was torn down. McConnell publicly stated that his goal was to make Obama a one-term President.

Murray is right to complain about how shaming is used to shut people up now. He is cutely naive to think that the East, he is referring to the Orient, has a monopoly on using that practice to shut people up. His naivety, points to a significant problem exhibited by more and more people today. And that problem started with conservatives, even Christian conservatives. That problem is a lack of awareness or even defnial of the faults and sins of one's own group as they try to gain supremacy over their rivals.