Tuesday, August 01, 2006

About Mel...

Mel Gibson has apologized directly for his drunken anti-Semitic comments, even going so far as to ask to "meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom [he] can have a one on one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing." Well, he screwed up major big-time, that's a fact. That was just plain nasty bullshit he was spewing. And it's perfectly fair to nail his ass when he's being an asshole.

I’m watching to see how folks react to his apology.

The standard line, of course, is that we all say folks should apologize when they are wrong, when they hurt people around them, and that they should do what they can to make things right. Well, Mel is at least starting on his way down that path. The other side of the coin is that the injured—and those as well who are offended by the behavior—are supposed to forgive and maybe even work to assist the erring person to reclaim the benefits of correct behavior. Heck, we’ve been taught that since we were all kids.

Are you going to have some fun bad-mouthing him, calling him names, making jokes, laughing at his misfortune, taking delight at the damage he’s caused himself? Are you going to wallow in nastiness, joining your friends in putting him down? Are you going to see how clever you can be while doing everything I just listed? Are you going to dismiss his apology as self-serving and insincere? Are you going to write him off? Are you going to feel morally superior when you do all this? Well, bottom line: you can be as cynical and mean-spirited as you wish and my bet is hardly anyone will even think to ask you to examine your motives if that's what you choose.

When you’re figuring out what you’ll do, it might help to think about how a lynch mob acts. They don’t just do the wrong thing. They wallow in the togetherness, the group-think mutual approval, and sheer raw power of the mob, and they enjoy looking forward to the hopefully upcoming misfortune of others; they enjoy the punishing and the hating. Take a look around the world. You might see a few mobs in action right now.

You gonna join the mob?

2 comments:

lee said...

This is what gets me about the whole thing - that people are oh -so - shocked about what he said. It seems as though because he's well known that he's not meant to have an opinion (right or wrong). Obviously he was drunk or it wouldn't have been said and no-one would have been any the wiser. Everyone has their own thoughts about certain things in life and we'd probably be strung up if people were aware of them :).

Ron said...

I received a comment on this but acidentally erased it before it could be posted. My apologies, but I'd sure like a re-send from whoever left it, so I _can_ post it :-)