There is a plague upon the land, indeed, upon the world. It is the plague of being offended, of taking offense at the slightest disagreement or opposition. The Religion of Perpetual Offense threatens the very existence of Western civilization.
The Lifestyle of Perpetual Offense viciously attacks all who oppose it.
The Philosophy of Perpetual Offense seeks to marginalize as bigots all who think differently.
And the people love to have it so.
For clarity=s sake, let us pause a moment for some definition. To offend, according to the Oxford English Concise Dictionary, means Ato cause to feel hurt or resentful; to be displeasing to; to commit an illegal act.@ It is the first two definitions that apply here. Note the word speaks to one=s emotional state and/or response. As previously discussed at great length, our world is currently awash in emotion as the supreme factor of life as a consequence of shifting our cognitive processes away from the printed word to the visual image. Facts and data, logic and objective reasoning, have given way to feelings about oneself and one=s situations. Feelings have so permeated our cultural milieu that you will find even conservatives, when asking one another about our opinion on any given topic, will do so by asking AHow do you feel about...@ when the correct question is really what do you think about it.
Here is the problem with this: being offended, feeling hurt because someone disagrees with you, is a juvenile response of insecurity that shuts down a mature and objective consideration of the situation. It reeks of pride, for it cannot tolerate the possibility that it might be in error, and thus that the disagreement and opposition are truly justified. It therefore uses the power of the emotional reaction to deflect from the facts of the situation and shut down objective debate over the validity of its own position, or the consideration of alternatives or arguments against itself. On the Disagreement Hierarchy, it does not go above DH2, which is to say that it never deals with the real issue and convinces only those who are already in agreement (and probably equally Aoffended@). Which is why it is so commonly seen coming from the liberal left (which is not to say you can=t occasionally find it coming from the conservative right).
Am I saying that we should never have an emotional response? No, don=t try to neutralize my proposition by taking it to an extreme I never proposed. We are human and emotions are part of us. Only corpses and Vulcans have no emotional responses! What I am saying is that those emotions should not control our thoughts, mandate our actions, or dictate our policies. For example, I have a strong negative emotional response to the slaughter of innocent children in the womb, the abomination known as abortion. (I am, incidentally, prochoice; the choice occurs when the woman decides whether or not to let a man have his way with her and impregnate her [yes, I know rape is a different case, but most abortions are not the consequence of rape]. Once that choice is made all else follows.) However, I don=t let that emotional response create hate in my heart for the abortionist, or manipulate me into grabbing a sniper rifle and gunning down abortion clinic personnel. I do let the objective facts of the matter determine my position and the policy I would prefer to see established and enforced, and seek to convince through persuasion rather than force.
Interestingly, one of the biblical pictures of being offending is that of being caused to stumble. Stumbling is not a good thing; it indicates a lack of attention or distraction on the part of the one stumbling, and malicious intent on the part of one causing another to stumble. Equally interesting for the Christian,
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (Psalm 119:165)
Whatever strategy conservatives adopt in today=s liberal times, we must recognize that Abeing offended@ is not an appropriate response for anyone. We must not engage in such whining ourselves, and we must resist all efforts of liberals to use Aoffense@ as a means to dictate our policies.