Jeff that Ponytailed Conservative Punk is finally starting to blog again and I daresay he's lost none of his vitriol. This post regarding the hateful guttersnipe known as bigotry brought to mind a moving passage from a book I'm currently reading. (More on the book in another post.)
Upon discussing the brutal beating a man received for being gay, a distraught woman stated, "People are evil." to which this poignant monologue from another character followed:
"Not evil," Fermin objected. "Moronic, which isn't quite the same thing. Evil presupposes a moral decision, intention and some forethought. A moron or a lout, however, doesn't stop to think or reason. He acts on instinct like a stable animal, convinced that he's doing good, that he's always right, and sanctimoniously proud to go around f****ing up, if you'll excuse the French, anyone he perceives to be different from himself, be it because of skin color, creed, language, nationality or as in the case of [our friend], his leisure habits.�
This discourse infers that the orator believes bigotry to be an act of ignorance, but I�m not so sure I agree with him entirely. I think every one of us has a capacity for bigotry that, if left unbridled, would be vile as an act of ignorance but when allowed to ferment in a blackened heart becomes the personification of evil itself.
But does that necessarily mean that ignorance is the gateway to evil? I�m not so sure. I�m more inclined to think hatred is a respecter of no man, attaching itself to the ignorant as well as the informed. My Christian beliefs lead me to believe that when sin entered the world- compliments of Adam and Eve- prejudice, bigotry, racism, whatever you want to call it became part of our new acquired and grossly inferior moral DNA.
I�m grateful to live in a society that, regardless of ones religious persuasion, recognizes the vicious nature of bigotry and does not abide it. I�d like to think I�m above bigotry but, much to my discomfort, my less than virtuous character is revealed when I consider my recently acquired and only slightly veiled distaste towards all things French. How am I any different, then, from those I condemn? Like them, I can justify my position, sufficiently soothing any pangs of conscience I might feel.
The fact that I don�t write my opinions on bathroom walls is a less than noteworthy distinction.
Posted by PamCHBF at August 3, 2005 02:19 AM | TrackBack