Recently there has been a spate of human rights abuses across American campuses. Well, at least, that is what I thought when I read about the recent hysteria enveloping dozens of American Universities. Turns out, it was less about human rights and more about chalk.
According to many people, every world view must be blameless before you can point at the violence emanating from Islam. For if every world-view has its’ share of violence, why are we focusing on the one world-view so severely. At least, this is the impression I got from Andrew O’Keefe on sunrise.
Under communism in East Germany, making a joke regarding state ideology was illegal and extremely risky. The state regarded every political joke as a form of protest and a potential threat. The Stasi collected thousands of documents detailing these jokes, so that the jokers could be brought to ‘justice’. Ironically, there is even a joke about this exact process:
There are people who tell jokes. And there are people who collect jokes and tell jokes. And then there are people who collect people who tell jokes.
Thankfully communism has now receded to a large degree and in places where political jokes were once forbidden, they can now run free. However, all is not good news, as a new ideology has sprung up and taken the ‘lack of humour’ mantel.
Recently I met a young gentleman who was going through a rough patch in life and thus he wanted to change his career and lifestyle. So, in search of what might be a good profession for him, I asked him some preliminary questions. My second question was ‘What are your best qualities?’ To this he responded that he was non-judgmental.
I have heard this word often. In society it seems to be considered a positive trait, even a virtue. Sometimes it is worded or stated a little differently. For instance, schools will teach children ‘not to judge’, and friends will implore other friends from judging them (usually because they are guilty of something). It seems to be the going orthodoxy that judgment is bad, while non-judgment is good. This belief is wrong and emanates from a massive misconception of the word judgment.
Women have never been in unison about feminism. There have always been women who have opposed the movement altogether, and women who have simply opposed certain issues within feminism. But what can never be said, is that all women want and like feminism.
This dislike did not start with Margaret Thatcher, but rather it started when the first wave of feminism hit Britain. For instance, in 1908 the Women’s Anti-Suffragette League wrote a petition against the right to vote and received over 300,000 signatures, mainly from women. Nowadays you would be hard pressed to find one British woman who would sign such a petition. But nevertheless, you will still find women who oppose feminism.