… it would be to ban forever those e-mails that get forwarded to you from family and friends (wonderful people, all) that seek to impose the highest degree of personal guilt on all who do not share their point of view, or do not have time to appreciate their point of view. You know the ones I’m talking about, the ones that almost always end with…
“…if you are a true American, you will forward this message to everyone on your address list today.”
Or
“…if you have an ounce of patriotism in your bones, please forward.”
Or
“…if you call yourself a true Christian, you will forward this to…”
Or
“…if you appreciate all that your mother did for you, you will forward this…”
Or
“…you do not have to forward, you will not receive bad luck, but if you do decide to forward, you will be a friend forever to (fill in the blank).
Stop for a moment and think of the person who created the e-mail you are being asked to forward. Is that person so insecure, so in need in public validation of his life, that he must spend his days huddled over a computer crafting messages designed to make recipients feel guilty enough to flatter the creator by passing along to others the product of his imagination?
2 comments:
Ben,
This is a line from a WashPost letter to the editor this past Sunday: "What is so refreshing about Sarah Palin is that she has the moral certitude that is so lacking in many of our political leaders and that she is willing to lead by example."
This is another type of example: the assertion that only people who agree with one have any true moral compass and that others can only be floating in a sea of moral relativism. It's just as plausible to be morally "certain" of one side of an issue as the other. And the Grand Inquisitor in Spain would probably not have been accused of lacking "moral certainty." He is nonetheless one of history's most evil men.
One can be certain that a tree is growing in one's front yard, but it is utterly impossible to either know or understand with certainty the "mind" (or, heaven forbid, the "opinion") of God. Beyond the physically obvious and the most obvious things like murder is bad, I believe "certainty" itself should always be approached with humble caution. I suppose most among a pack of lemmings are "certain" of what they're doing until they turn to meat at the bottom of a cliff.
Well said...and thank you.
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