The Insufferable Lightness of Willfulness

Read related » Juan Williams vs. the Ground Zero Mosque
[Reading this related article in its entirety is recommended.]
“Well bravo, Juan! This is the proper and entirely compelling rebuttal to liberals’ fixation with “tolerance.” Liberals assume that we must respect the Muslim group’s sensibilities and refrain from denying them their monument to Islam. (And we certainly can’t question their motives or associations.) But Williams quite rightly doesn’t take the imam’s argument at face value. What about the mosque builders’ tolerance and respect for others? Quite obviously, it is entirely absent. And there’s the rub. In the left’s vision, “tolerance” and indulgence of aberrant conduct is our burden and obligation, and ours alone. That not only leads to cultural surrender; it also infantilizes Muslims. They can’t be expected to exercise restraint or respect or even decency, it seems. The mosque controversy is fascinating not because of what it reveals about radical Muslims. We — or at least those not practicing willful ignorance — have long since figured out what they are up to. No, what’s intriguing, and to a degree horrifying, is what it tells us about the left’s cockeyed view of “tolerance” and its inability to engage and refute the arguments of those who wish to destroy our society and murder our fellow citizens.” [emphasis added]
— JENNIFER RUBIN - 08.02.2010 (commentarymagazine.com)

Hear, hear. Indeed bravo, Juan Williams, a usually reliable inhaler of the slightest puff emanating from any of The Obama's orifices, but apparently not to the extent of willfully ignorant indulgence of murderous terrorism. And kudos, Jennifer Rubin, for succinctly stating the left's despicable perversion of the once-ethical concept of tolerance.

For more than a decade I have struggled mightily to comprehend what could motivate so many otherwise well-meaning people to cling tenaciously to such perversion of civilized ethics. My struggle has not born much enlightenment. Recently, however, a person whose opinion I respect very much has posited that it all stems from political correctness run amok. She may be on to something.

A Hero of the Liberal Left
(Image via Wikipedia)

The working theory is that it started as a more-or-less formal acknowledgement that all legitimate points of view deserve our consideration, then steadily progressed to the point where, not only must everyone's position be accorded equal consideration, but it has crossed over to the insanity that good is evil and evil is good. Thus we are faced with the specter of "heroic" Che Guevara, Saddam Hussein, and the truly demented I'madinnerjacket, along with "evil" Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and all Jewish Israelis. Millions of leftists have succumbed to precisely such a vision of "personal reality".

Does anyone under the age of 30 remember "vive la différence"? And who exactly is impressed with this grinding elimination of nuance and once-celebrated distinctions? None but the evil, as traditionally understood, including human detritus like Oliver Stone.

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