Cancel Culture. New name, same old game, around for as long as humans have been organizing themselves into groups or communities of one kind or another and looking for ways to regulate and control what happens within those entities. The difference today mostly has to do with the amplifying effect of the digital age, the internet and the ability for near-instant mass-media communication with anyone, anytime, anywhere. Instead of cold shoulders, shunning and outright ostracizing on a local community and inter-personal level for what's seen as bad speech / behavior, we have internet mobs and cable news posses acting on a national level in conjunction with the local and national self-appointed or elected culture police. Not much point in pointing fingers about who started it, or whose fault it is. Plenty of blame to go around, and it can be assigned pretty much in all quarters of our society, from Capitol Hill right down to the sleepiest of sleepy neighborhood streets or country backroads.

After reading Charlie's piece today, I read a few comments. I decided as sort of a thought experiment to read every one having to do with this subject. More on that in a moment. Having now done so, I can say for sure that...my head hurts. I can also say that I encountered everything from emotionally flavored and somewhat heated offerings, to calm, thoughtful takes, to blended mixtures of both. Quite a varied menu. One which, when I was done, had a line of illuminated red hearts from top to bottom of the scroll. The point of my little experiment, you see, was to find out whether or not there was something I agreed with in each comment, whether or not I agreed with the point of the entire comment itself. And if I did, to hit the like button in acknowledgement of that. The final result: no unilluminated icons on anything said about this subject. How many did I agree with overall? Well, that wasn't the point at all. The point was that, although I had to make the effort to re-read a few things and put more effort into thinking about them than I might otherwise do, I couldn't find a single instance where I could say honestly that I thought everything the commenter was saying was wrong. So, if you notice my "like" in your inbox, you can take that for whatever it may or may not be worth to you. But I want to say, I was as honest as I could be with myself before hitting that button.

So, what's this got to do with Cancel Culture? This, I believe. We have become a society too anxious to talk and too hesitant to listen. We don't want to make the effort to think about anything anyone has to say that doesn't strike us as "right" right off the bat. We've done this because we've allowed ourselves to change the way we see and identify ourselves from butchers, bakers and candlestick makers who happen to be Republicans, Democrats and Independents, to R's, D's and I's who happen to be b's, b's and c's. (Sorry, Libertarians and any others not included here. No offense intended.) I'm not sure why this is, but it isn't good. It limits our perspective and lessens our desire for understanding.

I have very few problems with "free speech". Now, I'm not going to defend those who promulgate hate in any form, or who walk the razor edge of the line or actually step over it when it comes to inciting violence, or who knowingly traffic in lies. But beyond that...well, if we started looking at ourselves a little differently, we may see a little more of ourselves in others. And we might listen a little more critically, and hear more clearly what's actually being said. And we might speak a bit more thoughtfully ourselves in return. This definitely will not lead to our all joining hands and singing Kumbaya. But it may lead to a lessening of our desire to cancel each other when we don't agree about something, and perhaps a realization that this current version of Cancel Culture needs to be canceled like a bad sitcom. Not sure exactly how to do that. But we should probably start somewhere, so why not here?

BTW...I expect a few more comments may have come in since I conducted my little experiment and started writing this. Can't speak to those as it relates to what I wrote. Gotta' draw the line somewhere...