Media Mythbusters Blog

From the Bookworm Room:

By: Bookworm

It was Aristotle who first stated that man is a social animal. He was right. Humans define themselves by their allegiance to their family, their community and their country. The ancient desert rule condemning a thief to lose his hand (an idea that Mohammed co-opted), was not intended simply to cause physical pain and suffering. Instead, in a society without cutlery, amputation meant that the thief had to use the same hand for both eating and personal hygiene. This revolting combination turned the one-handed thief into a social pariah — and it was this change in status that was the true punishment imposed against him.

In America, we can break the social compact in many ways, all of them less extreme than having our hands cut off. We can cheat, abuse our spouses and children, shoplift, forget to bathe, or admit to liking Liberace. Most Americans, however, pride themselves on their tolerance and will let all of these failures go by without the ultimate social weapons of abuse and ostracism. In many of these same ostensibly tolerant places, though, there is one sin that is unforgivable, so much so that it cannot be excused away by pointing to a bad childhood, socioeconomic handicaps or charming eccentricity. That sin is being politically conservative. I live in one of those communities.

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