Sticks and Stones

May break my bones, but words will never hurt me. 

I was taught as a small boy to say this in answer to the inevitable bullying and insults that are part of growing up. I suppose it was a kind of psychological defense if you were too scrawny (or in my case fat) to mount a more physical defense. 

Once I was older I realized it is complete BS, a bizarre post-Enlightenment gnosticism in which the mind is totally under the control of the will, and the body is irrelevant. It works, but at a high cost in self-dehumanization. 

Actually, as the Bible makes clear, words cause plenty of good and plenty of real harm. Some of it is direct, damaging permanently people’s minds and hearts. Much of it is indirect, providing the emotional and even intellectual rational for actual physical violence against others. 

Unfortunately the current core of American political ethics can be summed up in two words: plausible deniability. You can say anything you want, however hateful and inflammatory, as long as you go on and say, “but don’t hurt anyone,” or “no violence,” or “but I love them anyway,” or “that’s just a joke", or "locker room talk", or “a little hyperbole for effect,” or “its just politics,” or even “they deserve it.” After all, "sticks and stones. . ." and man-up and all that. 

So you get to fire your words out there like arrows, to use a Biblical image, and then quickly throw away the bow and deny you meant any harm. 

Well I call BS on that too. Are you shouting in someone’s face, using demeaning language, launching verbal attacks, lying, insulting or marginalizing some group of people (Muslims, journalists, liberals, conservatives, Jews, men, women, gays, transgendered, Republicans, Democrats, the poor, the rich, etc)?  Well you are causing real harm, real hurt, and you are engendering real violence even if you never personally lift a finger.

Jesus said, (Luke 6 for all those Christians from left to right who seem to have forgotten the Bible.) “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

I don't recall Jesus saying, "unless you are really offended, frightened, angry, or hurt." or "unless it is a useful political strategy."

Attributed to Gandhi is an appropriate comment for our times. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Jesus' words are the secret to remaining human in dehumanizing times, they are the secret for keeping our vision in a world gone blind. And we have never needed humans with vision more than now.