Graphic: via Colloquium on Violence and Religion.
I have suffered a cancellation in my life, and I know several people who have suffered intense persecution from Cancel Culture. We all agree that the experience of cancellation feels like a kind of social stoning. Those who speak the truth face the punishing mob, as St. Stephen did when he professed the truth of the Divine to the high priests and Pharisees of the Sanhedrin.
Acts 7:48-51 :: 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says, 49 ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?’ 51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.
The great faith of the first martyr of Christianity, St. Stephen, inspired Saul of Tarsus to re-examine his own faith identity.
Acts 7:54-60 :: The Stoning of Stephen
54 When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.[h] 55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.
The mob dragged the dying Stephen to the feet of Saul, who witnessed Stephen cry out to Jesus in the last moments of his life to receive his spirit and to have mercy on those who stoned him to death. You can read the passage yourself in Bible Gateway.
Artwork: Stoning of St. Stephen, 1506, Marx Reichlich, Alte Pinakothek, part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich
So, what happened in the story of St. Stephen? He preached the good news of Jesus. The Pharisaic ruling elite didn’t like it. They brought St. Stephen before the Sanhedrin, where he told them about his visions of Moses, Jacob, and Jesus, contradicting the established religious narrative of the time. A memetic crisis ensued. St. Stephen had perpetrated blasphemy. In order to restore order, the Sanhedrin ordered him stoned.
Memetic desire refers to desire as a social contagion, ie desire we learn from others and then imitate. Our current culture has become one of memetic desire. When mimetic desire infects a group or community or society, mob behaviour ensues, as the group works to eliminate any differences. When a memetic crisis happens, violence and cruelty rise in response to that mimetic distortion that’s overtaken the collective consciousness. The group designates a scapegoat or scapegoats in an effort to quell the memetic crisis.
What if we could see Cancel Culture as an example of a memetic crisis? What if we could see Cancel Culture as a kind of bloodless ritual sacrifice or lapidation? What if scapegoats serve a memetic purpose to the mob? How does social media facilitate and catalyse the memetic crisis that we call Cancel Culture? How can we mitigate the harms of Cancel Culture? What can we do within ourselves to resist the social lapidation movement that dominates our culture?
Now I’m gonna pivot and focus on the human cost of Cancel Culture. Think of cancelling anyone like you would think of stoning them. If you walked into a neighbourhood in your city or town and saw a mob of people stoning someone, what would you do? Would you join in? Would you watch, uncomfortably? Would you back away slowly and pretend you didn’t see?
Most of us want to think of ourselves as morally right, we think we would identify with the victim. In reality we would find it easier to join in, to pick up a stone, and hurl it at the victim. Would we would crowd surf on the memetic desire that’s driven the crowd to a violent end. We wouldn’t need to understand the supposed offense. We wouldn’t stop and think about the situation critically.
What did Jesus do?
John 8: 1-9 :: 1 while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, making her stand before all of them, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
“Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Reader, d’y’know what’s the most painful thing about cancellation?
It’s how people whom you thought cared watch and allow the abuse and cruelty of cancelling to proceed. It’s all those who pretend they’re nice reveal their cold callous nature, when they look away. Kumbaya, they say. Don’t suffer so visibly, STFU and GFY, they say. Go away, your suffering harshes my kumbaya buzz, they say. The suffering of the persecuted should hide away so as not to disturb my positive vibes, they say. Suffering is soooo negative, they say.
I learned that people have hard hearts and mean spirits. I suffered, alone, with only g-d as my friend, during my personal experience with cancellation. Social death hurts, don’t diminish the pain of such persecution, reader.
In your darkest hour do not expect your “friends” or “family” or even your “partner” to have any fcuks to give for you in your persecution. They won’t care about your suffering at the hands of cancel culture. It’s beyond them to have compassion as you require of them. They’re incapable, have mercy and don’t judge them too harshly.
Note—your friends and family didn’t necessarily stop loving you when they failed to stand up for you or comfort you in your affliction. Resist the urge to indulge that poisonous thinking. You cannot read the hearts of others. You lose nothing giving the benefit of the doubt. You can have compassion for those who fail to have compassion for you in your suffering times. This doesn’t mean forgive abc forget. It doesn’t mean pretend nothing happened. It doesn’t mean resume the relationship you had before things happened. It means don’t carry the baggage of someone else’s offense against you—it isn’t yours to carry. Put it down now.
Yes, that’s tough stuff. And it’s the Jesus Way.
All that said, the callous observers should know that their actions erected a giant barrier to relationship and they’ve caused harm by their betrayal of trust. When people allow fear or dismissive arrogance to prevent them from standing up to bullies or taking the time to comfort the suffering, they really do so much harm, more than they realise. And we want them to know the harm they’ve caused. However, vengeance belongs to the Divine, not to us. Like I said, that’s tough stuff. However, stoning culture embodies the phenomenon of vengeance becoming the domain of humans.
Remember what Hillel said?
Progressive fundamentalists have hardened hearts, they possess an arrogant spirit, they have an unwillingness to humble themselves and admit wrongdoing. They don’t have redemption in their repertoire of living. Generally, most ordinary people have callous and arrogant hearts. Remember the memetic forces can prove powerfully alluring. Have mercy, always. Think about when Saul of Tarsus converted and became Paul. How do you think he considered his own role in St. Stephen’s stoning? Do we believe in redemption? Our whole life exists as an unearned mercy.
Maybe if St. Stephen can forgive his murderers, I can possibly find it within myself to feel sorry for all who faltered when I needed their compassion and comfort in my suffering time, and even those who sought to persecute me in their fitful vengeance. Most importantly, I can remember to move through the world more humbly and earnestly and with more softness. When have I behaved like Saul? Many times, if I am honest with myself. That’s humbling, isn’t it, reader?
Acts 9:4-5 :: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Jesus chose the most unworthy, insolent opponent, Saul of Tarsus, and He appointed that man to spread the good news and plant churches! The story of Paul embodies the Jesus Way!
Artwork: La conversion de Saint Paul (vers 1690), par Luca Giordano (Naples 1634 - Naples 1705).(Le haut du tableau a été supprimé sur la photo pour éviter un reflet.) Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy.
When I choose to pray for those who’ve hurt or disappointed me, I find the anger and resentment dissipates. When I choose to see myself in those who hurt me and engage the necessary self-improvement transformative process in the light Jesus Way, then I’m focusing on compassionate growth.
The Jesus way is a narrow path. Many attempt to hike it, few succeed in staying the course.
I want to emphasise to readers—most anything in a relationship we break we can fix. Both parties in the relationship must want to fix it in humble and genuine fashion. It won’t happen overnight, it takes patience and mercy and a deep willingness to engage. It takes self-responsibility.
Reader, let’s think about self-responsibility for a moment.
Do we see a dearth of self-responsibility in the “be kind” cult of tolerance and progressivism? I certainly do. It’s a very black and white social terrain, characterised by rigid thinking—a key feature of fundamentalist movements. I’ve learned that the people who join the cancel culture brigade can’t engage the redemption and restoration process because they have closed off their hearts. Whatever you offer to cancel culture warriors as an olive branch never will suffice, because something is distorted inside their own heart and it governs all their relationships.
Artwork: Four Saints Adoring Christ Crucified on the Sacred Heart, Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, Kronach 1472–1553 Weimar), Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1927, via The Met Museum
So, what can we do? We can pray. And we can let go, and let G-d. We can remember mercy. We can move on and live our best life with whomever wants to join us in doing so. We can keep an open heart and hope for restoration in the future.
Ultimately those who participate in Cancel Culture reflect the darkness of their own hearts. They ultimately cancel themselves, because when we turn away from mercy we turn away from ourselves.
Take courage during these difficult and dark times. Remember who you are. Remember in whose image you exist as a created being.
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