{"id":266,"date":"2003-07-12T13:18:37","date_gmt":"2003-07-12T21:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/07\/12\/patriotism-versus-responsibility\/"},"modified":"2003-07-12T13:18:37","modified_gmt":"2003-07-12T21:18:37","slug":"patriotism-versus-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"Patriotism versus Responsibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, there’s a first time for everything: I’m apparently an ideological brother to Andrew Sullivan, according to The Poor Man, who seems a bit miffed <\/a>that I’m not a Patriot.<\/p>\n

The Poor Man makes the link by comparing Sullivan’s opposition to affirmative action to this statement I made, in my post on Patriotism<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There’s a lot that’s wonderful in our history (read Howard Zinn), but also a lot that’s shameful, and you know what? I can’t take pride or shame in any of it, because I wasn’t around then, and I’m not the author of the good or the bad things those folks did.<\/div>\n

I phrased that sentence with care, and I stick by it. I’m not ashamed because of all the wrongs that have been done to women, to minorities, to gays in the USA. I didn’t do these things, and if I could I’d reverse them; so why should I feel guilt or shame?<\/p>\n

That said, I don’t make the leap Sullivan does, and assume that because I’m not personally guilty I don’t bear any responsibility<\/i>. As a straight white guy, I’ve been the beneficiary of homophobia, racism and sexism since before my first breath. Starting with my parent’s relative affluence – which was to some degree a product of minorities being unfairly kept out of competition with them for education and for jobs – to my own life, where I’ve always done better than I otherwise would have due to other folks being kept down – racism, sexism and homophobia has helped me to a large degree. And (from my straight white male perspective) it has always done so in a conveniently invisible fashion.<\/p>\n

I don’t feel shame for that. I didn’t ask for that, and I don’t want it. What good would my personal shame do anyone, anyhow?<\/p>\n

But I do feel responsibility<\/i>. All my life, in mostly quiet and invisible ways, I’ve benefited from advantages I shouldn’t have and don’t deserve. This is why I support affirmative action, and reparations, and almost every reasonable measure I’ve come across for fighting racism, sexism and homophobia (and classism, and imperialism, etc etc).<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter whether or not I’m personally guilty of anything: my responsibility to my fellow human beings is not a punishment for anything I’ve done. Being in favor of justice – especially where injustice has favored your interests – doesn’t require being ashamed; it’s just a considtion of being a decent human being.<\/p>\n

As for the Poor Man’s linkage of responsibility and patriotism, I just don’t see it. Some of the most patriotic people I’ve met seem to feel no responsibility at all for trying to fight bigotry and prejudice. Maybe The Poor Man sees a connection there, but I don’t..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, there’s a first time for everything: I’m apparently an ideological brother to Andrew Sullivan, according to The Poor Man, who seems a bit miffed that I’m not a Patriot. The Poor Man makes the link by comparing Sullivan’s opposition … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}