No Wrong
Written on 28 February 2010
I could have hit the target in a single shot, I now see, in The Magic of Disparagement: You Can Do No Wrong.
The rule is simple, and widely practiced. We only need a good name for it.
Before you commit some offense, accuse your intended victim of that offense.
Even where
- the offense you intend is an offense only in your own regard, where you lower the standard you expect from yourself;
- you accuse only in your own mind, not publicly, and not where the one you accuse can know or counter the accusation;
- you charge an unrelated offense, but somehow equal or greater than the offense you intend.
Examples at the small and large end of the scale:
At the small end of the scale:
I’m late. I am twenty minutes late to meet you. I know and decide three days in advance that I will be twenty minutes late to meet you, and will waste that much of your time and the time of others there. Considering myself a decent fellow, I need a reason. In most cases I need two reasons, one in the mind of the community and another in my own mind.
Well then, you started it, as we say from the age of four. I accuse you of wasting my time.
If your offense is not on record, I consider it likely in future, coming from you and your kind.
Or your contribution is meager. You fill our meeting time with scant value. You leave the time unfulfilled in that sense.
If your offense is not willful, I consider you helpless. You don’t much try, or you have nothing much to give.
In most cases, I give the community a reason less ruthless than the reason I give myself. I don’t want the community ruthless with me.
Or I lie. I accept your invitation knowing I won’t attend. I imagine I show you more respect this way than by honestly telling you No, I won’t attend for this reason or that, or no reason at all. You do the same for (or against) me, I allege. Always have, always will.
Example at the large end of the scale:
I (or my country, my people) intend to invade you (your country, your people), rape you, plunder you, devour you, and dishonor your future generations in a way that invisibly destroys them from the womb.
Being a decent enough fellow, I need a reason. Not just in the public mind, but in my own. I press our best speechmakers for reasons that can avert a backlash from other countries. My own reasons I sift through as time permits.
Start the spiral, and down we go:
Before you disappoint, find your rival disappointing. Before you slack, scrupulously inventory all the ways your rival slacks. Before you slouch, heap up a monument to your rival as slouch. Before you sink, sink your regard for your rival, your regard and the regard of the community. Whatever you intend or commit, envision it first in your rival, first and worse. Before you destroy a rival, destroy her right to complain, her chance to answer or summon help.
Add insult to injury, as we say, but please, not in that order. In the service of justice, put insult ahead of injury.
Then down we go, round and round, all of us, down and down….
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