During one Christmas season a long time ago (in Donald years), a friend of my parents dressed as Santa and visited homes late on December 24. I had fallen asleep before the visit, so I awakened to a visit from Santa. During the day my cousin and I awaited with great anticipation Santa’s arrival, and maybe that’s why the memory, coupled with my now ancient belief, sticks all these (Donald) years later. I also remember the shock when I learned the truth about Santa’s existence. I had to adjust to a different reality. But, young as I was, I adapted; I revised my belief system.
That memory makes me wonder sometimes about the adhesion of belief and worldview. What we come to believe has the stickiness of a mouse glue trap. Once on a glue trap, a mouse only further entraps itself. Similarly, insects further entrap themselves on spiderwebs. Belief and worldview both act like glue traps and spiderwebs at times. And these are those times.
You can see the adhesive nature of beliefs on public display almost daily. TV, radio, and social media all preserve the nature of the sticky and entwining traps. Here’s an example I stumbled on recently. Seems that David Webb, a conservative commentator of African-American heritage, was being interviewed by a rather liberal network African-American analyst, Areva Martin, when the latter said Webb has “the privilege of doing that people of color don’t have the privilege of…by virtue of being a white male, you have white privilege.” * Now, to be fair to Martin, I should note that the interview was audio only, so she could not see Webb. Webb, an articulate and well-mannered presence, said, “Areva, I hate to break it to you, but you should’ve been better prepped…I’m black.”
The glue traps and spiderwebs of political and social beliefs are sticky indeed. And among the worst of those entrapping beliefs lie the inescapable terms of political correctness and mores du jour. I don’t know whether or not the incident had any long-term effect on Martin; she might still be stuck in her glue trap of political or ideological expediency. If she is, then she differs from those of us who once enthusiastically believed in a universal wintertime gift-giver, but altered our beliefs in the face of specific realities. The old belief no longer adheres to us.
Of course, there are those who would say all belief is similarly adhesive, that everyone is stuck on some sort of glue trap or in some spiderweb. And they would have a point. They might also point out that the nature of belief can differ in endurance, political and social beliefs being among the most temporary because every generation can reject those of a previous generation (though they often resurface in altered forms). This all might seem to be an exercise in rhetoric if lives weren’t affected. We know, however, that even short-lived beliefs have resulted in human suffering, enslavement, war, and death.
Again, to be fair to Areva Martin—though she didn’t do her homework—I remind you that she conducted her interview without seeing David Webb. The question she needs to ask herself if she is in any way rational, however, is whether or not discovering that she was stuck on a glue trap of belief is motive for altering her worldview just a bit, maybe struggling enough to just free a part of her from the glue. If she decides alternatively to reach further onto the trap because she’s already committed an initial step, she will merely find herself forever trapped.
There’s a lesson in this for all of us, but to understand it, we have to free our heads from some very sticky stuff.
*Dibble, Madison. ‘I Hate to Break It to You’: Fox Contributor David Webb Blasts CNN Analyst Accusing Him of ‘White Privilege.’ Online at https://ijr.com/david-webb-blasts-cnn-analyst-accusing-him-of-white-privilege/ Accessed January 18, 2019. I’m wondering whether or not Kant’s categorical imperative applies here: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” What do you think those who run from one politically correct view to another would say about the categorical imperative?
That memory makes me wonder sometimes about the adhesion of belief and worldview. What we come to believe has the stickiness of a mouse glue trap. Once on a glue trap, a mouse only further entraps itself. Similarly, insects further entrap themselves on spiderwebs. Belief and worldview both act like glue traps and spiderwebs at times. And these are those times.
You can see the adhesive nature of beliefs on public display almost daily. TV, radio, and social media all preserve the nature of the sticky and entwining traps. Here’s an example I stumbled on recently. Seems that David Webb, a conservative commentator of African-American heritage, was being interviewed by a rather liberal network African-American analyst, Areva Martin, when the latter said Webb has “the privilege of doing that people of color don’t have the privilege of…by virtue of being a white male, you have white privilege.” * Now, to be fair to Martin, I should note that the interview was audio only, so she could not see Webb. Webb, an articulate and well-mannered presence, said, “Areva, I hate to break it to you, but you should’ve been better prepped…I’m black.”
The glue traps and spiderwebs of political and social beliefs are sticky indeed. And among the worst of those entrapping beliefs lie the inescapable terms of political correctness and mores du jour. I don’t know whether or not the incident had any long-term effect on Martin; she might still be stuck in her glue trap of political or ideological expediency. If she is, then she differs from those of us who once enthusiastically believed in a universal wintertime gift-giver, but altered our beliefs in the face of specific realities. The old belief no longer adheres to us.
Of course, there are those who would say all belief is similarly adhesive, that everyone is stuck on some sort of glue trap or in some spiderweb. And they would have a point. They might also point out that the nature of belief can differ in endurance, political and social beliefs being among the most temporary because every generation can reject those of a previous generation (though they often resurface in altered forms). This all might seem to be an exercise in rhetoric if lives weren’t affected. We know, however, that even short-lived beliefs have resulted in human suffering, enslavement, war, and death.
Again, to be fair to Areva Martin—though she didn’t do her homework—I remind you that she conducted her interview without seeing David Webb. The question she needs to ask herself if she is in any way rational, however, is whether or not discovering that she was stuck on a glue trap of belief is motive for altering her worldview just a bit, maybe struggling enough to just free a part of her from the glue. If she decides alternatively to reach further onto the trap because she’s already committed an initial step, she will merely find herself forever trapped.
There’s a lesson in this for all of us, but to understand it, we have to free our heads from some very sticky stuff.
*Dibble, Madison. ‘I Hate to Break It to You’: Fox Contributor David Webb Blasts CNN Analyst Accusing Him of ‘White Privilege.’ Online at https://ijr.com/david-webb-blasts-cnn-analyst-accusing-him-of-white-privilege/ Accessed January 18, 2019. I’m wondering whether or not Kant’s categorical imperative applies here: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” What do you think those who run from one politically correct view to another would say about the categorical imperative?
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