A Long Habit… of fear
In his introduction to Common Sense, Thomas Paine said that “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right”. This is very true. By way of example, consider the slave owners of the deep South. They grew up in a culture where it was considered “not wrong” to own slaves; to own other people. And so criticism of slavery was met with their loud and stern protestations. It was traditional. It was humane. It was right. But, it was not.
There is another very similar and powerful truth: a popular habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it the superficial appearance of being right. If your mother is/was like mine, you’ve probably heard something like, “Well, if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?” This question might be posed as a challenge to your excuse that you threw a paper airplane at the teacher because everyone else was doing it!
Anyone who’s taken a class in logic understands that “argumentum ad populum” is a fallacy. Appeals to popularity never withstand the rigors of logic. So why do we care what everyone else thinks? Because we have evidence that the crowd is often “right”, or rather “right enough”. Right enough that we’re not willing to face the crowd with the truth. We’re not willing to face the isolation and mockery such truths can bring.
By way of example, you might hear someone refer to welfare programs as “legalized theft”. But you inately reject such labels. It sounds too extreme. Seriously, if that’s what it is, then everyone would be against it. Argumentum ad populum. But which word is too extreme: “legalized” or “theft”? And most people don’t rebel against such policies for many reasons: ostracization, laziness, and fear. So instead of rebelling, we justify our inaction by accepting the poor disguises that these governmental policies wear. “We’re good people. We should take care of those who can’t take care of themselves.” But when we apply logic and reason, we understand that this sort of policy-making is unsustainable.
What will it take to motivate us out of our laziness? What will it take to give us courage to face the ostracization of society and the fear of punishment by our government. Stand up, I say, and declare what is wrong in spite of what others may say or think. Remember, this is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Be brave and free thinkers, speakers, and citizens. When something is wrong, don’t put the problem off for your children to face. Don’t push it out of your mind with justifications. Face it. Declare it’s wrong. Even if you only have the courage to admit it to yourself, right now.
