EVEN I WAS YOUNG ONCE | 2005-10-01
In my youth, the more I learned the worse it got.
My entire society was dedicated to destroying everything my life was based on, beginning with my race and my Southern identity.
And they sincerely believed that destroying everything I cared about about the highest morality. They felt that everything I cared about just showed my ignorance, my shallowness, my lack of serious feelings for the Universal Concepts they were dedicated to.
And now I am watching young people in our movement going through exactly this same agonizing process. It took me decades to develop and elephant-thick skin and a a sense of humor that keeps me out of the loony bin.
When I was young I was resentful and I was MEAN. I hope our fellowship on the internet will help that happening to young people now.
This process HURTS. I took almost everything as an insult because so much of it was intended to be insulting.
I was ALONE. The media were dedicated to making me and people like me feel that we were the only people who believed what we believed and who felt what we felt. They made it clear that they were not only the only legitimate view, but they were the ONLY view.
The concept of Political Correctness had not occurred to anybody. Colleges were the seats of Wisdom, universalist, anti-racist, anti-provincial -- by which they meant Southern -- feelings.
Yes, every nightmare you could imagine is true. Yes, the entire world is run by bigoted fools who think they are sophisticated, educated, and noble. That is a hell of thing for a young person to have to learn straight out of the box.
Yes, we've got to learn to live with it. But we must also realize how HARD it is to be an intelligent and perceptive and loyal young person today.
That makes you intolerant. That makes you mean.
I would have given anything for this internet fellowship.