{"id":35531,"date":"2024-02-05T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35531"},"modified":"2024-02-05T15:55:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T23:55:02","slug":"is-cancel-culture-all-bad-im-not-so-sure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/is-cancel-culture-all-bad-im-not-so-sure\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Cancel Culture All Bad? I’m Not So Sure"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The Canceling of the American Mind: How Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All,<\/em> Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott focus on what has become known as \u201ccancel culture,\u201d: how it began, its destructive effects, and how to push back against it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did Cancel Culture come about and what is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Using case studies to describe specific situations of cancel culture and to prove their point, Lukianoff and Schlott claim, \u201cover the last several decades many of the institutions tasked with teaching us how to argue productively have failed in their duties \u2013 most notably, American higher education\u2026And just as higher education began to fail in that mission an epochal technological shift took place that shook the foundations of society \u2013 and made everything worse.\u201d[1]<\/a> Of course that \u201cepochal technological shift\u201d was the rise of social media where \u201cthe rules of arguing that bring society closer to the truth are pushed to the wayside in favor of techniques that let you off the hook from actually engaging with your opponents.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In other words: we\u2019d rather each other out, publicly shame, and walk away, than listen, push-back, argue well, and maybe, just maybe, even learn from the one with whom we disagree. The fuel for cancel culture is the power of winning. The canceler wins because she\/he takes her ball and the entire team, and goes home, leaving the opponent out on the field with nobody against whom to play. As Lukianoff and Schlott say, “Cancel Culture was born out of a sort of evolutionary process. Cancel Culture survives because it wins – and things that win get repeated.”[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a February 2, 2024 article from the Religious News Service, we hear of Fuller Seminary firing a salaried employee because she “she had balked at signing a\u00a0statement<\/a> that says \u201csexual union must be reserved for marriage, which is the covenant union between one man and one woman.\u201d[4]<\/a> The article continues, \u201cA spokesperson from Fuller declined to discuss individual employees, but confirmed that all members of its community are required to adhere to its standards.<\/a>\u201d[5]<\/a> This is disappointing as I understand Fuller Seminary to be training theological students to serve in many different denominations rather than one in particular, meaning, students are going to come from and be going to institutions\/churches that have varying beliefs about issues. The employee who was fired was not a professor, so I am not sure this firing counts as “cancel culture” but it seems to fall into that category. The employee posed a legal ryder that would allow her to respect but not personally affirm the standards regarding gay marriage. However, “the seminary declined her proposal. The employee was terminated in a Zoom call on Jan. 2, and while she said human resources handled her situation with kindness, she also believes Fuller should not market itself as a multidenominational school while excluding people from LGBTQ-affirming denominations.”[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is Accountability such a bad thing? <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This book makes it sound like cancel culture is rampant, bringing down America, making us dumber (because we refuse to argue), and doing away with free-speech. However, a poll taken in 2020 by the Pew Research Center found that when asked to describe what cancel culture is, \u201cthe most common responses by far centered around accountability. Some 49% of those familiar with the term said it describes actions people take to hold others accountable,\u201d which I\u2019m not entirely sure is a bad thing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In sharing the history of Cancel Culture, Lukianoff and Schlott tell us about a professor named Marcuse who wrote an influential essay in 1965 called \u201cRepressive Tolerance\u201d in which he argued that \u201ctolerance for speech is only useful in a totally equal society \u2013 and that getting to that point paradoxically requires intolerance and suppression of certain viewpoints.\u201d[7]<\/a> For far too long only a small segment of our world has had a voice, mostly, the white, straight, male. And I feel like I have to say this again and again in these blogs; I am raising three of them and married to one of them. I like white, straight, males. I even love some of them. But I do think that cancel culture is *sometimes* helpful to those who traditionally have less power in holding accountable those in power who have used their platform to hurt or wrong or be blatantly racist or sexist or homophobic or\u2026 Lukianoff and Schlott even admit, \u201cThere are some institutions, ideas, and even people who need to be torn down \u2013 from Hosni Mubarak\u2019s regime in Egypt to odious sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boundaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In therapy I had to learn about boundaries. What will my boundaries be? Will they be permeable or fixed? Why do I have boundaries? Are my boundaries serving me? Sometimes I wonder if cancel culture has emerged out of our growing awareness of boundaries. (This is just a theory I am wondering about \u2013 I have no evidence to say it is true and as far as I read Lukianoff and Schlott did not examine it.) For example, I have a relative who I have had to effectively \u201ccancel,\u201d meaning I had to draw a boundary saying, \u201cIf you continue to act in this way, I will not be in relationship with you.\u201d This was to protect my heart, my peace AND to protect my kids from thinking the kind of behavior this relative often engaged in was okay. Many times, I tried to talk with this relative, but it was like this relative could not or would not hear me. It has broken my heart to not be in relationship with this relative AND it has made our family life so much healthier and peaceful. What is the right answer here? Should I have \u201ccanceled\u201d (and continue to cancel) this relative or should I have continued to engage with him? I honestly do not know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is a phrase I read this week \u2013 something like, \u201cIt\u2019s easier to walk away than to build relationship,\u201d and I have to disagree. It has been horrible having to walk away, to cancel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jesus called all kinds of people to follow him. You had Simon the Zealot who was part of a band of Jews trying to incite rebellion against the Roman Empire and then you had Matthew, a tax collector, who literally collected money for the Empire. Somehow these two guys made it work. And yet, when Jesus sends out his twelve disciples he tells them, \u201cIf anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.\u201d[9]<\/a> While shaking the dust off one\u2019s feet is not exactly canceling another and getting others to jump on the bandwagon, the idea is still mostly the same.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What I appreciated about this book was that just when I thought I had figured out what side of the political coin Lukianoff and Schlott were writing from, they would flip it, and write from the other. They were not arguing that the left or the right was correct. In fact, just the opposite. In their words: “It’s clear by now that both the left and the right can perpetuate cancel culture. And the only way out of this sticky situation is for both sides to adopt an attitude that allows for people in our society to have radically different points of view on any number of issues.”[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

My question remains though: what happens when you\u2019ve tried to argue well, when you\u2019ve pushed back, when you\u2019ve tried to deal with the argument and not the person \u2013 when you\u2019ve done it all peacefully, and still, that person or that identity group, cannot or will not hear you? How long do you continue to try before you walk away, before you cancel?<\/p>\n

Seven times? Seventy-seven times?<\/p>\n

I honestly don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott, The Canceling of the American Mind: How Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All<\/em>, Simon and Schuster, October 2023, Introduction. (Note, I read this book on Nook E-Reader and listened to it on Scribd. I do not have page numbers but only chapters because of the formatting on Nook.)<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, chapter 1.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2024\/02\/02\/fuller-seminary-senior-director-fired-for-refusal-to-sign-non-lgbtq-affirming<\/a> statement\/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Fuller%20seminary%20senior%20director%20fired%20for%20refusal%20to%20sign%20non-LGBTQ%20affirming%20statement&utm_campaign=ni_newsletter<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid, chapter 2.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Matthew 10:14 NRSVUE<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott, The Canceling of the American Mind: How Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All<\/em>, Simon and Schuster, October 2023, Chapter 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The Canceling of the American Mind: How Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All, Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott focus on what has become known as \u201ccancel culture,\u201d: how it began, its destructive effects, and how to push back against it.   How did Cancel Culture come about and what is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2489,3036,3005,1535],"class_list":["post-35531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-lukianoffandschlott","tag-schlott","tag-lukianoff","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35531"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35554,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35531\/revisions\/35554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}