Gumption by Nick Offerman

Author:Nick Offerman [Offerman, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-698-19444-1
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-05-26T04:00:00+00:00

Condemnation by category is the lowest form of hatred, for it is coldhearted and abstract, lacking the heat and even the courage of a personal hatred. Categorical condemnation is the hatred of the mob, which makes cowards brave.

This quote from Wendell Berry’s essay “Caught in the Middle” seems like it could apply equally as well to this brand of political hate-mongering, as to the continuing discrimination against homosexuals in our country.

This “hatred of the mob,” of which Wendell Berry writes, I think is what has begun to rankle me when it comes time to vote. With the exception of the exaggerated optimism that surrounded the first campaign of President Obama, which had less to do with tangible issues, I think, than with his generally appealing to a Democratic idealism, when’s the last time I voted for the candidate who impressed me with proactive results as opposed to the one who seemed the lesser of two evils?

Even the language behind the campaigns is a problem. The terms that surround issues of homosexuality, like “tolerance” or “defense of marriage,” have done nothing to assuage my feeling that this long-running prejudice is nothing short of criminal. That any person’s sexual orientation should require “tolerating” is a flagrant example of discrimination. I could sadly name a few altar boys who might have something much more tangible to say about “tolerating” the sexual orientation of their superiors in the sacristy of the church. As for the “Defense of Marriage Act,” Barney Frank told me, “I asked on the floor of the House how does [a same-sex union] threaten your marriage? Anyone who’s married stand up and tell me how it threatens your marriage. So one Republican got up and said, ‘Well, it doesn’t threaten my marriage, it threatens the institution of marriage.’ I said that sounds like an argument that should be made by someone in an institution.” This is splendid. As my Parks and Rec costar Retta would say, “Barney Frank got jokes.”

The Christians who are so offended by homosexuality point to the references in the Bible wherein gay love is described as a perversion, but Mr. Berry fairly points out in “Caught in the Middle” that he can see no reason why perversion should be reserved as an indiscretion particular only to the homosexuals. It goes without saying that the condemnation of the perfectly normal lifestyle of homosexuals as a “perversion” is egregious. It again smacks of the elitism of the Manifest Destiny mentality that allows a veil of false righteousness to cloak the true brutality of a people’s actions from their own self-reckoning. Vicious behavior is justified by ideas like “God’s plan for the white people,” or in this case, the straight people.

Further, there are plenty of legitimate perversions being enacted by straight people every day with as much gusto as anyone, rendering their complaint rather toothless, or at least powerfully hypocritical. Wendell Berry also hilariously points out that anything going on in the gay bedroom is going on in straight bedrooms as well, with interest.

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