This is a copy of a submission I sent to Plebdox. I have no doubt they will ignore it so I’m going to try submitting it to the only honest blog on tumblr as well.
Do you play chess? Chess has many lessons to teach. You don’t even need to be any good at chess to learn them. One of the most important lessons in chess is that the other player gets a turn too. Chess novices will frequently plan many moves ahead. They’ll imagine how their queen will be able to menace the back row in five turns once they move their rook and their knight… but then the other player does something they didn’t expect and all that planning goes up in smoke.
This lesson is profoundly applicable to real life. It is very easy to, like a chess novice, get very bound up in our own beliefs and ideals. For example, you believe that Pleb is a bad person. So you think to yourself “That Pleb is bad. I’ll punish her for being bad using this strategy I thought up!” From your perspective this is perfectly logical. After all, what virtuous person wouldn’t want to punish wickedness? I understand this. I really do.
But just like in chess the other side gets a move too. While you are absolutely convinced that you know right from wrong in this case so are the people you disagree with. They may even be even more convinced then you are.
You don’t like racism and bias against sexual minorities?
This guy disagrees with you:
So does this guy:
And this guy:
They are all capable of using the exact same strategies you are. Every dirty trick, every nasty attack, every morally questionable deed you commit can be replicated by them and their ilk. In fact, they’re probably a lot better at being vicious than you are.
When it was your turn you said “The end justifies the means.” You abandoned mercy and compassion and decency to punish someone you were convinced was wicked. So now, if the cruel beast that is the Internet turns on you, what moral principle will you appeal to in order to defend yourself? You violated the privacy of your enemy; why should your enemies respect your privacy? You tried to get your enemy fired; why shouldn’t your enemies try to get you fired? You were cruel; why shouldn’t your enemies by cruel?
Please, I implore you. Reconsider your course. This road you are walking leads to a dark place. No one can benefit from our society going there. The virtuous least of all.
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Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ‘round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast– man’s laws, not God’s– and if you cut them down—and you’re just the man to do it—do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.
- A Man for All Seasons
