Whereof one cannot stay silent, one must probably blog

One of the things about the internet—I was going to say having a blog, but really the same is true for a social media account—is the odd and unfortunate feeling of obligation to comment on things. Not just things in general, although of course lots of people feel obliged to do that, but on a certain subset of things that we feel connected to, or even, in a vague and unconnected way, responsible for.

That’s kind of obscure, isn’t it? I’ll be specific: I feel an obligation to comment on the unrest in Jerusalem. I don’t have anything to say about it, really; I think both ‘sides’ are terrible and that the Israeli government and police are untrustworthy and pretty much awful, but I certainly don’t have any notion of how they could be less so. Still, as a Jew, and even more than that as a Jew who sometimes posts about Jewishness and related topics, when Jews are behaving atrociously as Jews, I feel an obligation to comment.

Here’s another one: I feel an obligation to comment on the terrible behavior of people on the Doctor Who set in the—wait a minute, not the 1970s, this was ten to fifteen years ago. And isn’t in any real way surprising: institutions have been covering up the sexual harassment, abuse and assault of men for generations, so we should all just assume that some women have been subjected to those terrible actions at any longstanding institution or workplace at some point. And that the reason we haven’t heard about it is because the institution has successfully covered it up, rather than because it hasn’t happened. And that my being a fan of a television show doesn’t make that general fact inapplicable. But I’ve written about my displeasure when the writing is terrible. Shouldn’t I have to write when people are actually abused?

There are a handful of those kinds of associations, for me. They are my identity groups, I suppose, and that as I identify with them, I feel an obligation for them, despite having no power over them. When the college I attended is being particularly terrible, I feel like I should speak up about it, although I usually don’t actually do it (since I generally have only the vaguest notion of what is going on). If something terrible happened with the Giants as an organization (which probably has happened, although I don’t remember anything egregious) I would feel like I should make a point of saying “As a Giants fan…” There may be some other such identity groups that aren’t coming to mind, but those are the ones that I think Gentle Readers probably associate with me, and thus the ones that weigh on me when I don’t have anything to say about their misbehavior.

I think it’s different with my Political Party, by the way, since as participatory self-governance really does involve an obligation to keep an eye on the Party that represents your interests. Parties largely do respond to their supporters’ outrage when they misbehave, and so expressing that outrage really is an obligation. The government of Israel has never cared what I thought about it, and I don’t feel that I’ve contributed, particularly, to their various disgraces. I certainly don’t think I am at fault for Noel Clarke feeling, pretty much correctly, that he could get away with abuse and harassment as an actor on DW. And yet, somehow, here I am, posting on my blog.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.