Politics and Culture

Only a shill would assert that the hatred directed at Sarah Palin by her political enemies during last year's presidential campaign correlated with her shortcomings as a candidate. Some of it had to do with her being a conservative woman, yes, but Palin's controversial lifestyle choices- religious, married, pro-life- provoked most of it.

It's now common for people holding such formerly mainstream opinions to be attacked verbally, and in some cases like the demonstrations after Proposition 8 against various groups like Mormons, have their property harmed.

Next up for this treatment is Miss California for distinguishing between men and women. Here, we have a story about her breast implants. Since nobody thinks breast implants are immoral (and thus a sign of hypocrisy), the only reason that the Huffington Post put the story on their web site was to embarrass her. What a loving act and what a way to respect opposition and diversity of opinion.

Olbermann, with his characteristic grace:

Message: Non-conformists will be destroyed.

This is only the beginning. Let me explain how such things work:

Whenever a formerly socially shunned, justly of unjustly (and I'm smart enough to tel the difference) group begin their drive for the mainstream, they begin by seeking sympathy first. You can see this in the movies and other media. The messages tend to be of the "they're just like us" variety and aim to make the dominant sensibility feel guilt over the alleged unfairness. At this point, the climbing group's goal is to not be hated.

Then, something happens: the formerly despised group becomes "cool," even superior, "luminous," "chic."

The final stage is that the formerly out-of-the-mainstream group becomes dominant and marginalizes whom they perceive to be their former oppressors. The first clear instance of this happening is the transformation of the Roman empire from a pagan society to a Christian one, where the once-persecuted Christians became the dominant group and marginalized non-Christians (I'm a Christian. See, I'm just describing the phenomenon).

Rousseau elevated the "savage" to a fount of wisdom for bored Europeans.

In recent memory, we've seen racial groups go through this process, hence Norman Mailer yearning to be the "white negro."

Conservatives are more likely to use Martin Luther King's "content of character-color of skin" quote because in the sixties, blacks were in the first stage and are now in a later stage.

American Catholics, hated for many years, enjoyed a brief vogue in the forties and fifties with movies like "Going My Way" and popular programs like Fulton Sheen's before being either hated, mocked, or ignored by today's popular culture.

The Bells of St. Mary's

Going My Way (Universal Cinema Classics)

Faith, Hope And Love With Fulton Sheen - Vol. I-IV

Men: from Father Knows Best to partners to the mockery of fatherhood in modern sitcoms and contempt for the military and strait-laced men like Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum to utter irrelevance according to many feminist authors and thinkers.

Father Knows Best: Season One

Family Guy, Vol. 7

We can go on and on.

Today, this scenario is being played out over sexual issues. While young women of dubious moral character like Lindsey Lohan and not-so-young extremist kooks like Rosie O'Donnell still make the rounds at cool parties, Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean receive glances once reserved for whores (soon, a "scarlet C" for "conservative" or "Christian.") Or, those who would have (rightfully) died of shame at their behavior now attempt to marginalize the noble.

So, we see that the formerly marginalized can themselves marginalize when happening upon an advantage. We also see that the process can have good and bad effects, depending on your point of view, obviously, and that this process can stall, suffer from backlashes, and even regress.

Right now, it's hard to tell the stage at which stage Christians find themselves. I know we're not the socially dominant force. Many powerful people certainly hate us. Are we approaching the "pity us" stage? There's evidence for that: Carrie Prejean practically begged people to not hate her for "being different." I think many people saw the injustice perpetrated upon her by moron Perez Hilton.

We'll see.