Not kindness, dammit, JUSTICE
Jon makes an important point.
Politics, justice, freedom struggles, equal rights campaigns – none of that is about “kindness.” Keep your damn kindness and just give us what’s rightfully ours.
Kindness is a good thing in its place, but expanded out of its place it can be intrusive and patronizing and ultimately infuriating. Give us our due and then don’t bother us.
(“our due”)
That’s something that really pees me off. Martin Luther King Jr didn’t march about with placards saying, Be Kind to us, White Folk. He said “live up to your constitution about freedom and equality.” Gandhi didn’t go on fasts/ salt strikes/into prison saying, Please be nice to us, British Raj. He said, justice and independence. Suffragettes did not say, be chivalrous and courteous to us gentlemen. They said, give us the same rights as you have. No political movement whether it’s socialism, anti-apartheid, environmental asks for kindness. They ask for rights to the goods of this world; to equal treatment; to undoing damage to the earth.
It’s good to be kind in your personal life; there are reasons to be polite in public life – kindness and politeness make our society more civilised and more agreeable. But no serious political movement asks for them.
Whoops! Thanks maddog.