Sunday, March 03, 2019

Will Michael Jackson Be Sent To The Cultural Gulag?

Serious question.
   Given credible accusations of child molestation against Jackson, will the same people who are arguing that, say, we shouldn't read nor cite e.g. Gildersleeve now argue that we shouldn't listen to Thriller? There don't seem to be many rules to this game. But there seem to be a couple of futures here: one in which Jackson's music is verboten, one in which he's given a pass because of race or some other such factor...and one in which the left seriously starts trying to normalize pedophilia. The third option does seem to be a stretch...but I've lost my ability to ascertain where the left will go, and where it's capable of going. Who would have predicted six years ago that people would be getting permabanned from social media for saying that only males have penises?
   I actually think that such questions are kind of interesting. Imagine that Hitler had written The Critique of Pure Reason...or Beethoven's Ninth. To some extent, an ability to enjoy a work does seem to hinge on an ability to ignore the sins of its creator. But, then, the traditional view is that we should resolutely keep the author and his work separated anyway. The left seems to reject that--it's of a piece with their apparent view that many ad hominems traditionally regarded as invalid are, in fact, valid. They spend a lot of energy spinning out hypotheses about hidden thoughtcrimes, then arguing that nothing produced by anyone who committed such crimes can be good. Or, anyway, no such work can be regarded as good. I tend to think they're wrong, but admit that the outlines of a reasonable case are buried somewhere in that mess.

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