Stuart Schneiderman writes about a 12 year old girl who committed suicide after being bullied at school. The girl’s parents had pleaded with school officials to do something.
“When the parents once complained about bullying in the lunch room, the school suggested their daughter eat in a guidance counselor’s office — “further isolating Mallory from the student body,” the suit states.
“Another time, administrators had Mallory and her tormenters “hug each other” rather than actually discipline anyone.”
Schneiderman has this to say about the hug it out approach:
“Shared hugs… now that’s the solution that our empathy laden therapy culture prescribes. To imagine that society can regulate itself on the basis of feelings of a common humanity is an absurdist rationalization for the failure to offer a disciplined and structured social environment.”
This personal tragedy, a microcosm in our world, is played out in exactly the same way on the international stage. The use of feelings and hugs to decide national policy as opposed to cold hard facts.
An earlier article from Schneiderman on the pending demise of German leader Angela Merkel is illustrative in this regard.
“Never has so much goodness spawned so much misfortune. Normally, embattled leaders seek refuge in foreign policy. But Merkel is running out of partners. Paris and Rome, Warsaw, Vienna and Budapest have opposed her “European solution” for three years. Sweden and Denmark reinstated border controls in 2016. In a new tripolar world, Trump would rather play with the big boys in Moscow and Beijing.”
Merkel demanded that Europe “open its heart” to a million third world barbarians, a policy which has resulted in chaos for Europe. If she survives this summer with her political career intact it will be somewhat of a miracle, if the devil deals in those.
The school that directly contributed to that young girl’s demise did so due to the convenient excuse of doing nothing based on the quicksand of lies known as empathy. Merkel has come close to destroying Europe through a similar stance of doing nothing, with the convenient excuse of feelings as her get out of jail free card. Such short term solutions offer brief rewards in a society obsessed with signaling virtue. But the reality is far different when it catches up with you.
The attempt to govern by appealing to people’s emotions is not only unfair; it is fundamentally unsound. Facts are unpalatable and hurtful, as is the truth, an avoidance of which will sooner or later land you in deadly trouble.
This article was originally published at https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/, where Adam Piggott publishes regularly and brilliantly. You can purchase Adam’s books here.
Photo by EU2017EE 