Yesterday, Yahoo! News placed an excerpt from my book, Most Good, Least Harm, (that had been posted awhile earlier by Simon & Schuster under the title “10 Easy Ways to Become a Better Person”) on their front page. I found this out when my and the Institute for Humane Education’s websites got a surprisingly large number of hits, and when I started receiving hate mail.The excerpt was from the end of Most Good, Least Harm in a section which offered a short summation about how to make choices that do the most good and least harm to oneself, other people, animals and the environment. The section was titled, “10 Principles for MOGO Living,” (MOGO being short for doing the most good and the least harm).
Personally, I would never have chosen the new title, “10 Easy Ways to Become a Better Person” for a number of reasons. First, I don’t teach about being a better person; I teach about making choices that do more good and less harm to ourselves and others. Second, the 10 principles are about choices that create a better world rather than better people. But despite the fact that the title could have been off-putting for a list about making MOGO choices, it was hard to believe the staggering outpouring of vitriol that followed. I have never been called so many names before, by people who know nothing about me other than from a short excerpt, taken out of context and given a misleading title, from a book I wrote that is meant to offer people ways to make their lives more meaningful while contributing to a healthier, more just, and more humane world.
The irony was that I’d already written a post for today. It was a short piece with links to several newspaper articles, one of which was the Wall Street Journal’s recent excerpt of Amy Chua’s new book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which elicited massive amounts of hate mail itself. I’d read that excerpt, and I, too, felt hostile toward Amy Chua. Now I know better than to judge Amy Chua by an excerpt. I pulled my blog post and wrote this instead.
It can be satisfying to vent our anger, especially from the safety of our computer keyboards, but it is damaging, not just to the recipients of our anger, but to all of us. When we fail to dig into information deeply and explore thoroughly, and when our discourse becomes crass and cruel, we close doors to understanding and learning.
I’ve learned from this experience to be ever more careful about my responses to what I read in the news, and to try, ever more diligently, to be kind.
Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm and Above All, Be Kind
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3 comments:
I read the article. Before I went to the comments section, I thought to myself, "surely, everyone will have positive things to say. After all, the suggestions offered are straightforward and GOOD." I was stunned to see the horrible comments. I don't understand it. And I am so sorry that a person who is trying to give people ideas on how they can make a positive difference is receiving hate mail. It really upsets me, and I just don't know how people can become unstuck from the pit of anger and hatefulness they seem to have become trapped in. It's so very sad to see. Many people comment when they have something mean to say. But few take the time when they are in agreement. I know many people who would agree with the article. Zoe Weil- I greatly appreciate everything you're doing for this world! I'm a teacher, and your Humane Ed. lessons have helped me encourage my students (and me) to live with greater compassion.
I have been saying for years now that the introduction of open internet commentary to our society has caused more damage than good. For some reason, that same person who politely opens a door for you in person out in public is the very same person who will call you horrible names through a keyboard. Hate speech over the internet is absolutely ridiculous, and it gets worse by the day. YouTube is the absolute worst place for comments. If you want to see the absolute very worst of human communication, go read YouTube comments for just five minutes. It doesn't matter which video, just pick one, any one. The comments on YouTube are rarely even related to the actual video, they are more a collection of racial slurs, profanity, and people fighting with and threatening other people they don't even know. Yahoo comments are equally bad, it's IMPOSSIBLE to find a comments section on any story that doesn't involve people arguing about Bush vs. Obama, Left vs. Right, God vs. Atheism, Black vs. White, etc. If you are one of these people, I urge you to please dis-engage yourself from that activity and replace it with positive behavior.
Dear both Anonymous commenters,
Thank you so much. Your words were very wise and helpful and heartfelt and important. I so appreciated them.
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