Ramblings from the 'goblinn

What a week it has been.

( The Further Misadventures of Wee Hob )
( ... and reflections on the difference one good person can make in the world )

I guess everybody by now has weighed in on the "Warriors for Innocence" campaign to rid the world of predators by getting social networking sites to delete journals of people whose interests and content are, in their eyes, objectionable. liz_marcs has probably the best analysis of the situation, and for the few who haven't seen it yet, it can be found here.

Reading through my response to her, I decided I wanted to share it here on my own journal as well. So here it is:

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It's like a car crash-- don't want to look, can't look away....

You and your many responders have pretty much covered the free speech and witch hunt aspects of all this quite well. One thing that struck me as I was musing over all this, though, was how this self appointed guardian of all that's holy was so very like some social workers I've had the misfortune to know. Not the holier-than-than-thou bastards who enjoyed inflicting suffering on their clients because it gave them a power rush. No, the ones who Really Believed they were doing the Right Thing. The ones who for some reason could not see that good intentions do not necessarily equal good outcomes. The ones who dealt with the essential powerlessness of the human condition by pretending that they were in a position of knowledge, understanding, and therefore, power. As if understanding the demons gave them some kind of protection. Even when the "understanding" was perhaps the biggest illusion of all.

They're the ones who did the most damage to me and my kids. And yet, they're the ones I can't quite bring myself to hate. Because we all do that at times. Every time I gossip with my coworkers about someone's unenviably fucked up life, everytime I see the mote in my brother's eye but fail to see the beam in my own-- yeah. It staves off the panic for a few moments in this unpredictable, insane world.

It's a shame, but there it is. And that's why people standing up and reminding people that ends do not justify means is so important. That constant tug back and forth is the only thing that saves us, in the end. Glad you were there to speak up this time.

Hob