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| English: Blake Farenthold with Young Republicans of Nueces County (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Furthermore, Michael Robertson, scholar of modern culture, sent a link to the Pervpool blog...
It is time to start printing t-shirts.
Meanwhile, no one has scored since Mordant le Fey nailed Blake Farenthold, which is either inspiring or disheartening, depending on how you view the world, which in my case is through a glass darkly. And, yes, there has been a certain amount of backlash toward PP because critics feel we (okay me) seem to have reduced coarse, unfeeling and corrosive misconduct to a joke.
My cynicism has as many layers as an onion, but at least one stratum consists of the pleasures of contempt, of finding yet another way to ridicule those whose opprobrious conduct is exposed. It also is an avenue to the surprise-that-is-not-surprise by which I mean that when it comes time to make a list of might-be Pervs, one is somewhat appalled to discover how easy it is to lengthen the list, the point being it is very hard to imagine - in this culture and in this moment - someone who might not have done something terrible or something stupid.
That is one lesson of this whole thing. Some misconduct seems merely stupid. A man ogles or touches or inappropriately jokes. This is a function of the power imbalance between men and women in our society and let it be judged as it should. Let it squirm and die in the light of day. But there are degrees of it, which may require an adjustment of the swing of the pendulum before we achieve a moral equilibrium where the punishment fits the crime.
(Tricky metaphor, huh. How does a pendulum achieve equilibrium?)
The power of #MeToo also has a downside. Historically, it has been so very hard, so full of risk, for a woman to accuse a man of abuse and harassment. For many women it has taken an almost kamikaze bravery to speak out. But their courage makes it possible for other victims to speak, and thus the size and momentum of the revolution also makes it is easier for a few to say things that are not true. I do not think this is common. But there it is. We need to keep this in mind without turning it into an excuse to justify the old equilibrium.
Going forward, PervPool will continue to hit the pervs with the fury of an open-field tackle, helmet to helmet, somebody call for a stretcher. But it also pauses to invoke the OPS balanced against the Utility Principle.
It's a mix of OPS (Original Perv Score) and the Utility Principle, i.e. the greatest good for the greatest number. I give Al Franken a OPS of -2 (such scores must be expressed as negatives) and a UP of +7. So, no Al, don't quit. Though if other, more serious, incidents emerge.... We are all afloat on the winds of history.
Things change. As the number of accusations against Franken rose - though not all were of equal seriousness - his effectiveness as a representative of the people of Minnesota and of the Democratic Party sank. And so he sank on the winds of history and needed to resign. As of today, that's where we are.
