Modern Day Puritanism

Ours is a strange time to be alive. We talk outwardly on being tolerant. However, we all have seen that quite often the most intolerant are those who preach tolerance. We see it in individuals quite often, but it shows up in odd ways collectively as an American culture. Here is what I am referring to.

You will often hear people in places of prominence talk about believing in giving individuals a second chance. If pressed individually and pressed further on their own failings, most would indeed fall under that umbrella. Most of us less prominent folks would also fall into that camp.

Here is where it appears to be breaking down.

Primarily, through the use of social media we have become a nation that desires instant punishment. It goes from A-Rod, to Jerry Sandusky, to Donald Sterling, to Danny Ferry, to the mayor of Toronto, to Tony Stewart, to Joe Paterno, to Governor Christi, to Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson, to the police in Missouri, to any number of politicians, to the latest public figure who we think is guilty of a crime. Now, I am not saying that some of the individuals listed above are not guilty. Some indeed are.Others however have been exonerated or never proven at fault or the case is still under investigation.

In actuality it does not seem to matter if the person IS guilty or not. We have judged them guilty based upon our limited evidence and we then want to see them punished. We want to see them punished quickly and here is the rub . . . we want to see them punished publicly. It appears to me that we, as a culture, are acting in eerily similar fashion to the Puritans of a few hundred years ago who punished folks in the most public of settings available to them in that day Where the extreme Puritans put folks into stocks and publicly mocked and otherwise humiliated them, we do it now via the Internet. We assassinate their character. Quite often, just as the legalistic wing of the Puritans did, we even resort to attacking their family. With our words and posts we "convict" them quickly and viciously and without regard as to whether we may end up being wrong.

Just as tolerance goes away when it is not our belief we are seeking tolerance for, it seems it is no longer innocent until proven guilty. We have become guilty until proven innocent on many fronts. We see ourselves as having moved so much beyond the folks of a few hundred years ago, yet here we are acting in much the same way. I am not in favor of being soft on criminal acts of any sort, but we must exercise care not to violate the old "log and splinter" principle while the facts play out.