"There are three things, young gentlemen, which you are constantly to bear in mind. Firstly, you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own respecting their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly, you must hate a Frenchman, as you do the devil."
I'm going to tease these apart a bit. We have a different understanding of orders and of duty than Lord Nelson did - it is precisely the duty of a military officer, or anyone in authority, to weigh the orders they have been given against their deep obligation to their nation and humanity. We executed men at Nuremberg for 'following orders.' An order to charge a machine-gun is stil lawful; an order to turn that machine-gun on women and children is not.
The third - to hate a Frenchman - I will pass over to get back to later.
"You must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your [K]ing."
Despite various flirtations over the centuries, from Washington to Kennedy, America has rejected the temptations of royalty. The American King is everyone, the everyman (and everywoman), the People. "Government of the People, for the People and by the People."
So my text today, in this written sermon - for I cannot pretend that this is anything but a sermon - is those who speak ill of the [P]eople, individually and collectively.
I see so much hatred and dehumanization and othering going on. Left and right may disagree on who is to be thrown off the bus (or under its wheels), but we are engaged in a society-wide Lifeboat Exercise, in which the unfit or unworthy or ideologically unclean are to be tossed over the side so that the fit and worthy and pure may sail on into a better, brighter tomorrow.
I want to be as clear as possible, so that there cannot be any misunderstanding.
Fuck. That. Shit.
We cannot change the definition of human to fit economic, ideological or political convenience. The homeless person crushed by roadside machinery is just as much a person as a tiki-torch waving Nazi as an anti-gun politician as a veteran with PTSD off his meds as a junkie breaking into a house as a police officer who moonlights as a pole dancer on her days off.
We're all human. Every single one. No ticket to ride is required. We are all on this bus, and if you throw someone off because they are inconvenient, who is to say that you won't consider tossing me next?
We the People. Taste it. Let it roll off your tongue. Feel it. That guy who robbed the bank - a People. That robber who owns a bank - also People. The crooked politician and the crooks who elected him - People all.
We abandon that, we abandon that which makes us human, which makes us fit to walk on two legs instead of crawling on four.
"Dreamers" you say. Baloney! Victims of a bureaucratic train wreck, children raised in one country with the citizenship of another. Fuck the Democrats for using them as pawns; fuck the Republicans for using them as scapegoats - but Demopublicans and Repubrocrats are humans too. Where is the hue and cry?
"Undocumented minors" you say. Balls! Children. CHILDREN. I remember when America held up the golden lamp beside the door. Children!
"Nazis" I hear the cry. There is no one in 21st century America whom Hitler or Goebbels would have deemed worthy to lick their boots, may their souls burn in the fires of a billion hells. Mentally ill, scared, deluded people. Worthy of punching when and if they do something punchworthy, and not before.
"[CENSORED]" Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full. Please take your social, religious, ethnic and genetic hatreds, fold them until they are all sharp corners, and carefully fit them into your anal cavity.
We need to stop throwing people off the lifeboat.
I can only think of one way to do it, to break the habits of people who are becoming so much better at hate than at love.
In answer to Nelson:
Hug a Frenchman. Hug a Muslim. Hug a Nazi. Hug a leftist. Hug a pedophile. Hug a politician. Hug a thug.
Hug the unhuggable. Hug the Other. Hug the enemy.
Didn't Jesus say something about that? "Loving your neighbor is easy. Even those [asshats] over there do that. Love your enemy."
Find that person you despise, that tribe you fear, and (or course with consent) reaffirm your humanity and theirs.
Churchill said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
I'm going to supplement that.
"We have nothing to hate but hate itself."
So get out in that pit and love someone.
Don't be stupid about it. They still may want to kill you and your tribe and destroy your culture and heritage. But make them work for it.
Hit them with the most powerful weapons we have.
Respect. Mercy. Hope.
