Which need trumps


Sometimes showing people the doors, showing them that the doors are not locked, that they can walk through them any time they like, can cause them pain. Sometimes people want security and enclosure so badly that they don’t want the doors to be open. They see us as violating their freedom to believe that there are no doors, by showing them so clearly where the doors are and how free of locks they are.

This is collateral damage. There is possible collateral damage with most things we can say and argue. Some people don’t want to hear that men are not the natural permanent superiors of women, or that white people are not the natural permanent superiors of everyone else. Some people don’t want to hear that their odds of winning the lottery are very low. Some people don’t want to hear that some other people think their favorite movie sucks. Some people don’t want to hear that the Tories won the election, and I don’t blame them.

But other people need to know the doors are there and unlocked, and the only way we can tell them that is by telling – potentially – everyone. We have to make it public, available knowledge. We have to accept the collateral damage.

The need to know how to escape trumps the need to believe there is no escape.

Comments

  1. Beth says

    I’m sorry, but I don’t have a clue what this is about. Are you referring to a previous post? What doors are you metaphorically discussing here?

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