Sanity In The Age Of Cancelling

Messy methods for tense times

a group of people play who is who on their screens against each other, futuristic, sleek digital art — by DALL·E

We have been living in the age of social cancelling for a few years. I would like to think that the trend has turned slightly, but I admit this could be me having cancelled a bunch of cancellers from my life. Do two cancellations cancel each other? Perhaps.

The worst aspect of social cancelling is how binary and final it is. In that respect, the logical thinking behind it does not differ much from that of the death penalty, which I have never been able to agree with either. Indeed, nothing is clear enough for us to react to it in a binary and final way. There is always more nuance. There is never an absolute certainty. I understand how I could become deranged if someone I care about got hurt. I could play vigilante and exact revenge in the bloodiest manner. However, I could never support instating such an irrational and personal approach as an official response to crime.

Similarly, I have stopped following artists and other public figures after they have behaved in a way that appalled me. Yet, I have always believed that my reaction had to do with me rather than them. More significantly, I have tried to dissociate their recent deed from their overall legacy. They might make music I don’t like now, but that doesn’t mean I think any less of them as creatives, and it certainly doesn’t…