Wonderful essay by Francis W. Porretto:
Expressing The Obvious Amid Cries Of Rage And Dismay
I wrote, some years ago:
In our modern lexicon, a taboo is a legally or socially enforced prohibition against speaking openly of certain things: usually, particular topics considered offensive by a politically privileged group....One must ask why some subjects are tabooed. The answer is simple, but enormously daunting: to speak of it is to invite inquiry, which threatens the perquisites of the group behind the taboo.
The most important examples relevant to contemporary American life pertain to groups that have been accorded “victim status.” Such groups sometimes wangle privileges from the law. Others are granted a degree of forbearance for antisocial or illegal behavior that persons outside the group would not receive. In either case, the rest of us are enjoined by social mechanisms – usually denunciation as an “–ist” – from speaking of the privilege and its consequences.
Much much more at the site - go and read the whole thing. Only a few comments but they are really worth reading as well. Our currrent society is adrift - we accept bad behaviour as normal because we are afraid to call people to task.
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