I learned this morning that some people want to "cancel" Metallica. Apparently, the band's music has been discovered by a younger generation through a TV show. This prompted at least one person to obsessively search through the band's history and past performances to judge whether they were inherently righteous or evil. Some incidents from the past led to the band being judged as evil, and the current way of the world dictates that they must be destroyed.
If you're not well-versed in psychological theory, I will share something from the psychoanalytic school with you. All of us are good; we are also bad. We have the capacity for acts of kindness; we have the capacity for acts of cruelty. We must be very, very wary of anyone who is only aware of their supposed "virtue" and blissfully unaware of their dark side: they will commit despicable acts and still say that they are only capable of being virtuous. Be especially careful of those who most loudly proclaim that they are nothing but virtuous.
Hollywood has given us the notion of heroes and villains. We see black and white, rather than shades of grey. In psychoanalytic theory, this is known as psychological splitting - things have one property, and can not have a property which we see as contradictory to that property. We see ourselves as good or bad. We see others as good or bad. We are less capable of seeing ourselves or anyone else as good AND bad.
I can only guess what motivates someone to comb through a band's history, looking for reasons to despise and attempt to destroy them. It would seem that fear, hatred and anger are present as driving forces. What is absent in this and other manifestations of "cancel culture" is forgiveness. As the western world largely abandons Christianity, the Christian concept of forgiveness is also being abandoned. The new western ideology which is being touted as the new religion doesn't preach forgiveness.
Forgiveness isn't easy. Forgiveness requires a high level of emotional maturity. As schema therapy and other schools of therapy show us, however, there are circumstances in which each of us can find ourselves thinking, feeling and acting as we did as children. How this change comes about depends on our personal history. We should be clear about one thing, though: trying to destroy someone because they once said or did something we didn't like isn't a mature thing to do. As I said before, we are all good, but we are also bad.
There was a time when seeing and hearing examples of "cancel culture" provoked fear, hatred and anger in me. Now? I forgive them. It's better for me to concentrate on thinking, feeling and acting from courage, compassion and acceptance. This isn't so that others will see me as inherently good or virtuous - it is simply better for me and those I love if I think, feel and act in such a way. It also seems to be a path that leads us away from our internal suffering. My compassion, then, is for those who worship at the altar of "cancel culture" as well as those they target - as much as they hurt others, they hurt themselves.
What about Metallica? There was a time when musicians were deliberately provocative, pushing boundaries and wilfully going against the prescribed societal norms. Being as human as the rest of us, they sometimes made colossal errors of judgement. If we're saying that mistakes cannot be forgiven, with the passage of time, then we will be forever terrified to do anything which pushes the boundaries. Mediocrity and banality will become the norm. I would contend that the passage of time will judge "cancel culture" and its proponents poorly.
As the world moves further towards political polarisation, and away from any sense of being politically moderate, fear, hatred and anger are becoming more deeply entrenched within our psyche. I feel sad about this, and pray that we can do better, but accept that this is the way things are right now.
