It seems that there are too many people ready to lead a lynch mob from a place of misplaced self righteousness. In this place, often times hidden in the dark, away from full exposure, the” righteous” condemn those they disapprove of with the sharpest edge of their tongue or twittering fingers – whichever is most convenient. You know, it is so easy and so tempting to attack someone who has fallen from grace, because they did or said something “bad”. But, among that group of generous and ruthless judges are some truly sadistic characters.
Somewhere along the line the need to speak up for what is right and being vindictive blurs and they justify their hate by pointing a finger at their victim, “look, they deserve this because they have done and said some terrible things”. They become so invested in taking people down a peg or two, three, four or five, until there’s nothing left of them, until they are buried beneath the ground. These grand inquisitor, famous for their relentless pursuit of supposed offenders, never stop until those accused lie prostrate, or, dead at their feet.
People have parties to celebrate the demise of the “guilty” and feel justified in their belief that because the guilty part has been vanquished, justice has been served. They choose to ignore the fact that many innocent souls have been consumed by their fanaticism and their thirst for blood. They ignore the fact that these “guilty ones”, have family and friends who suffer during and long after they have gotten their “just reward”.
It is so easy and enticing to slip into the role of the offended because people have become so quick to judge and find fault with real or imagined slights. Also, it is easy to see but not hear someone, to watch but not understand that the people we judge are simply, just people too. Maybe some didn’t mean to become a part of the mob, but like in a frenzied and hypnotizing ritual, they are swept along and become a tsunami that destroys everything in its path.
The righteous bully is a title that can belong to any of us. All it takes are words of recrimination and a desire to find guilty anyone who we deem unworthy to live grow and evolve. It is when we decide that everyone has to be a carbon copy of a undefined prototype, unrealistic but desired. At the end of the day therefore, is the danger that we can so quickly fall into the quicksand of righteous indignation.
However, we never realise that while we may sit on the bench, knock the gravel and preside over a trial today, tomorrow we may be the one standing trial, begging for mercy.