I have been watching the news on this for years, a confounding and resentful eruption of angst and intended justice gone sideways. Something that needed to be done, but nonetheless the manner in which it happened shook my civic foundational boots well before this abortion we have in the Oval Office took hold of the media.
As someone who tries his best to stay in the open minded spectrum, this was one that got my nerves boiling early on. I applaud the women for speaking up and out, I applaud the #metoo movement and the strength of the convictions that had to come from deep inside. This though, this part of it, and the way that it was handled is a rotten spot on the movement, not something to revel in as a victory, but an ugly casualty in this battle in the war of the sexes. For all of the ugliness that Cosby brought out about our baser natures, and duplicity of the masks we wear, the ugliness of prosecution was as abhorrent to stomach as well. Just like the last Presidential election was more of a temper tantrum, this case was more about power to prosecute in the court of public opinion, which devalued the essence of it to nothing more than revenge. This wasn’t handled right at all, it cheapened our justice system to vigilantism and removed the context of time and era.
The reason I detested this case from the beginning was because of this aspect of it. This breaking down of due process that I have seen before, it erodes trust and a sense of justice then goes out the door. This is fine, this is catching a monster in the minds of many, but what if this power is used on the innocent? What if this new posse style of condemnation and ruin is applied to women more and more now? What if this case did more to hurt the overall effects of the movement than it did to help it? I believe this is going to be the case when the current cycle ebbs, the targets are thinned down. There will be that natural human reaction that we seem to do, and that is to find the next group or person to blame for our ills. With men out of the way, the next step would be to go after the women…
So yes, there is a real reason why I didn’t like this case and it had nothing to do with me being male. It had everything to do with the erosion of due process and the knee jerk reactions we generate when we get onboard our passion wagons and declare this or that. Generalizing and making things uncomfortable is the new norm, no matter how much we scream this is not the way we do it. The hypocritical pride we take in our lack of culture, our lack of insights and learning. A group of adults not understanding how to think like one most of the time. In this life of affluence we have left a whole standard of coping missing from the links in the chain of rationality, no wonder we come apart at the mere mention of a name or intonation of a weakness. One thing is certain, nothing stays the same, and when the time comes for the flip side of the societal coin, don’t forget this view of the consequences of the Cosby Effect.