I am a big advocate for rationality and using a rational framework to manage your life. But you haven’t heard me mock or disparage the doomsday group that has recently been in the news for its failed rapture prophecy that was supposed to occur on May 21st, 2011. Many followers of this cult cashed in their retirement savings, took out ads and held signs, gave away their possessions, took time off work, and made significant changes to their lives that will have ramifications for many, many years.
Why, given their mental foolishness, do I refuse to criticize them? Why, when I can be so brutal against irrational prejudice or foolish actions, am I giving these people a pass?
It is simple. Even though these men and women were being irrational, they truly:
- Believed that the world was ending
- Believed that there was a way to be saved from the destruction
- Believed that the most important thing they could do was warn people so everyone had a chance to escape the disaster
- Gave up their life savings and possessions to back up that conviction so that you and I had a chance to avoid the end of the world
Even though their beliefs were imbecilic, these people were doing what they thought was right and they subjected themselves to humiliation and loss solely so they could save even one man, woman, or child. Were they profoundly misguided? Yes. Were their motivations pure and good? Absolutely.
In other words, many of these believers are broke because they thought the world was ending and they used everything they had to try and save you. Their concern was for you. They were acting in love, and compassion. They were just wrong and now have to suffer the consequences of that reality. They thought the building was on fire and didn’t think of themselves, only getting you out to safety.
To exult over their cognitive dissonance and cognition failures achieves nothing. It displays no character. It rejoices in cruelty and pain. Their lives are now irrevocably harmed, their credibility destroyed with many friends and colleagues, and their bank balances empty. Taking pleasure in that displays a lack of morality.
We are our decisions. We are how we behave. Gloating over the shattered lives of well-meaning but mistaken individuals is not the man I want to be.
Reader Comments (5)
Comments are presented chronologically, with replies indented beneath the comments to which they respond.
Andrew
May 22, 2011
Well said, Josh. Well said.
Ypru
May 23, 2011
Kudos.
But what about criticizing the antagonizer, Harold Camping? He's in this business for profit while destroying the lives of real people. This isn't his first doomsday prediction.
David McH
October 10, 2012
You are right: it is wrong to take pleasure in the pain and confusion of these people. However, I don't think that those who spread a flawed idea are blameless just because they did what they thought was right. By spreading the message to other people they are causing damage to those who believed them in turn. In the UK, our health service currently subsidises homeopathy despite a lack of justifying evidence. I'm sure those who influenced this decision were acting in a way they thought to be right, but that does not excuse them from diverting funds away from medicines that are actually needed. Just as ignorance is no excuse in law, so is irrationality no automatic pardon from immorality.
anon1
April 29, 2014
Obviously this post is several years old at this point (you linked to it in a recent post), but in some sense I strongly disagree with your statement.
I'm not sure of the exact study or idea, but it's something along the lines of "if someone believes that what they are doing is just, they will not stop at any point." While in this case these people thought that what they were doing was "for the best," what if in the future some similar doomsday predication requires its followers to murder people?
And there are studies that show that these people tend to move on from one of these things to another, so that they never learn and are constantly preparing for this be all end all. How many of these have we endured in recent years?
These messianic ideas have been around for time immemorial. It's a lot nicer to think we and all the people we love are going to go to heaven (and all of the "evil" people we don't like are going to hell) rather than face another sunrise, another day of unpredictability.
Joshua Kennon
April 29, 2014
Replying to anon1
Then it would be immoral and should be stopped by all means necessary. This isn't a court case where we have to carry things to their logical extremes for the sake of precedent or some Pharisaical purity. Why do we need to abey reasoned measure?
It's entirely possible I'm being too easy on them and societal pressure in the form of mockery is justified but it's not my style. Not for something as well-intentioned and peaceful as this. I can't find it in my heart to condemn them.