Over decades of focused research, the field has demonstrated that evaluating the moral compass of individual participants does little to advance our understanding of the morality or the actions of a large movement. Only by assessing the goals, tactics, and outcomes of movements as collective phenomena can we begin to discern the distinction between “good” and “bad” movements.
John
Stuart Mill’s Philosophy of Equality
It allows everyone to decide how they can best
contribute to society. “The loss to the world, by refusing to make use of
one-half of the whole quantity of talent it possesses, is extremely serious.”
The story
of Özlem Cekic, one of the first women with a Muslim
immigrant background to be elected to Denmark’s parliament. Almost immediately
after taking office, Cekic’s inbox filled with hate mail, including xenophobic
comments and threats. Cekic courageously reached out and invited senders of
this hate mail to have coffee with her, meetings she called “Dialogue Coffee.”
She learned
through these meetings to separate a hateful viewpoint from the person
expressing it in order to gain perspective.
She also
learned that people fear people they don’t know, and generalizations can lead
people to dangerously demonize entire communities.
“The bad news
is nothing lasts forever. The good news is nothing lasts forever.”
– J. Cole
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