Everything Is Okay

I, Dr. Alice Weinberg of the Institute of Snarkological Studies, take a break from snarking to address a very serious issue: the problem in our culture that Everything is Okay.

The actuality of everything being okay is not really the issue. I am a definite believer in self-determination and refining one's own moral compass. The problem is when one holds the view that Everything Must Be Okay to the point of being a not-okaynik about the not-okayniks. We must always try to understand why something is historically not okay!

The fact is, everything is NOT Okay. You are perfectly within your right to do anything you wish that does not harm other people... just don't have the fallacious understanding that everyone will support you.

"Everything is Okay" goes beyond merely cultural or moral relativism.

In moral relativism, there is the understanding that certain behaviors are appropriate for different settings and different cultures.

When something is NOT Okay, there must be no attempt to understand the sociological forces underlying the thing being "not okay".

It is actually very important to try to understand why something is Not Okay. This is the only way that some things will EVER become Okay - is if we first understand why the Not Okay-niks are opposed to the item (say, gay marriage, medical marijuana or abortion rights), and understand the forces that took place over thousands of years, to make this viewpoint evolve.

Hating people for being a Not Okay-nik about one's particular position, is never constructive. It leads to entrenched positions. And no dialogue.

And that, to me, is Not Okay.

Somebody in the equation has to stop being a fundamentalist. Sometimes we have to take a look at who the fundies really are.