Cancel Culture: Stop Thinking. You're Hurting The Team

“It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” — REM

That Jordan Peterson. The controversial author and psycho-therapist is not only upsetting snowflakes in publishing houses but he’s also messing with some of the most popular bands of our times. 

Turns out that he has been infecting the worldview of the English pop band Mumford & Son. Peterson’s 12 Rules For Life found its way into the hands of Winston Justice, guitarist and banjo player for Mumford. Justice was so intrigued by what he read that he invited Peterson to meet the band at their recording studio in 2018.  (Not unlike comedian Russell Brand who did the same, meeting Peterson.)

Next thing you know, Justice was recommending Andy Ngo’s 'Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy. The book’s haters say Ngo deliberately inflates the threat of Antifa, which spent most of 2020 burning downtowns and looting. The Los Angeles Times, Gavin Newsom’s favourite rag, called the book “supremely dishonest”.

[Update: #Antifa tried to smash their way into the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/f3MJltcZ7m ]

And we can’t have that. From his bandmates and the screamer monkeys of social media came the message. Stop Thinking. You’re Hurting The Team.

Faster than you can say I Will Wait, Justice was on his knees. “Over the past few days I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed. I have offended not only a lot of people I don’t know, but also those closest to me, including my bandmates, and for that I am truly sorry.”

Justice says he’s stepping away from the band to “examine my blindspots”. (Curiously he’s never needed to examine his blindspots as the son of a bejillionaire hedge-fund manager.) Who among us haven’t taken a “blindspot” inventory when faced with a shrill chorus of gender studies profs and your band mates saying, “You’re hurting merch sales, dude.”

So Justice, intellectually curious enough to seek out the dread “both sides of an issue”  has begged forgiveness for WrongThink. He (or his crisis manger) probably describes his press release as courageous as he waits for the news cycle to leave him for another victim. Previous generations had other C words words for surrendering your integrity. Craven. Cowardly. Corrupt. But that’s liberals. They have lots of principles for you to live by. Just don’t ask them take their own advice.

What Justice’s word-salad contrition is not is exceptional. In 2021, the forces of White Fragility and Critical Race Theory are collecting debts all over the place. Centrists who voted for Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau (Peterson recently described Trudeau as Peter Pan, spouting simplistic platitudes and sprinkling fairy dust around the land) believed they had elected leaders who could keep the radicals away from the nuclear codes. Sadly. their saviours turn out to be appeasers. How’s that working for you, folks?

As journalist Bari Weiss reports https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/the-miseducation-of-americas-elites the people who shrugged at the radicals are now their captives. Leftist chickens are now roosting in the elite education system of their kids. And it’s vexing for the progressive parents who put this movement into motion.  

“They say that their children tell them they’re afraid to speak up in class. Most of all, they worry that the school’s new plan to become an “anti-racist institution”… is making their kids fixate on race and attach importance to it in ways that strike them as grotesque.”

Nice.

While Justice was fumbling toward his Bethlehem, the quintessential symbol of Compulsory Penance was pouring her little heart out to Oprah Winfrey about the mean old British royal family. Meghan Markle was the virtuoso embodiment of the Safe Space generation.  “Yes, I live in a Hollywood mansion with a prince. But I’m a victim. Someone privileged said mean things to me about the bridesmaid’s dresses at a wedding. Someone else (unnamed) noticed that my child is multiracial. My husband’s father won’t return his calls.”

Imagine what Dostoyevsy could have made of such inner torment. In Oprah’s World, where grievance reigns supreme, Markle deserves the Victoria Cross for selflessness under fire from the establishment. (It’s easier when the host allows her star guest—who was paid $7 million— to slime anonymous targets without any attribution.) 

While many spotted the grift in Markle hitching her wagon to the Queen’s landau, a significant number of people still took the fashionable racist bait and ran with it. (Okay, it was the hosts of The View and Don Lemon of CNN.) For the generations who marinated in grievance, The Duchess of Despond was the word writ large.

The question is, was this attempt to outflank the House of Windsor, the curators of tradition, a bridge too far? Did she move too soon? Shove aside HRH, emasculate Prince Chuck and the world is wide open with Princess Di’s firstborn on the throne? Time will tell.

Remember, cultural movements often begin with a small, single step. In the case of cancel culture that step was probably some undergrad student complaining to a college administrator that they needed a ”safe space” away from a supposedly toxic environment.  Initial attempts were rebuffed. The media was then enlisted to show that “women must be believed” or “black lives matter”. That was soon followed by the craven acquiescence of the administration, enshrining the principles of shoot first, assessing the evidence later. 

Sensing their success the architects of CRT and BLM and LGBTQ began to take aim at other low-hanging fruit in the culture. Using white guilt and privilege they replicated their success in the entertainment industry. Soon, Hollywood and television were churning out content that underscored the Guilt Industry attacks. 12 Years A Slave To The Narrative.

The 2020 presidential election marked the triumph of this new reality over the political process. While Trump was never cowed, enough of the appeasement wing of the GOP decided, like Justice, it’s just too stressful to stand against the Raving Loony Party. So they caved.

Will HRH do likewise? Fleet Street will decide if the Royals survive another Princess Di moment. . But make no mistake, Markle breached the walls. More will follow. Maybe led by Winston Justice playing banjo at Balmoral.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx 

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