In the Law they express two concepts, though in Latin to keep the rubes like me out, that can be summed up in 'The Guilty Act' and 'The Guilty Mind'. In traditional formulations, both have to be present for a criminal act to have been committed.
Example: You shove your friend and he stumbles into traffic, is hit by a car, and dies horribly.
The Guilty Act is that you killed your friend. There is no real debate, in this case, that you did so.
The Guilty Mind is your intent. If you wanted your friend to die horribly, it is murder. If you were just playing around and accidentally killed him it is not. Of course, since we like putting people in jail, we came up with Negligent Homicide, and everyone except you and your dead friend, is happy.
Make sense so far?
When you are forced to denounce yourself for some trivial sin you are admitting to guilt, the Guilty Mind, you did not possess. Let us review it in the sense of our story from the last post:
The young man's Act was to post a joke .Gif of President Obama kicking a door. His Mind was 'Midterm's suck, even the president agrees'. Not really a thought crime, yes? Surely, President Obama, a former professor (who taught no classes?) would not actually agree with that sentiment, but that is neither here nor there.
However, despite any racial animus to his act, he was forced to apologize for committing a racist act, taking on the mantle of a Guilty Mind, making his .Gif, post facto (another legal concept, in Latin), a Crime of Racism.
Why harp on this?
Well, first to assuage my own mind that, in his shoes I would never have allowed myself to be tarred with the crime I hadn't actually committed. My history shows quite the opposite: I'm quite skilled at evading guilt for crimes I DID commit, sadly, so I can't see pleading to a greater charge as an option I'd take.
I've got too many skeletons to go around getting in trouble for shit I didn't actually do, in other words.
Second I want you, any of you, to have that thought in your minds if you even find yourself in his shoes... without my own 'armor of sin' protecting you. He may have bought himself a few moments of peace, even the ability to remain in school, officially... but he is now forever more 'That Racist Bastard' to all the people who believe in thought crimes. I doubt he has honestly preserved his academic career in any meaningful sense. Pleading guilty to "Lesser" charges may seem the right choice, but it means you'll never be free of the guilt in the public eye. It is a devil's bargain, and we all know how those turn out.
In this I disagree with many in the Men's Rights movement, from Price at the Spearhead to the guys at a Voice for Men. They sympathize with men who chose not to sacrifice years of their life for honor and dignity, who plead to lesser charges in return for clemency. I have no sympathy for cowards and spineless men. Pity, certainly, but not sympathy.
And let me explain why: Every man who takes the cowards path makes it harder for the rest of us. I used to jump out of planes, static line jumps. It was never your mistake that would hurt you, would kill you, but the mistake of the man in front of you. His weak exit, his moment of fear at the open door and the empty sky, meant his static line was low on the door and would catch you by the arm (if you were lucky) or the neck (if you were not). His failure was your pain, and your failure was the pain of the man behind you.
It is the same here. Every single man who pleads to sexual assault to avoid a rape conviction instead of fighting a false accusation merely makes it that much easier for the next man to be charged. Every man who admits to racism in thought and deed when there was none, makes it harder for the next man to stand on his dignity. Every.Single.Man who refuses to fight domestic violence charges when it was his wife throwing the punches, as loudly and aggressively as possible, just so the legal problems will go away makes the next man so charged his fault.
There is a reason more vigorous societies hated cowards. The coward always buys his life at the cost of the men around him. Always. He has blood on his hands. The blood of better men, worthier men, and the blood of women who pay the price for his failures.
We have forgotten that, in our race towards eternal childhood. We have forgotten that as we try to turn men into women. Bravery is not a feminine virtue, though we laud those women who possess it, so we reject it as too macho. We fear if we celebrate bravery we encourage men to prove theirs through violence.
And since we have forgotten the price of Cowardice, it is not enough to merely mention it, to mock it... I must explain.
Defend your honor as if it were your life.
No.
Defend your honor as if it were more important to you than life, for it is.
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