Falwell

[demiurgent]

I can't bring myself to feel any joy in Falwell's death.

He said and did some hateful, twisted things, and I don't feel remorse either, but I don't feel any pleasure. I'm not dancing or indulging in a cold pleasure.

Of the things Falwell did wrong -- and they were legion -- those that came after Falwell are typically worse. I don't mean Fred Phelps -- Phelps has no place in any Christian religion I've ever heard of. He's been actively repudiated by essentially everyone as a spiteful horror, and his 'congregation' is measured in tens, mostly related to him or related to him by marriage.

But in a world where we still have James Dobson in a position of power and influence, Jerry Falwell's death doesn't bring me pleasure. Nor should it. I'll admit, there are people I don't feel badly when they die, and I can take a very dark ironic amusement in the circumstances of some deaths (I still find it amusing that Johnny Hart died over Easter, and accept that makes me a bad person), there's no vindication in this death. A man who was near my father's age died suddenly. Some people hated him, some adored him. And someday, no matter what or if there is an afterlife, we're all going to end up the same way.

I don't celebrate Falwell's life. I honestly don't think he deserves it. But his death doesn't make anything better, and let us not discount the possibility it may make some things worse.

Either way, we move on.

Comments

[flemco.livejournal.com]

In rebut:

Man, there are already PLENTY of people who will rejoice at my death.

I add to the list on a near-daily basis.

A funeral where everyone loved the deceased and nobody has a bad word to say? Fuck that shit. I need at least one person to stumble in drunkenly and scream about what a horrible motherfucker I was.

[no-relation.livejournal.com]

DIBS!

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Intense relief must, I think, be classified as pleasure, or at least pleasurable.

And that's definitely the main thing I feel about Falwell's passing.

[jinwicked.livejournal.com]

Word.

[inkbrush76.livejournal.com]

I have to say I'm glad to see the rat-bastard go. He spent a truly awful amount of his time in the spotlight spewing hateful remarks about other people, and he never recanted and he never really apologized. He never saw the error of his ways, and he went out of his way to make as many people as possible adopt his own world-view. The jerk went so far as to found a university to impress his jacked world-view upon the youth of this country (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University), and create a few generations of frothing at the mouth bigots, so crazed with fear and out of touch with the real world that no amount of reasoned explanation can ever get through to them.

Yeah, it's true that whoever comes to replace Falwell might be worse than he was, but one must consider that Falwell was 46 when he founded the Moral Majority, and right now there's no one with the same media presence, or the same impact as Falwell. For the moment, there's a media vacuum where Falwell used to sit, and I earnestly hope it stays that way.

I know that sooner or later someone more or less spouting the same hateful trash that Falwell was prone to will hop into the spotlight. I hope that doesn't come to pass, but in all honesty, Falwell couldn't have done what he did if there weren't assholes out there who liked to listen to him, and that means that the likelihood is that some other loud, hate-filled douchebag will stand up to be heard.

Jerry Falwell represented most of America's uglier tendencies and beliefs. I'm glad he's dead, and I hope his death manages to pull most of that into the grave behind him.

But I don't think we could possibly be that lucky.

[williamgeorge.livejournal.com]

Good riddance to bad rubbish

Complex tangle...

[tbutler.livejournal.com]

It takes a bit of thought to sort out my reactions.

On the one hand, he was a pretty awful human being, and did a lot more than most people can manage to mess up the public and political life of this country.

On the second hand, he's still pretty far from the top of my 'better dead' list. Slobodan Milosevic, just to name one, made a lot more people miserable, and one HELL of a lot more people dead, than Falwell ever managed. So while I think the world's a better place without him, his death isn't exactly a release. And heck, even some of the worst people can come back to have semi-redeeming moments; when Ariel Sharon made the holy site visit that helped touch off the intifadah, and seemed to go out of his way to sabotage potential peace deals, I was eager to see him go and was pretty vehement in saying so. Yet by the time of the stroke that ended his career, I was reluctantly admitting he was probably the best chance at the time for something resembling a lasting peace.

And on the third hand... no matter how much I may loathe someone during their life, I can't think of any cases where I felt any real joy at someone's death - I'm just not built that way. The most I can feel, as someone else mentioned, is relief that they're gone and no longer able to spread their brand of poison.

On the fourth hand... Even if I didn't feel this way, there's far too many people that I'd rather not see outright killed because of the potential for martyrdom. Far better to see them fade away into irrelevance than give their followers a "sudden tragic death" to rally behind. :p

Re: Complex tangle...

[miyaa99.livejournal.com]

I think you're running out of hands, there.

[la-biscuit.livejournal.com]

He went peacefully, from what I have read.

His actions may have been misguided in my view, his charisma granting him a position of power which lent his opinions extra force. He polarized people. He said and did things I find hateful.

I hope that he believed that he was a good man at the end, even if I might not have agreed with his definition. I also hope that the work he did, that he believed in, fades away quickly and completely.

[longwing.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, many people reacted with markedly less maturity. I, for example, initiated a round of high-fives when I heard. I do believe this makes me markedly more petty, and definitely more cruel than a number of posters here.

I prefer to remember him for one of his more famous quotes: “Falwell's quick descent into obscurity is not just God’s reward to homosexuals; it is God’s reward to the society that tolerates homosexuals.”

... I may be misquoting, it's tough to recall.

[septumus.livejournal.com]

I would say that i am tentatively happy. Why? Think of it this way: It is good he died, no doubt in my mind and I hope that if there is a god I hope he is pissed at the twisted views of Falwell and acts accordingly. BUT, when a public figure like Falwell dies they have to be replaced, it just happens and there is no stopping it. Replacements are usually more intense because they have to be, after all they have a big void to fill. So, for now I can't do anything but be content that someone who had it coming finally got it but that is just until Falwell: Part Deux steps up.