One of the more amusing aspects of my life is that I am not someone who tends to convey the severity of matters very well in person. A lifetime of practicing a stoic and phlegmatic approach to life on the outside, and in not reacting harshly in person, has made it difficult (if not impossible) for me to convey more than mild annoyance or frustration in my personal bearing. As a result, the alarm and frustration I tend to feel are often not conveyed in my words or nonverbal communication, which makes me appear to be less emotional than I am, which has both benefits and drawbacks, as is often the case.
Having been a person who has, for better or worse, spent a great deal of my life living on enemy ground while being a person of both polite sociability as well as very fierce opinions, it has been a survival skill to avoid personal confrontation (which I greatly dislike) by behaving in a mild and polite fashion to the greatest extent possible and avoiding unpleasantness in person whenever possible. Matters of serious personal concern tend to be conveyed through writing rather than through voice, as a way of distance from the unpleasant or sensitive matter that needs to be communicated, and it is not an easy matter to convey an accurate picture between my writing (which lacks the body language to moderate tone) and my personal interactions (which often lack outward expression of the seriousness of a matter to me), which leaves people in the place of having to interpret, which often goes awry.
Nevertheless, the picture of moderate panic that is the most severe sort of displeasure about a situation that I muster is of a piece with my life experience, and something that casts an ironic shadow on the sort of events of a larger perspective that engage the thoughts and passions of my contempoaries, most of whom are far less moderate in expression than I am. Having discussed, albeit briefly, my own moderate and understated sort of panic, I would like to reflect at least a little bit on the picture of moderate panic that one sees around us in the present society, and the ominous threats that result from such a reality.
Yesterday, a fellow named George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in a racially charged case about Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. As is often the case, the trial attracted a great deal of partisan strife, as what should have been a case about the particular facts and law at hand instead became a matter of racial tensions and divides and more reasons for people to make fun of Florida. Although I am not a native Floridian, nor someone who is particularly sympathetic to neo-Confederate social attitudes, I am not particularly sympathetic to the racism of the left either as has been so vilely and publicly demonstrated in this case over the last few months (in fact, I’m about equally sympathetic with both extremes, which is to say, not very sympathetic at all with either). As someone who believed that OJ Simpson was guilty of two counts of first degree murder but that the prosecution bungled the case, I have similar feelings with regards to this case, except that I think that Mr. Zimmerman was probably only guilty of manslaughter (though the prosecutorial bungling of the case suggested to me fairly early on that he would likely not be convicted of anything, as ended up being the case).
Cases like this demonstrate the sort of false dilemmas that our world specializes in. Certainly Treyvon Martin did not deserve death, but given the bloody (and broken) nose he gave George Zimmerman, he certainly did not behave wisely and was himself guilty of criminal behavior. And whatever racism was felt by George Zimmerman, who appears to have been an overzealous Home Owner Association sort of fellow, that itself did not warrant a murder charge due to politically motivated public pressure. In reality, no one can stand to be particularly pleased with the outcome. Zimmerman now has to fear for his life even more than was the case before, and even those whose desire for decency and rule of law have little to say nicely about the sort of firestorm that this case has whipped up all out of proportion to the facts of the case.
As human beings, we all have passionate sides as well as logical sides, but we need to keep a sense of proportion, keeping our heart wise enough so that our justice can be tempered with kindness and mercy towards others, and keeping our mind sharp enough that our hearts do not lead us into folly. It is immensely foolish to seek after confrontation, or to allow oneself to be whipped up into a mob frenzy, because neither fear nor anger tend to result in wise decisions. Sadly, in this world, a momentary or personality-driven lack of wisdom can be far more costly than it would merit on the face of it, possibly costing us our lives and our freedom, all because our individual actions trigger fear-induced violence from others. None of us are immune to such difficulties, which makes untangling them all the more difficult.
Of particular note in the case of George Zimmerman is the fact that most of the politically biased examination of his case has focused on a binary racial view, pitting it as a white versus black matter (this has been true both in text and graphics). One could very easily consider Mr. Zimmerman to be Latino, though, given the fact that he has a Peruvian mother and a white father [1], which makes his own identity more complicated than is often discussed or admitted. Anything that creates nuance and allows an avoidance of false dilemmas and blind partisanship would probably be a good thing here, even if it appears a little too late for moderation on the part of many who have been whipped up into a frenzy over the unfortunate death of a young man who was probably a little too quarrelsome for his own good and in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It is important to remember in this and other problems that we ought to gather as much information as possible before we draw lines in the sand. At times it may be necessary to draw lines in the sand on both the left side and the right side to deal with extremists on both ends, and to take the necessary effort to both infuse our beliefs with passion and compassion for others as well as to govern our passions with wisdom and moderation. Surely we ought to look around us and recognize honestly that the age of witch hunts has not passed. We are no more wise or moderate or civilized than our ancestors who persecuted others in fear. We do the same ourselves. Let us therefore reflect, repent, and seek to change our ways while there is time to behave justly and moderately.
Edge Induced Cohesion 
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