When a cannonball dropped through his kitchen fireplace in 1861, Wilmer McLean had had enough. A fierce and bloody battle had just been fought outside his front door, and he feared for the future of his grocery business, not to mention the safety of his wife and children. So he packed up all his worldly belongings, sold his farm, and moved away from Bull Run in Manassas, VA. The Civil War continued for another four years, until General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant… in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean’s new home in Appomattox.
As the boxer Joe Lewis famously put it: “You can run, but you can’t hide.”
I recently began a new book project with another victim of the cancel culture, someone who was minding his own business when the woke warriors tried to ruin his life. They came very close to doing so, and only thanks to the strength of his faith and his family did he emerge, scarred, but still standing. Along the way, his family had to ask themselves every day: Do we just bow to the pressure? Should we go along to get along? Can we flush our values down the toilet and embrace what we consider to be corrupt and evil in exchange for the right to be left alone?
As the cancel culture claims more victims, each of us seems to be faced with that choice: Do we keep our heads down and try to ride out the storm, or do we stand and fight?
I’m sorry to have to report: The choice has already been made. (Like so many things, the Left has made it for you. Unfortunately for them, they may not like the outcome.)
The fact is that no matter how much you try to duck for cover, sooner or later the woke police will find you. No matter how far you run, you cannot hide. And then you will be forced to choose.
Several years ago, we published a book by Erick Erickson called “You Will Be Made to Care.” Erick brilliantly predicted the reality we now face: no matter how much you bend, no matter how many concessions you make, no matter how many times you tell yourself “this couldn’t happen to me” — the day will come when the cancel culture demands your obedience. It will not be enough for you to keep quiet and merely “not offend” anyone; they will require that you endorse their narrative, their values, their worldview.
Keeping your head down will not satisfy the beast. The woke mob has become insatiable; every day I see media coverage and social media posts that demand we “admit the evil of whiteness”; we are told that to prove we are not racists we must become racist by damning everyone who is white, we are told it’s not enough to “live and let live;” we must actively celebrate things we consider morally wrong. (Just consider the latest episode in the saga of Jack Phillips, cake baker. And check out his important new book, The Cost of My Faith, published by Regnery.)
The irony and the tragedy is that all this “virtue signaling” is fracturing our society. It is making us less likely to embrace those who are different from us, less willing to explain our point of view to someone who doesn’t share it, less safe and less free.
But here’s what the progressive bloodhounds don’t seem to appreciate: Everyone has a point beyond which they will not be pushed. As a wise man (otherwise known as my husband) once said, the bear will run from the dog – until it is cornered. Then it will turn and fight. And that is not good news for the dog.