Thoughts about Labels, Words, and Disney

This post is another post born of a Facebook comment.  Facebook is a great place for short one-liners, but not a great place for my kind of answers, comments, or analysis.  I've edited my comment slightly to make a better blog post.  The situation was this: someone, in a Facebook comment to a friend's post, in an "out-of-the-blue" sort of way, made the assertion that Walt Disney was an anti-Semite.  While I couldn't outright disprove his claim - and had no real reason to disprove it...because, after all, he might have technically been an anti-Semite - (and I do in fact care about the truth) it struck a chord with me and got my mental gears turning.  For the record, I'm not a dedicated Disneyphile.  I will not defend all things Disney.  The worldview, themes, and ideas promoted in some (especially the more modern Disney films) often only have a faux wholesomeness.  That being said, my Facebook response to the "anti-Semite" charge (edited slightly) is below:

We need to be careful throwing around terms like "anti-Semite" - especially when referring to people from the past who cannot defend themselves against the allegation. The historical context matters a great deal too. Much of the evidence for Disney's alleged anti-Semitism is based on the "guilt by association" assumption. Any German filmmaker of the 1930's for instance pretty much HAD to be associated with the Nazi Party to even be in business! Disney's associations, and whom he visited/consulted with do not necessarily make him guilty of anti-Semitism any more than me having associations with Atheists would make me anti-religious or "anti-Christian." The list of comparisons could go on. Negative stereotypes concerning Jews were indeed found in Disney pictures - especially the shorts. That's not a point of dispute. However (and this is important), if you look at the cultural/historical context, this sort of thing was practically everywhere. Does this make it right? No it doesn't...but we must be aware that even Warner Brothers had films and shorts with negative Jewish stereotypes - and the head of Warner Brothers at the time was Jewish! Would we call him an "anti-Semite" as well? I don't think so. Perhaps Disney had some anti-Semitic tendencies, but we must be aware that if we judge many of his contemporaries by the same standard, so did they. This leaves us with a large number of otherwise decent people we must now decry as anti-Semitic and bigoted because they don't meet our modern criteria and/or they had associations with people who didn't meet our modern criteria. This leaves many people from the present as well! So, why all the fuss from me about this? "Anti-Semitic" and "bigot" (as well as some other labels casually thrown about) are strong terms. They can be reputation-destroying and can pretty much damn someone in the eyes of the public - who often don't do the research to find out exactly why someone was affixed with that label or if the strong term is really appropriate given the situation, time, et cetera. I would advocate tempering the use of these strong terms...especially with an otherwise decent man like Disney.

I hope I'm thinking properly about this and not just being contentious or nit-picky.  The "other labels" I alluded to are the oft-used "racist," "homophobic," and "sexist," and the less-frequently used labels "misogynist." Also, the prefix "anti" is easily and often applied to nouns and adjectives in a way that immediately puts the recipient of such a label on the defensive.  The point is, these labels, in our contemporary climate, immediately put someone on the defensive because they are so toxic.  They can be reputation-destroyers.  They are an easy weapon.  You'll find some of these terms dispensed when an argument is failing and the person losing needs to stop the quickly staunch the flow of blood (figuratively speaking) and quickly gain the upper hand - not with a good argument, but with argument-stoppers such as these.  For the good of all concerned, and with an eye toward truth rather than just cheap victory, we need to be careful how we use these words.  God-willing,  I will practice my own advice.

A Simple Response to Cultural Degradation

I'm not really interested in hearing any more about Miley Cyrus' latest lewd performance - or other instances of cultural degradation right now.  I think I know enough.  Don't you?  There is nothing new under the sun. There is a danger in focusing too much on the negative and getting mired down, even despairing. Instead, the best thing for me and my better half to do is to concentrate on nurturing our marriage and discipling our own children and the fashioning/sharpening of these "arrows" (our children) - who will go out before/ahead of us. If we focus on these most important things, we can be more sure of not just being unhappy critics of the culture - but instead, by God's grace be salt and light - taking every thought captive to Christ and thus effectively demolishing the strongholds of the Enemy.

Fuel-Sipping Cars and Gas-Guzzling Bodies

If the oft-imagined "visitor from another planet" was visit the USA, he would likely be puzzled by our desire for fuel efficiency and high mpg in regards to our cars - while we desire the exact opposite for our own bodies.  Don't you think?  After he would have acclimated himself to our atmosphere and conducted a little field research he would soon discover the cause of our love of efficiency in one area and hatred for it in another.  He would discover that food is much more than "fuel" to us American earthlings.  It is also a source of comfort and pleasure.  Food is relatively cheap and plentiful, but bodily activity is not - at least it is not "plentiful." We seem to have to go out of our way to get the activity!  On the other hand, these same earthlings' cars often are forced to be overly-active due to long work commutes and other needed trips while their own required fuel is increasingly expensive and said to be ultimately limited.  Such is life!

With Americans' desire for food (and lots of it!) a given, and with their concomitant desire for a lean, muscular and/or "toned" body also assumed, some practical instruction is in order to allow these same beings to "have their cake and eat it too."

Here are some practical tips:

1. The run/ride/workout includes all those things you want to avoid when driving for high mpg.  
2. (Further describing #1) Make sure you include plenty of hard starts, quick accelerations, and quick decelerations.
3. (Further describing #1) Make sure you push the pace on on the uphills.  
4. (Further describing #1) Avoid coasting.
5. (Further describing #1) With resistance exercise, avoid "coasting" - instead, accentuate the negative portion of the rep by strictly controlling the descent.  This is somewhat equivalent to using the brakes on the downhills.

Of course, the above tips are with the average workout-enthusiast in mind.  This person wants to spend the most fuel (i.e. calories) on their workout as possible so they can eat/guzzle more fuel and still look fit.  If, on the other hand, you're running a long-distance race, you'll want to be very EFFICIENT with your fuel-usage.  To do this, drive your body like you drive you car when you're trying to get high miles-per-gallon...and then your body will get high miles-per-gallon as well.

To get maximum workout benefit, drive your body as if it was a muscle car or a race car - not a Prius hybrid.