The Tyranny of Feelings

I am pleased to see that Adrianne Clarkson has corrected the situation with the young boy who got evicted from Rideau Hall for asking a question. To my knowledge, she never has apologised to the disappointed children at the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary.

But it is Lent, and if WK can forgive, so can I. I am now amazed that the principal at John Dryden School was already willing to hand a three-day school suspension to the young man, instead of defending the boy against the over-zealous staff member at Rideau Hall.

After all, all of the other children from the school were also evicted right along the "offending" inquisitor. Even if the question had been truly offensive, was there need to condemn the entire school party?

I am also glad that Rideau Hall has apologized to the school, clearly in recognition that the over-reaction did not only affect the one boy but all of the visiting children. Obviously, the school principal did not get it.

We should be concerned about the power of apparatchiks at both ends of this silly incident. They show themselves all too willing to hand out punishments to children because they feel an offense taking place without having much of a prudential capacity to consider things in the appropriate perspective. They are too worried about offending or being offended. It is a tyranny of feelings without much of a compass to guide them.

PS: Someone tell that kid to stop apologizing, and to stop saying that it is HER house!