Candidly Speaking - 08/04/2022
On Kayne West and not being perfect
Forgive me in advance if this turns into some kind of a sermon. I am no preacher, nor do I intend to be one.
I listened to Kanye West’s song “Only One” a few days ago, the first time I have listened to it in years. Released as a non-album single in 2014, it remains a neglected composition in Mr. West’s musical oeuvre. I will make a podcast episode on it soon enough, but for now, I wish to zero in on this one particular lyric:
Hello, my only one, remember who you are
No, you're not perfect but you're not your mistakes
I remember the first time listening to it. Looking at the album artwork, I intuited that the song is the artist’s message to his daughter. Listening to it the second time, as I read the lyrics, I realized that he is channeling his late mother, Donda West. The third listen, as I took in one word at a time, I broke down in tears. I cannot remember where I was, but I know that I started crying as soon as he sang the aforementioned lyric. And yes, West sang in this song, with the help of AutoTune and Paul McCartney playing the electric keyboard.
Nowadays, it has become normal for people to say “I’m not perfect”. What did Will Smith say in that half-hearted apology of his? “I am a work in progress.” Similar clichés such as “I need to work on myself” have also seen rising employment. For my money, they are all just watered-down versions of the Penitential Act, recited by Roman Catholics every Sunday Mass:
I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Nevertheless, it has become a common tendency for people, particularly in the irreligious crowd, to expect perfection from anyone but themselves. Here’s an experiment: speak to anyone you know about the phenomenon of Cancel Culture. If they deny it a bit too vigorously, or say something in the lines of “People need to be held accountable”, then chances are they are contributing to the Cancel Culture phenomenon. Here’s Nick Cave chiming in on the subject:
[C]ancel culture is mercy’s antithesis. Political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world. Its once honourable attempt to reimagine our society in a more equitable way now embodies all the worst aspects that religion has to offer (and none of the beauty) — moral certainty and self-righteousness shorn even of the capacity for redemption. It has become quite literally, bad religion run amok.
In the book “Woke Racism”, John McWhorter, a linguistics professor at Columbia University, brilliantly argues that Cancel Culture (and Wokeism in general) is not a mere ideology, but a new religious movement. Its success, like those of all novel religious movements for a time, depends on using pernicious ideas to hijack our deepest-held human desires. Because of the topic of today’s piece, allow me to focus on two of them: the desire to be perfect and the desire to be forgiven.
As I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, the more our culture normalizes the “work-in-progress” cliché, the less tolerant we are of imperfections outside of ourselves. The great economist and social scientist Thomas Sowell predicted this dilemma in his 1987 book “A Conflict of Visions”. The titular conflict, he argues, is between the “unconstrained” and “constrained” visions. The unconstrained sees human nature as endlessly malleable and perfectible, and thus are less accepting of individual vices, explaining them away as the by-products of an imperfect society or political system. The constrained views human nature as unchanging, even cruel if left to its own devices, and thus are more tolerant of human sin. You will find that the unconstrained vision are mainly shared among those without religious beliefs, and the constrained vision among those of religious faith. This is not to say that being religious automatically grants you a constrained vision, or that all atheists have an unconstrained vision of humanity. It just means that the belief in God and the doctrines of religion (Judaism and Christianity in particular) have been time-tested means to understand human imperfection, whereas agnosticism and atheism sorely lack a coherent response to the question of why we err.
Therefore, it is hard to find forgiveness as a non-believer. Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker says it best in Spiderman 3: “You want forgiveness? Get religion.” As a kid, my first exposure to the Catholic faith was watching scenes from Hollywood movies where the protagonist goes into confession. It is a miraculous ritual, being able to unburden yourself of guilt, knowing full well that you are not perfect and so does anyone who’s ever walked into that box. Plus, it is also good knowing that the attending priest is bound by a vow of secrecy, therefore only three parties are privy to your less-than-perfect moments: you, the father, and God.
When our forefather, Adam, hides himself from God, the Creator asks: “Where art thou?” - not because an omnipotent God does not know where His creation is hiding, but because he wants the man to come clean of his transgressions. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” so goes the Lord’s prayer. And, in Luke 23:34, as Christ is being crucified along with two other condemned souls, he uttered: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” We forgive because He forgives, because just as we have been wronged, we have wronged others. If Judaism, with its myriads of laws and customs, shows us right from wrong, Christianity shows us that the sword of justice can be wielded only by a merciful hand.
Let’s contrast that with Wokeism, the new religion without a god. Under this creed, perfection is never attainable, or even imaginable, but every passing generation is purported to be closer to it than their predecessors. Therefore, even if you are ignorant of history or philosophy, you can rest assured that every one who has lived and died before your birth, even your parents, are less enlightened. So Aristotle’s entire body of work is discarded because he endorsed slavery, and Thomas Jefferson’s invaluable work in founding a country based on liberalism and democracy is null and void because he was a slave owner. The past, as constructed by the high priests of Woke, casts a long shadow over the present as future. America in 2022 is no different than Jamestown in 1619. There is no way out, but if you sip from the Kool-Aid (or “take responsibility”), you are commended for pointing out the mote in your fellow man’s eye while ignoring the beam in yours.
Back to Kanye West. Anyone who has found his music valuable can attest that he is not perfect. The man is, to put it mildly, a mentally unstable narcissist. But he is also a genius musician who has pushed the boundaries of hip-hop beyond expectations. He is a prime example of an imperfect man who does not let his mistakes define him. Another is St. Paul, who spent much of his adult life persecuting Christ’s followers, only to become his most loyal apostle. “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future,” quipped Oscar Wilde. “There is a crack in everything,” said Leonard Cohen. “That’s how the light gets in.” It is crazy enough to expect perfection from yourself, but to allow yourself imperfection without granting it to others is inhuman.