Is Patience a Lost Virtue?

Rush or reticence? Patience or punishment? Clemency or condemnation? Post or postpone? Now that the dust is beginning to settle around the Jussie Smollett incident, I wanted to take this week to reflect on what has happened. I’m not talking about the specifics of the case—bizarre as they may be—but rather what has happened to us as a public and what allowed this story to become what it did.

When news surfaced that a racist/homophobic/MAGA-fueled attack had been perpetrated against Jussie Smollett, a black, gay man, many spoke out in support of the “Empire” actor (including myself and my wife). Most who spoke out in the beginning defaulted to what was an easy narrative to believe, and many swiftly and harshly criticized those who did not show an equal degree of outrage on their social media channels (the biggest target of this kind of criticism was perhaps unsurprisingly, Donald Trump). When the tide began to turn, and it looked more and more like Smollet had possibly orchestrated the attack himself, there was a second rush to condemn—this time by those who had felt themselves targeted by the first rush of social critics. To their credit, some of the early commentators revised their initial posts, however, this did little to change the fact that many rushed to post about a story which seemed to easily reinforce their political or social beliefs.

The Jussie Smollet story had every sharable social component to it: race, LGBTQ, a noose, and MAGA, and because of the social climate in the U.S. today, people were immediately moved to weigh in. Yet, what I find so fascinating about this entire case is that from the beginning of the story to now, not one single person or POV got it totally right. And that is something which merits more discussion and quite frankly, our full attention.

Those who expressed solidarity with Smollet immediately after the “attack,” hastily blaming groups who they believed created an atmosphere in which these attacks could take place, turned out to be wrong. Those who expressed no support or outrage at what seemed to be a horrific racist and homophobic attack were also in the wrong—our leaders should take a stand against this kind of behavior. But in a case in which nobody was ever really correct, what is the answer?

It’s not just the Jussie Smollet incident—remember the Rolling Stone-UVA controversy? Or even the recent controversy involving students and a Native American elder? We rush to judge, and proclaim support or condemnation online before the whole story is unraveled. Generally, I believe we all should condemn bad behavior, but we must be careful about specifics until the facts are known.

It is such a challenging issue to consider because the reality is that news occurs and is reported in real time, and we feel obligated to react to it in real time. We are still trying to understand how to use (and not use) social media. We are still trying to understand what social media means in the realm of judgement and justice. And we still have such a long way to go. Perhaps that’s why it is useful to draw on ancient wisdom in this case. Listen:

“A hasty judgment is a first step to recantation”—Publilius Syrus

It’s a wisdom that continues to prove itself true in our time. We’ve lost the sensibility about and sensitivity to crying wolf. When we jump too quickly to share stories, conclusions, and criticisms, we only enhance the power of fake news. What’s our accountability? How do we create an environment where we take a beat before we post, posture, or preach? We need a better protocol, and we need to embrace the fact that we are responsible for combatting fake news—the media can’t succeed in doing so alone. Perhaps, on top of it all, we need to practice just a little bit of patience. What do you think?