Cancellation is common sense. We cancel the murderer. We cancel the rapist. We do this because wrongful behaviour must be eliminated. The wrongful person must be sanctioned. This is the simple premise for cancellation and it is widely accepted.

Cancellation is the inevitable result of moral principle. If we believe in something, we should act on it. There is no point condemning murder if we do not punish the murderer. There is no point condemning sexual assault if we do not restrain the rapist. Hence the principled person is always a busybody. They are always a canceller.

We have many ways of enforcing our moral stance. The most egregious wrongdoer faces the wrath of the criminal law. But outside the formal process, the community makes its own views felt. We would denounce the behaviour. We would distance ourselves from the person. We would silence anyone attempting to condone their conduct. So cancellation is not a single act, it is a system of moral enforcement. It is a culture.

Cancel culture is accepted practice. We do not invite the convicted rapist to dinner. If anyone attempted to defend this person and their crime, we would tell them to shut up. We would ask why the rapist was allowed in the community at all. As far as we are concerned, cancellation is common sense.

Sometimes we go too far. Humanity is excitable. Humanity is not always rational or fair. Therefore cancel culture is not always rational or fair. Nonetheless, we cannot claim principles without defending them. We cannot claim morality while ignoring immorality.

Cancel culture is a feature of every moral society.

We cancel for a cause

The fundamental principles to be defended are usually uncontroversial.  For example, we all agree that murder is wrong and there is no objection when the violent criminal is sent to gaol.

Our problem lies in the interpretation. The vegan would say that meat is murder. The religious person would say that abortion is murder. The feminist declares that misogyny leads to murder. The ecologist declares that deforestation is genocide. Each person insists on their own definition and their own variant of cancellation.

In this way, cancellation is not purely about defending an isolated moral principle. It is about defending a particular interpretation of that principle. It is about defending a cause.

We cancel for vulnerability

The diversity of cancel culture comes from the diverse interpretation of shared moral principles. One particular principle has been influential in the development of modern cancel culture: the protection of vulnerability. This fundamental moral idea can be found at the heart of every contemporary cause.

The feminist declares that women are vulnerable to harassment and violence, so misogyny must be cancelled. The conservative avows that the unborn foetus is vulnerable, so abortion must be cancelled. The vegan says that the defenceless animal is vulnerable, so meat must be cancelled.  The religious person says that spiritual welfare is vulnerable, so sin must be cancelled.

It is often said that the canceller is unduly occupied with imposing their views on others. This may be true, but the canceller is not solely motivated by their own gratification. They see themselves as acting on behalf of someone who cannot defend themselves. There is no cancellation without the perception of vulnerability: this is the great passion and motivation behind cancel culture.

We have always cancelled

History shows that cancel culture is not new. In Classical Greece, the Athenians cancelled Socrates. In the Prohibition Era, the United States cancelled alcohol.  In the Cold War, McCarthyism sought to cancel communism. Humanity has always been offended by something and humanity has always sought to cancel offensiveness.

It is true that digital connectivity has spawned a more aggressive form of cancel culture. Social media is new. Online petitions for the morally aggrieved are new. But what is not new is the idea of wrong and our desire to eliminate it. Cancel culture has always been with us.

^{Isamu Drayya, October 2022}

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We are all complicit in cancel culture, but we don’t realise it

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