Sexual Harassment: Rewrite the Rules But Focus on Those Who Deserve Condemnation the Most

Megan McArdle writes an excellent column on the allegations of sexual harassment that are coming out.  She asks:

“As the accusations of sexual harassment snowball, how ready are we for the consequences of rewriting the sexual rulebook so drastically, all at once?”

And she responds to her own question:

“The question when confronted with reports of decades-old misdeeds is not ‘Would this guy be a creep if he did this today?’  Better to ask: ‘Was he better or worse than his environment?’  And also: ‘Is there reason to believe he might have changed since then?’”

Ms. McArdle’s question – and answer – makes me think of how some people today think of Abraham Lincoln.  They read what Lincoln said in some of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 and look at positions he took on slavery and Blacks, especially at the beginning of the Civil War.  Applying today’s standards, they are appalled and say he was a bigot and racist. 

But they are wrong.  Abraham Lincoln has to be viewed in his own time.  And he must be viewed as how he changed in his time – and how he changed the time in which he lived. 

That is, I think, what Ms. McArdle is suggesting in her column.  It is a better and, ultimately, fairer way to go forward because it enables us to focus our disapproval on those who truly deserve it: those who have done the worst and who haven’t changed.  It also helps ensure that those who do deserve our criticism can’t try to hide in a blizzard of accusations against people and behavior that is of a different time and different kind.