Please, Bob, stick to playing music

"They say they'll free us from our pain, but your liberty is exchanged."

— The Distillers, Oldscratch

A French judge has dismissed a "racial hatred" charge against Bob Dylan. If found guilty, Dylan would have faced a possible $62,000 fine and a year in prison.

The case was brought by the Council of Croats in France (CRICCF) after Dylan told Rolling Stone in 2012 that, "If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood."

CRICCF spokesman Vlatko Maric said Dylan's words were "an incitement to hatred. You cannot compare Croatian criminals to all Croats." 

The judge ruled that because Dylan did not consent to his words being printed, he could not be held responsible.

Unfortunately, the director of Rolling Stone's French edition, where the quote appeared, is not so lucky. He will stand trial, entering a Kafka-esque world of politically-correct jurisprudence. 

Regardless of how offensive Dylan's words may have been to some, he was merely voicing an opinion. There was no "incitement"; he was calling on no one to commit an act of violence — or do anything at all. Free speech should always trump other people's feelings. That's how a free society is supposed work.

But issue can certainly be taken with the music icon's use of pop psychology to explain, and maybe even justify, some people's irrational behavior.

Have another look at what Dylan said. In his (and too many other people's) world, members of certain groups are able to identify, through some hyper-elevated sensory perception, those whose "blood" is tainted with the real or alleged acts of their ancestors. 

We've certainly heard that kind of talk before!

It's right up there with claims that some people are genetically inferior — and therefore less deserving of civilized treatment.

It used to be a means for justifying hatred, oppression, and even genocide against members of a particular racial or ethnic group.

Now, apparently, it's an ingrained defense mechanism with which people in minority groups are equipped — via their DNA, or perhaps some kind of cultural imperative — to identify potential oppressors.

The implications of this are troubling.

It means that if someone is part of a designated group, based on race or ethnicity, and someone says something he doesn't like, or acts in a way he doesn't like, or uses body language he doesn't like, it's because the offender's great grandfather was probably a Klansman or a Nazi — and he can "sense" it.

Certain people then no longer have to take responsibility for themselves, evaluating their response to this person's words — or his arguments — or his behavior objectively, taking into account their own possible biases or insecurities.

There's no need to bother thinking about what was said or (allegedly) done at all — thought becomes impotent when emotions rule the day. 

Feelings become judge and jury.

In The Ominous Parallels, philosopher Leonard Peikoff warned against just such a world, in which "feelings are the creator of facts" — meaning that "If men feel it...that makes it so."

All that's left then is the appropriate reaction — one, too, that will likely be grounded in emotions, not any rational standard.

It's not hard to imagine the negative affect this can have on inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations.

The irony is that by attributing superior cognitive skills to certain racial or ethnic groups, Bob Dylan is playing into the hands of his ideological foes.