The author of many short stories and two novels, Flannery O’Connor was a bright, witty and controversial writer. One of her most famous and shocking quotes is “tenderness leads to the gas chambers.” The quip was borrowed by fellow Southern novelist Walker Percy in his novel The Thanatos Syndrome, but what did O’Connor mean by the thought and why did Percy pick up on it?
Percy’s whole novel is a commentary on O’Connor’s quote. The plot of the novel involves a group of well-meaning scientists who discover a drug that, when put into the water supply, will make everyone happy. It calms people down, eradicates their stress and guilt and also functions as a contraceptive. The results are terrifying and hilarious. The local community begins to disintegrate into crimes of passion — adultery, child abuse and eventually violence, but no one really cares because everyone is zoned out and “happy.”
Where does O’Connor’s disturbing thought come in? Both O’Connor and Percy are not opposed to well-meaning tenderness per se. They are opposed to tenderness or being nice as the only virtue. This is important in our decaying society because the one virtue that seems paramount is tenderness — kindness and tolerance in all its forms. Should anyone dare to make a statement that is critical of anyone else — especially those who have assumed the costume of victimhood — then the person who has made the observation, stated an opinion or even simply stated facts — will be excoriated, vilified, cancelled and censored by the thought police. We should remember that Truth is not hate speech. Niceness as the only virtue leads not only to lies, but social bullying.
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