Sometimes a Terrible Notion...
Sometimes a Terrible Notion...
This Just In: On a post card sent to his neighbors back on Planet Kolob, Twitt Bombney wrote, “America is great! Wish I were here!”
The other night America prevailed. The America I grew up in--the America I want back. The America I still believe in. Regardless of your politics, America won. In a campaign fraught with ridiculous sound bites (whatever that means) and a clear showing of lack of regard for the intelligence of the American people, questionable as it is sometimes, nothing tested my patience so much as when in the second debate, after his (own) numerous interruptions, romney turned to President Obama and said in his best ‘guest of’ Jerry Springer voice, “I didn’t ask you a question,” intimating that Obama needed permission from him to speak. In one fell swoop, romney managed to in general, insult all semi-intelligent life forms, including my fern sitting on the bookshelf in my home office. Specifically but not limited to, he insulted blacks and men, and the people who love them, people who don’t watch Springer, people who do watch Springer--bad imitation, people who wanted Obama to punch him in the throat, people who wanted to punch him in the throat, people who felt that way but would never admit it because they don’t watch Jerry Springer, people who vote, democrats, republicans, independents, people who respect the office for which he was running, the office for which he was running, and The President of the United States. Nice laundry list.
I’ve been accused now and again of being a good judge of character. When I saw romney speak, his face seemed to not believe what was coming out of his mouth. *He seemed to be a hollow holder of insincerity.* I read somewhere that Mormons view truth to be ever changing or evolving on apparently a minute to minute basis. So if for one second you can convince yourself of any given truth, speak that truth as relative and in-motion as it may be, it’s not particularly a lie if one minute later you don’t believe it and its not true. How accurate this is, I don’t know. Certainly not very Donny and Marie of him. He’s a little bit Mephistopheles.
So why did we entertain the notion of romney? Why does someone who is so clearly a virulent and remorseless liar and rude and hard-hearted make such an impact? Why was he a viable anything?
When I was a kid, truth and respect were values that were held with the utmost regard in my family and in most families I encountered. Today it seems, that it is only the end result that counts, never mind how you get there. The devil surely is in these details and damn us all to hell. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was just done away with in our military but it reigns supreme in all of Academia and elsewhere.
A New York Times article recently reported the extreme number of high school and college age kids taking adderall, just to get by on three hours of sleep nightly, so they can deal with the rigorous daily routine required of them to get into and through a semi-decent college. This is also becoming more prevalent even among kids in elementary school. So steroids for the sports teams and adderall for the nerds--this is deceit at its most paltry. Not to mention how unethical it is to the few kids who don’t know enough to put themselves in harm’s way to achieve their end goals.
It has also been noted that we live in a much ruder society than we did years ago. And its no wonder, with everyone jonesing for a fix. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a little inebriation here and there, whether it be a glass of wine or a puff of something organic. May Connecticut be the next Colorado! But, adderall and steroids like heroin and other hardcore stuff, legal or not, do lead to personality disorders and rude/unruly behavior and/or criminal and/or negligent behavior. And certainly lack of judgment. I’m not saying everyone who voted for mitt used or advocated drug use, but certainly we have become accustomed to behaviors and criminality that were once considered fringe. Things that were once considered disgusting and beneath society as a whole, now pass for standard behavior. Two words--Jersey Shore. How many kids, now have a friend who could pass for one of those humanly challenged entities?
Do not for one second take this to be advocating against equality for all--this is not what I am saying. And, I’m not against vehemence in discourse either. And dissent! Is always a good thing! But somewhere along the way we confused accepting people for who they are and advocating equality with accepting every little fluctuation in decency and flight from pointed discussions and decorum.
*In the interest of disclosure I would like to mention that this piece was started and in particular the asterisked line was written before I saw the salon article where Mary Elizabeth Williams called romney a ‘Hollow tower of hubris” (www.salon.com/2012/11/07/romneys_concession_speech_was_not_gracious/)
This Just In: On a post card sent to his neighbors back on Planet Kolob, Twitt Bombney wrote, “America is great! Wish I were here!”
The other night America prevailed. The America I grew up in--the America I want back. The America I still believe in. Regardless of your politics, America won. In a campaign fraught with ridiculous sound bites (whatever that means) and a clear showing of lack of regard for the intelligence of the American people, questionable as it is sometimes, nothing tested my patience so much as when in the second debate, after his (own) numerous interruptions, romney turned to President Obama and said in his best ‘guest of’ Jerry Springer voice, “I didn’t ask you a question,” intimating that Obama needed permission from him to speak. In one fell swoop, romney managed to in general, insult all semi-intelligent life forms, including my fern sitting on the bookshelf in my home office. Specifically but not limited to, he insulted blacks and men, and the people who love them, people who don’t watch Springer, people who do watch Springer--bad imitation, people who wanted Obama to punch him in the throat, people who wanted to punch him in the throat, people who felt that way but would never admit it because they don’t watch Jerry Springer, people who vote, democrats, republicans, independents, people who respect the office for which he was running, the office for which he was running, and The President of the United States. Nice laundry list.
I’ve been accused now and again of being a good judge of character. When I saw romney speak, his face seemed to not believe what was coming out of his mouth. *He seemed to be a hollow holder of insincerity.* I read somewhere that Mormons view truth to be ever changing or evolving on apparently a minute to minute basis. So if for one second you can convince yourself of any given truth, speak that truth as relative and in-motion as it may be, it’s not particularly a lie if one minute later you don’t believe it and its not true. How accurate this is, I don’t know. Certainly not very Donny and Marie of him. He’s a little bit Mephistopheles.
So why did we entertain the notion of romney? Why does someone who is so clearly a virulent and remorseless liar and rude and hard-hearted make such an impact? Why was he a viable anything?
When I was a kid, truth and respect were values that were held with the utmost regard in my family and in most families I encountered. Today it seems, that it is only the end result that counts, never mind how you get there. The devil surely is in these details and damn us all to hell. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was just done away with in our military but it reigns supreme in all of Academia and elsewhere.
A New York Times article recently reported the extreme number of high school and college age kids taking adderall, just to get by on three hours of sleep nightly, so they can deal with the rigorous daily routine required of them to get into and through a semi-decent college. This is also becoming more prevalent even among kids in elementary school. So steroids for the sports teams and adderall for the nerds--this is deceit at its most paltry. Not to mention how unethical it is to the few kids who don’t know enough to put themselves in harm’s way to achieve their end goals.
It has also been noted that we live in a much ruder society than we did years ago. And its no wonder, with everyone jonesing for a fix. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a little inebriation here and there, whether it be a glass of wine or a puff of something organic. May Connecticut be the next Colorado! But, adderall and steroids like heroin and other hardcore stuff, legal or not, do lead to personality disorders and rude/unruly behavior and/or criminal and/or negligent behavior. And certainly lack of judgment. I’m not saying everyone who voted for mitt used or advocated drug use, but certainly we have become accustomed to behaviors and criminality that were once considered fringe. Things that were once considered disgusting and beneath society as a whole, now pass for standard behavior. Two words--Jersey Shore. How many kids, now have a friend who could pass for one of those humanly challenged entities?
Do not for one second take this to be advocating against equality for all--this is not what I am saying. And, I’m not against vehemence in discourse either. And dissent! Is always a good thing! But somewhere along the way we confused accepting people for who they are and advocating equality with accepting every little fluctuation in decency and flight from pointed discussions and decorum.
*In the interest of disclosure I would like to mention that this piece was started and in particular the asterisked line was written before I saw the salon article where Mary Elizabeth Williams called romney a ‘Hollow tower of hubris” (www.salon.com/2012/11/07/romneys_concession_speech_was_not_gracious/)
posted by Bathsheva @ 7:19 PM
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