Published in the July 6, 2017, Leader.
I am shocked and appalled over the overuse of the words “shocked” and “appalled.”
Check for on-the-record reactions of nearly any high level public official to something dastardly one of their enemies did or said. There is a better-than-even chance that the action caused them to be shocked or appalled or both.
It is a symptom of our times.
The notion of a loyal opposition, or even considering a competing viewpoint, is as out-of-date as a Studebaker. The Other People are enemies to be annihilated, stomped, discredited, boiled in oil.
Even talking in a civil manner to the Other People is viewed as a sign of weakness by your fellow Visigoths. We don’t want to have a conversation with them – we want their heads on pikes.
Last week’s latest passion play on the national Republican health care bill reached a new level of crisis when GOP leaders said if everyone on their side didn’t get in line, they might have to talk to the Democrats!
Oh, the horror!
Imagine the desperation when our duly elected representatives and senators might actually speak with our other duly elected representatives and senators. It would be like the Sharks and the Jets going on a Sunday picnic together. It would be the Cubs and Cardinals singing “Kumbaya.” It would be me rooting for a University of Kansas sports team.
(Well, that last one might require an alternate universe. It ain’t happening in this one.)
Running the country, or the state or the county, however, is a little more weighty than ragging on a sports rival, which is mostly in fun, anyway. Mostly.
The level of rancor and general meanness on the political stage today has brought about the zero-to-100 reaction of shocked and appalled.
As a word guy, I don’t like to see good, descriptive words when used appropriately gutted of their original meaning.
It used to be when someone said he was shocked or appalled, you could take it on faith that it was a serious or shocking, appalling situation, at least in that person’s view.
Now it’s as automatic as thank you and you’re welcome, which gets said robotically whether you really are being thanked or really are welcome.
“He got you chicken salad for lunch instead of the club sandwich.”
“I’m shocked and appalled.”
Disappointed or irritated, maybe. Shocked and appalled? Not likely.
This tiresome, fake sense of outrage at everything the Other People do is numbing all of us from doing any real separation of wheat and chaff. The name-calling and pigeon-holing that go along with it aren’t helping, either.
This did not start with and is not all attributable to our Name-Caller-in-Chief, but he has sanctified it with his crudity. Pre-Trump, before it became a death struggle to defend every obnoxious thing he does, I like to think that a large majority of Americans would have found such behavior unacceptable for our country’s chief executive.
That would have required a bit of Back to The Future – having an actor sit behind a curtain and recite some of these outrageous things to a crowd, then asking audience members whether they would find them offensive if they came from a president.
Today, many audience members would want to know which party the comments came from before giving their reaction.
Which is exactly the point.
Neither side owns civility or good taste, or incivility or bad taste, either. Comments and behavior ought to be judged in a vacuum for their content and intention, not on who said them. If your new neighbor is a jerk, you can figure that out soon enough without inquiring about his politics.
Conversely, a good person is a good person. I have some friends I’ve known for decades and, believe it or not, we’ve never discussed politics.
It can be done.
While that may be shocking to some today who are obsessed with demonizing the Others, trust me – it is far from appalling. It’s a relief.
