I read the news today. Oh boy...
Jerome a Paris points us to the latest faux pas from the Wall Street Journal: WSJ makes fun of DailyKos. The gas tax? Nope. The 'Fuck's
Daniel Henninger writes a prissy little piece for the Wall Street Journal. To be sure, intellectual dishonesty is nothing new for the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages, as Armando and McJoan have had occasion to remind us. Still, I can just see people reading it with furrowed brows, wondering what ever happened to the good ol' USA.
So my speaking or writing expletives like, "Fuck" bothers these folks? Really?
I wonder. Does it bother them more than, say, paying taxes to spend $9.8 billion a month on wars, one of which that the nation was lied into? Does it bother them more than burying thousands of troops that have thus far been struck down in a war they were lied into - or attempting to repair the damage to the tens of thousands of US troops that have thus far been horribly maimed in a war they were lied into? Does it bother them more than knowing that we're dooming future generations to a life of peonage to offset the war's cost to Americans today? Does it bother them more than knowing that cynical politicians and pundits routinely use the memory of 9/11 to provoke fear and aggression while they fleece the nation and expeditiously dismantle our constitutional framework? Does it bother them more than knowing that politicians are burning holes through the Bill of Rights?
There's the `Disinhibation Nation'. And I say, "Fuck that."
But I have a proposition for all of you connoisseurs of good manners and politeness that never have been the hallmark of America. I'll stop swearing to break the charade of civility the minute it becomes popular for obscene ideas to be met with the same undisguised derision that foul language does. Deal?
The next time people in your office, your church, or your local country club advocate making gays, women, blacks, Mexicans, etc., second-class citizens in the United States, shake your head in disgust and accuse them of being responsible for the death-spiral of dignity in our society.
The next time somebody around you starts talking about vital it is to prevent extraordinarily wealthy people from paying any kind of a progressive tax while instead promoting regressive taxes to raise revenue, wrinkle your nose and sneer at them. Tell them you don't appreciate them spewing their indecency in your presence.
The next time representatives of American companies try to use their power to shape discourse about American labor and our economy while using tax havens, creating monopolies and moving jobs offshore, exhale heavily in their direction. Cast your conspicuous scornful glances at the people around you. You know the ones I mean, the ones that say, "What a stinking pig... Pass it on."
The next time politicians sling jingo and cozy up to our military while undercutting America's long-term viability as a liberal democracy and scuttling the safety and welfare of our troops, go ahead, clutch your Hermes tie or your Yves Saint Laurent neckerchief and start writing letters to the editor of your favorite newspapers and magazines about the overwhelming lack of decorum, so prevalent in our society today.
And the next time a major business journal features a hit-piece on a stripper and blaming her alleged gang rape on feminism, cancel your subscription. Be sure to send in your cancellation notice with a, "For shame" letter to the subscription department noting the contemptible irony of using a paper's enormous power to beat up on an alleged rape victim to teach feminists a lesson about how they overlooked the need for prudence and virtue in our society. (Although, I must say, that same paper referring to people that earn so little for their labor that they are not required to shoulder the burden federal taxes as, "Lucky duckies" should have already had the paper labeled a purveyor of dishonesty and debauchery by the much put upon defenders of public decency in this country.)
You get the idea.
Instead of zeroing in on the superficial lack of grace in our society, why not be brave enough to run your sword of rectitude through the heart of it?
The louder the common chorus of decency rails against the kinds of obscene ideas that victimize, shame, bankrupt, enslave and bring death to harmless Americans and the nation we live in, the less likely people like myself will be to pierce the deafening quiet around us with expletives. Nevertheless, I'll uphold my end of the bargain if the more superficially respectable among you will uphold yours.
Then we can all leave sentiments like, "Go fuck yourself," to allegedly distinguished folks like that Dick, Cheney.