Much Ado About Nothing?

Is it just much ado about nothing?  Is the eruption of toxic rhetoric really all that bad?  Hasn't it always been so?  We've always had comedians making jokes about our politicians.  There is nothing new about that.  What is new is the nasty way in which it is being done.  Will Rogers never met a person he didn't like.  He had great difficulty with the politicians of his time, but never once in all his joking did he maliciously insult, disparage, denigrate, dehumanize, or demonize another human being.

I remember my reaction to South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson shouting out "You Lie!" to President Obama when he spoke to a joint session of Congress in 2009.  I thought that was a really "low blow" and totally unnecessary.  But that was nothing compared to what has developed since.  And if this issue doesn't bother you, concern you, or disturb you, all I can say is that it should.

It doesn't matter whether it comes from a preacher, an actor, a Facebook post, a Tweet, an ignoramus, a scholar, a comedian, a pundit, or a politician--the "putting down" of another person has no place in any public discourse or forum (especially if there is not evidence to warrant such “putting down”).  I don't mean we can't talk about differences of opinion, or facts, or be critical of another, and that kind of thing--I simply mean that we have no business diminishing another person.

Some use the word "civility" to explain how we ought to treat one another.  Some use the word "decency."  Neither word really seems adequate.  What if I said we need to be "constitutional" in our dealings with one another?  That would "fit" everybody--conservative, liberal, progressive, Republican, Democrat, and Independent--would it not?  So let's be constitutional--hold these truths to be self-evident:  "that all men (women, children, all races, religions, all sexual orientations, etc. etc.) are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."  I have no business, nor do you, or those in positions of power and wealth, to tear down, to insult, to embarrass, denigrate, demonize, belittle, or dehumanize anyone.  I don't think I'm making much ado about nothing.  The present rhetoric that divides, destroys and demonizes any human being will eventually divide, destroy and demonize our own humanness.

"When once the forms of civility are violated,

there remains little hope of return to kindness and decency."

(Samual Johnson)

The first yellow iris bloomed yesterday!