Indignation Overload

If you always play your music too loud, soon enough you’ll go deaf. If you consistently over-spice your food, you’ll lose your taste for subtle, nuanced flavours. And if we, as a society, continue to rage indignantly at each other, we’re going to lose what’s left of public civility.

Once upon a time, clever put-down was an art. The story is told of Lady Astor becoming so exasperated with Winston Churchill that she raged, “Sir Winston, if I were your wife, I would put poison in your tea!” Churchill , barely looking up from his notes, responded drily, “Yes, my dear, and if I were your husband, I would drink it.” It’s hard to think of a modern example– today we go straight for “ridiculous!”, “outrageous!”, and “treasonous!”. We’ve reverted to the caveman’s club.

Generations raised on Saturday morning cartoons and junk food don’t do well with subtlety. In the cacophony of self-righteous shrilling, we screech at the top of our lungs just to hear even our own voices, and rarely can we be alone with the healing sounds of crickets, of the wind in the pines, or even of silence.

Scanning the radio dial will yield a dozen or more “talk shows”, most of which are “hosted” by an ego with a golden voice and a knack for insult and incitement. In between will be country music stations playing such gems as “You’re Walkin’ on the Fightin’ Side of Me!”, while CBC and other public radio ooze campy, over-the-top political correctness, sneering (on the public dime) at deplorables who are not as “progressive” as they.

Pressure groups self-label so as to demonize the other side. “Pro life” suggests that everyone else is in favour of death, and “pro choice” insinuates that the other side is monolithically verkrampt. There is no middle ground: “I’m right, you’re wrong, so there’s nothing to talk about! Get off my planet!”

Dialogue has withered, propaganda reigns. Our social discourse has become a traffic jam of blaring horns and one-finger salutes.

It could be that we really don’t want to listen to one another, but perhaps we’ve just forgotten how.

Even this rant is an example of indignation overkill, so in penance I vow that this week I will speak 10% less and listen 10% more. Anybody with me?