We’re all human beings.
We are humans…being.
We’re all part of humankind. If only we could — collectively — live up to that label.
Live and let live. Practice acts of random kindness.
These should be humankind’s sole Mission Statements.
I’m old enough to remember the old saying “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Or, to be more concise, “zip it.”
I’m also old enough to remember you are supposed to remove your hat when singing the anthem or pledging allegiance or bowing your head in prayer in thanks for the steaming hot food you’ve all sat down to eat.
Being from south of the Mason/Dixon line, I responded with “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am” until I was older than any of the women I encountered. Nowadays, I just stick with please and thank you to be polite and assiduously refrain from referring to anyone as a “ma’am”.
I have a tendency to open doors for others — although not always. Sometimes I’m too engrossed in the the world inside my head, sometimes I’m allowing someone to open the door for me and sometimes I like to indicate I don’t think the other person too feeble to open their own goddamn door. It’s ingrained in me however, so I’m likely to reach for the handle regardless.
My wife and I both agree it is rude to use bathrooms in commercial enterprises without patronizing the establishment. I could have purchased an EV by now with the money I’ve spent over a lifetime of dropping loose change on a business with an accessible toilet. I don’t think it’s because I’m a small businessman. I think it’s because I believe it’s the right thing to do.
The small kindnesses of the world are being steamrolled. I know they’re still happening, and happening with more regularity than we’d ever know if judging by the online world, because — without them — the tenuous fabric that holds us all together would have been asunder long ago.
Neighbors continue to check on one another. Mail carriers and delivery drivers continue to go the extra mile. From what I can ascertain, judging by my mother-in-law’s Seattle Times subscription always to be found in the same square foot of driveway with the precise same orientation whether it’s the daily or the Sunday paper, newspaper deliverers continue to take pride in their work.
Most people — I’d wager — continue to take pride in the their work.
But, as I said, you wouldn’t know it by accessing the world of — on the whole — digital news.
Both ideological camps can take credit for the steamrolling of polite culture. After all, the hedonism and iconoclasm of the ‘60s and ‘70s took a hacksaw to sacred cultural cows of all kinds which made it difficult for stalwart red, white and blue Americans to not take notice and feel like they were being picked on, or looked down upon or considered backward. I characterize it with the term, ‘hacksaw’, because not a lot of thought was given to the downstream consequences.
Hippies morphed into yuppies who splintered into the dinks, sinks and David Brooks’ so-called bobos (the bohemian bourgeois) and — finally — ‘elites’ who never wished to touch down in ‘flyover country’.
Ina a break from conformity, I don’t put my hand over my heart during the national anthem. I love my country but, after too many completely unnecessary foreign interventions — touched off in my lifetime by the incessant American War fought in southeast Asia — I reserve the right to quietly protest blind loyalty and unwavering fealty to a symbol.
In addition, I don’t close my eyes during prayer. I won’t disrupt a prayer but I also refuse to be a pretender. Eyes wide open, in my mind, establishes that I am not a believer. That I’m acting as nothing more than a polite observer. Now and again, I’ll get caught with my hand over my heart or my eyes shut, but that’s only an indication of how thoroughly instilled those customs were during my formative years.
I remember conservative commentators having public spasms over Bill Clinton’s peccadillos and how his role modeling behavior was going to be the ruin of the country’s children.
If we only knew then what we know now.
If we only knew then how conservatives and evangelicals and billionaires would rally around a man with no impulse control, no filter, no shame and no understanding of how anything in the world works beyond his appetite for attention. It feels like every sacred cow has been slaughtered at the altar of greed. Because, make no mistake, greed for power, money and attention are the only currencies being used by those who kowtow to all things MAGA — pronounced and aka mahgah.
Everyone seems to agree that the madness won’t end once the madman succumbs to whatever ignominious fate awaits him. But I disagree. To an extent.
I think the media’s obsession with the man poisons the well. Makes it all worse. No other celebrity sucks all the attention out of the room all of the time. No other around-the-clock celebrity makes their living creating division, stirring the pot and slinging insults at his opponents non-stop. I’ve never heard this man try to extend an olive branch. He’s the ultimate culmination of Newt Gingrich’s “I’m willing to cooperate, but not to compromise” sentiment, and Roy Cohn’s “Never admit guilt. Never back down” philosophy.
The lesson your kids are learning in this era is that the longer and louder you yell about something the less likely you’ll ever have to suffer the consequences. The nastier you are, the more notoriety you’ll accrue. The more notoriety you amass, the less likely you’ll ever pay for your misdeeds.
But, hey, look on the bright side. They’re not being taught by the president that blowjobs are not sex.
They are, however, learning that fooling with porn stars can be costly…
That aspect of the mahgah mentality will linger like a festering boil on society’s ass far longer than any of us would prefer but, once the man is gone, the media fever will break and — eventually — we’ll all be able to watch, or read, or absorb the news with the little bit of detachment we prefer.
Instead of having to witness, on a daily basis, random acts of truculent inanity, maybe we’ll get back to celebrating random acts of — human — kindness…
…And appreciating cat and dog videos…
Also, I highly recommend JoJo from Jersey right here on Substack. If you have not already come across her pithy insights and stellar writing, follow the link in the photo. She takes no mahgah prisoners.