They'll be brief. Frankly, I considered writing another long blog entry on the topic, but the mere thought of doing the research for it by taking another dive into the political rhetoric of the last few years made me want to take a shower. So here instead are a few quick thoughts:
1) I think we should all ask ourselves some questions about what people who purport to speak for our political candidates or points of view are saying, and how they are saying it. Is what they are saying acceptible? Responsible? Admirable? Is it Christian? Would Ronald Reagan or John F. Kennedy have said such a thing? (To pick a respected spokesman for both the right and the left.)
If it falls short of those criteria, why are you permitting it? Speak up, and speak up to the people who claim to be speaking for you. Because if you stand by silently, you are as guilty as those who are speaking on your behalf.
2) The Ol' Boiling-Frog Analogy is one of the most overused analogies in the world of rhetoric -- the frog that will sit quietly in a pot of warm water as the heat is turned up to boiling. It may apply here.
One of the things that I have done occasionally over the last seven or eight years is to go on what I call a "news ban" for a few weeks or months. I pretty much avoid all TV and radio news, and mostly all printed news other than the local weekly paper (The Spinal Column) and an occasional newsmagazine or Sunday paper.
The truly jarring part is entering back into the world of broadcast news. When you see the cable news channels with fresh eyes, it's truly appalling. Local television news is sadly not much better. If you truly think the rhetoric of the past few years has been acceptible, you might want to step out of the loop for a few months. You might find that you have a different opinion when you look again.
What we choose to put in our own heads makes a big difference in who we are. If we choose to fill our heads with garbage ... well, there's a well-known programming axiom -- Garbage In, Garbage Out -- that applies. The Information Age comes with personal responsibilities. In an era in which we each can choose what goes into our head, we each have a personal responsibility to choose wisely.
3) If you get a chance to catch Obama's speech this week at the Tuscon Memorial, it's worth your half-hour.
And that's it. I'm going to head home, have a large well-earned martini, grill a big steak, maybe watch a movie or two, and take a blessed break from broadcast news for the next few days.
Have a good Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend, everybody.
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I haven't read this post yet, I'm still back on how you'll be organizing your book reviews for 2011 but I know no one ever goes back to see if there are comments on a week old post so : I really have enjoyed the book reviews when I get on line and more than once you've given me incentive to read several books - though I have not yet done so since I'm a much slower reader than you. They were books I'd also heard about from other sources and your plug sealed the deal - as did Susan's plug about the Kite Runner being worthy of a reread! Now, that might be a little discouraging because Susan just wrote a list not a review but you must consider I already had the book on my shelf so it was way easier than trapsing across Paris to the English bookstore and paying mucho euros for it...
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your review of HP and the Deathly Hallows. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came out and yes the animation is nice but we have a great French animator who has been using this technique for about ten years so it probably looked a bit less new to us.