All of a sudden, everybody gets it. You tell your kid to cut you a little slack because your other kid is having a crisis and you're told "I get it. You don't care about my problems." You start to make a case that you deserve a raise, or a break, or a job, and the person you are beseeching replies. "I get it. I just can't do anything for you right now." You want to call someone to task for their behavior and you get back "I get it. I was a jerk. " And then they change the subject, short-circuiting any constructive discussion to make sure said behavior doesn't happen again.
I get it is the new conversational reset button. People can use it to dismiss, reassure or mollify you, but it's always a way of taking control of the discussion. Sometimes, this is done because the person who gets it has no interest in further exploring " it" - the defensive I get it. Sometimes, it's to cut off whatever long and involved statement you were about to make - the preemptive I get it. Seems like everybody's so busy getting it, you just can't get through.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
False prophets and false analogies
This inane controversy over the President's speech to school children was petty and paranoid and, yes, I must alliterate, pathetic. And yet it made me think. We on the left spent 8 years thinking of Bush as the Idiot-in-Chief, and now the far right sees Obama as the AntiChrist. Was this demonization and reverse-demonization?
I thought I might be on to something and perhaps we could all meet in the middle. This frivolous notion lasted all of 10 seconds. The truth is, one can build a lengthy and convincing case demonstrating that Dubya deserved to be dubbed the Idiot in Chief, but no logical case can be made that Obama is the AntiChrist– even if you buy into that superstitious concept.
Today, I was listening to a discussion about the war in Afghanistan on NPR. One expert was lauding the Afghans for their turnout in dangerous situations and the thorough distribution of ballot boxes in remote and difficult terrain. Another pundit tempered the expert's enthusiasm by pointing out that Afghanistan was a tribal society and people were voting along those lines. Nobody mentioned the low female turnout, with many women afraid to work the polls and other women kept at home for fear they might encounter a male pole worker. The one comment that struck me was by a professor, born in Afghanistan and raised here. How can we take this election seriously, he asked, when 90% of the electorate is illiterate? They are voting along ethnic lines, in response to bribes or threats or just because they like the look of the guy (no need for unisex wording here).
My sick mind immediately returned to the conspiracy theorists getting their panties all in a wad over death panels, Kenyan birth certificates and a traditional inspirational speech to school children. Yeah, they are literate, and they vote. But they aren't very smart. Stupid people vote, and it's right and fair that they should. Sometimes, they elect stupid people. That's democracy's Achilles heel, and it certainly accounts for the high number of bozos in the House and in the Senate. So yeah, compared to the poor, undereducated people in Afghanistan, our electorate is pretty sophisticated. They can read, but apparently, they don't.
I thought I might be on to something and perhaps we could all meet in the middle. This frivolous notion lasted all of 10 seconds. The truth is, one can build a lengthy and convincing case demonstrating that Dubya deserved to be dubbed the Idiot in Chief, but no logical case can be made that Obama is the AntiChrist– even if you buy into that superstitious concept.
Today, I was listening to a discussion about the war in Afghanistan on NPR. One expert was lauding the Afghans for their turnout in dangerous situations and the thorough distribution of ballot boxes in remote and difficult terrain. Another pundit tempered the expert's enthusiasm by pointing out that Afghanistan was a tribal society and people were voting along those lines. Nobody mentioned the low female turnout, with many women afraid to work the polls and other women kept at home for fear they might encounter a male pole worker. The one comment that struck me was by a professor, born in Afghanistan and raised here. How can we take this election seriously, he asked, when 90% of the electorate is illiterate? They are voting along ethnic lines, in response to bribes or threats or just because they like the look of the guy (no need for unisex wording here).
My sick mind immediately returned to the conspiracy theorists getting their panties all in a wad over death panels, Kenyan birth certificates and a traditional inspirational speech to school children. Yeah, they are literate, and they vote. But they aren't very smart. Stupid people vote, and it's right and fair that they should. Sometimes, they elect stupid people. That's democracy's Achilles heel, and it certainly accounts for the high number of bozos in the House and in the Senate. So yeah, compared to the poor, undereducated people in Afghanistan, our electorate is pretty sophisticated. They can read, but apparently, they don't.
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