CSotD: I thought “zeigeist” implied something less passive
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Tom Tomorrow on inevitability and futility.
I'm not 100 percent sure this message of passivity is being preached so much by "experts," however, because I'm no longer sure who the "experts" are anymore, and I don't think that's because of my being out of the loop.
I am out of the loop, however, to the extent of having given up on the Sunday morning TV shows. While some of the roundtable discussions can be interesting, the interviews have become worthless. You've got partisan hacks pushing their talking points with no regard for logic or for the fact-checking capacity of the average viewer.
Or maybe they know that most people won't bother to use that capacity, and that repeating a lie will eventually turn it into the truth.
One layer of the inevitability/futility argument is "there have always been periods of mindless partisanship." It is supposed to comfort us and make us think that we have only to wait and these things will fade back into the wallpaper.
But the fact that we've been through it before doesn't mean we shouldn't make some effort to avoid going through it again.
It may be true that you've been in auto accidents before, but that doesn't cancel the potential for the next one to be fatal. In fact, it should make you even more inclined to wear your seat belt.
But there are plenty of people who, rather than taking that obvious precaution, prefer to cite apocryphal examples of why seatbelts not only don't work but can prove even more deadly. A lot of that refusal to confront reality is what goes into the "we can't solve that" thinking cited in this cartoon.
It's not that we couldn't confront mass shootings, global warming and the various economic issues facing us, but we would have to put aside some comforting notions, and it might require our facing some uncomfortable facts.
It would bring about confrontations, with others and with ourselves.
Telling Jerry Sandusky not to bring kids on campus anymore is easier than setting off a whole unpleasant investigation. Maybe he'll get the message and quit all that messing around.
And maybe we don't have to face down the issues around the Second Amendment. Maybe there won't be any more shootings.
And maybe the climate thing will work itself out, and maybe the banking thing will be solved by the invisible hand of the free market.
Because the alternative is confrontation and unpleasantness and admitting that maybe we've been wrong about some stuff.
It is not some elite corps of experts in suits who are preaching this gospel of avoidance.
Go to any message board, any comments section, and you'll not only find people mindlessly recycling partisan talking points, but you'll also get a large dose of "What can you do about it?" and "All efforts are pointless," not to mention a massive dose of chicken-hearted "on the one hand, but then again on the other."
The most toxic element of "we've always had periods of mindless partisanship" is that notion that they went away by themselves.
On the Internet, it is (heh heh) verboten to compare anyone to Hitler, and that rule has been extended now to the point where you're not allowed to draw parallels to the collapse of Germany's morale and economy in the early 1930s, either.
But I think it is fair to point out that the "period of mindless partisanship" that followed did not simply fade away on its own.
And it's not that these defeatists are unwilling to go to war for their beliefs. They aren't even willing to go to lunch.
I saw a comment yesterday about how it doesn't matter how many people turned out to buy Chick-fil-A sandwiches to show their solidarity with homophobia. The comment went on to say that the sit-ins of the 60s had been equally pointless and ineffective.
Such a fundamental disconnect with how opinions are shaped and how societal support is built is perhaps a result of experts declaring that all action is futile, but I don't acknowledge the divide between that individual Internet denizen and the people who wear suits and speak into microphones. I think the churn is one and the same, that each reinforces the other.
The boomer-bashers don't want to hear stories of a time when people were encouraged to make an effort to persuade others. Since the world did not become perfect, obviously, it didn't work.
True, the Civil Rights Act was passed. But racism didn't totally disappear.
And, yes, Lyndon Johnson was driven from office and the war in Vietnam was brought to a close. But we still have war, and unpopular politicians.
And the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18. But, since there's no point in voting, that didn't do any good.
The world is not perfect, and there's nothing you can do about it.
I saw it on TV and it's all over the Internet.
We all believe it, and you'd be a fool to disagree with all of us.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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