Higher Ground
Lucky for me no one's found any crash bugs today. Unlucky for you.
Go read this from Wolcott.(He's from Bawlmer. You mean you didn't know? I knew there was a reason I liked him). I totally agree with him. There ain't no high ground people. The "high ground" argument has always been the last refuge of the incompetent intellect and charlatans, a rhetorical twitch from gasbags who know they don't have anything left to say.
Look at, oh, Robert "No Facts" Novak. The guy is a known liar, an apologist for criminals, and more than likely a criminal himself who committed an act of treason just because he could. When he isn't on camera he curses like a sailor. Yet whenever he might get caught in a lie, have an inconvenient fact thrown his way, or have anything happen that might cause him to lose a debate, he immediately rushes to the "high ground". "Oh, that's low. You don't have any decency. Blah blah blah." He'll even attempt to frame debates in terms of the "high ground", as he did with a picture in the Nation a few months back that depicted George Bush eating a baby. It was a modification of some famous painting that was really quite clever. "Now I know people don't like Bush, but THIS is just indecent, don't you agree?". No I don't. There's this glass house, and you're holding a rock, and...ARE YOU EFFIN' KIDDING ME?
Now I admit I would prefer a debate about policy to a debate about who did what in Viet Nam. I admit I'd prefer a debate on a plan on how to get us out of Iraq to a debate about who snorted more coke in the 1970's(although we all know who did, don't we?). My concerns with that have everything to do with my preference for discourse on issues of relevance to the country and my life. It has nothing to do with abstract notions of "higher ground" or decency.
Disagreement is fundamentally indecent, and very often rude. Democracy is a fundamentally dirty business. You get enough people together and they're going to find something to disagree about, argue vehemently about. So let's ditch the higher ground, where there's only room for a few gasbag nitwits. Let's get in the valley where everyone can stand. Let's get in the public square and argue with people. Who knows, maybe later today, I'll confront that lady who keeps parking her ugly ass Bush/Cheney stickered Mercedes SUV in front of my apartment. I'm sure I won't change her mind, but at least she'll get a piece of mine.
Go read this from Wolcott.(He's from Bawlmer. You mean you didn't know? I knew there was a reason I liked him). I totally agree with him. There ain't no high ground people. The "high ground" argument has always been the last refuge of the incompetent intellect and charlatans, a rhetorical twitch from gasbags who know they don't have anything left to say.
Look at, oh, Robert "No Facts" Novak. The guy is a known liar, an apologist for criminals, and more than likely a criminal himself who committed an act of treason just because he could. When he isn't on camera he curses like a sailor. Yet whenever he might get caught in a lie, have an inconvenient fact thrown his way, or have anything happen that might cause him to lose a debate, he immediately rushes to the "high ground". "Oh, that's low. You don't have any decency. Blah blah blah." He'll even attempt to frame debates in terms of the "high ground", as he did with a picture in the Nation a few months back that depicted George Bush eating a baby. It was a modification of some famous painting that was really quite clever. "Now I know people don't like Bush, but THIS is just indecent, don't you agree?". No I don't. There's this glass house, and you're holding a rock, and...ARE YOU EFFIN' KIDDING ME?
Now I admit I would prefer a debate about policy to a debate about who did what in Viet Nam. I admit I'd prefer a debate on a plan on how to get us out of Iraq to a debate about who snorted more coke in the 1970's(although we all know who did, don't we?). My concerns with that have everything to do with my preference for discourse on issues of relevance to the country and my life. It has nothing to do with abstract notions of "higher ground" or decency.
Disagreement is fundamentally indecent, and very often rude. Democracy is a fundamentally dirty business. You get enough people together and they're going to find something to disagree about, argue vehemently about. So let's ditch the higher ground, where there's only room for a few gasbag nitwits. Let's get in the valley where everyone can stand. Let's get in the public square and argue with people. Who knows, maybe later today, I'll confront that lady who keeps parking her ugly ass Bush/Cheney stickered Mercedes SUV in front of my apartment. I'm sure I won't change her mind, but at least she'll get a piece of mine.
posted by jayinbmore at 1:59 PM
<< Home