Is It Over Yet?
It’s October. Time to get Halloween outfits. So will you be getting the Donald Trump or the Hillary Clinton mask? Will it be to campaign or to frighten the neighbors? The best part about this month is that the weather is usually great, sports and hunting are in full gear for the guys, summer re-runs are over, it’s still a little early for Christmas shopping, and there is a countdown as this political season will finally, finally, finally come to an end. We hope. Please no recount. Please no demonstrations in the streets.
Will it even be possible to go back to truth telling after this year? Nobody I know is voting for anybody; they’re all just voting against somebody. Or writing in somebody on their ballot to avoid supporting either of the major candidates.
This didn’t just happen overnight. Language has become so contorted and morals so blurred that culpability seems almost quaint.
Once upon a time there was a certain sense of right and wrong, good and bad, integrity and ethics, that was pretty basically understood by most people in American society and was the foundation of our country. Now in accommodating everything, we’re inconclusive about our values. Blurring those lines has created a whole new set of speech that further obscures what is being communicated.
Perhaps taking the sting out of pejoratives is meant to show tolerance. But instead it creates mush out of strong convictions. No wonder we have breakdowns in communication. What is everybody saying with this verbal mumbo jumbo? Free speech is clear speech backed by reason. We’re becoming prisoners of our own psychobabble.
So go get your mask for Halloween. This year you can get away with saying just about anything with your disguise. I’m not exaggerating. Everybody’s masquerading.
