Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Reasonable Man and Radical Nothing
It appears that a new phenomena has emerged in the webs of discourse amongst citizens of free nations. I attribute it to years of bogus schooling, charlatan journalism and a flaccid life philosophy dispensed through shoddy entertainment venues.
In pre-baby-boomer times it seemed that most people held convictions; sometimes strong ones, sometimes less fervent. Often issues and events called for a passionate stance but issues that were neither life or death would often elicit the reasonable response – a noncommittal, dispassionate “take no sides” adaptability. It was reasonable to be reasonable.
The role of the reasonable person today has devolved into something neither reasonable or marked by great conviction, a sort of radical nothing. Ironically, this muddy soup of non-conviction is spouted -- fervently -- as something held with...great conviction.
Daily one can find conversation, sound bites, and proclamations that reveal allegiance to no one or nothing, but stated with self-righteous certainty and passion. A pride in one's empathy for dictators and derision of all that has been done to the ends of family, nation and liberty is felt by some to be a sort of middle of the road non alliance. Within all this dogma there is an implied but subtle shield that proclaims the espouser is somehow taking no side.
When I hear one state with passion their lack of allegiance to anything of substance or moral value I typically sense that they feel they've reached some pinnacle of awareness. In short, nothing actually drives their feigned adaptability more than simple arrogance; the desire to be seen as having risen above petty concern for things like moral clarity or choosing good over evil. Of course such dichotomies are viewed to no longer exist anyway (at least since Nietzsche).
Perhaps its a genuinely new thing (at least to our era) to plant one's values so deeply in mere mist, but there's nothing new about stupidity or arrogance. Being “reasonable” and “seeing the other side” of an issue can be just and objective. But the contemporary prevalence of less sincere stances are certainly no way to support a family, nation or sober world view.
What more could authoritarian regimes and ideologies hope for from a civilization in decline and an expanding population of those who now believe so strongly...in nothing.
