Reduction in Ugly: By the time this gets posted the excruciating presidential campaign will be over. If there was anything heartening about it, it was that a majority of people in were as uninterested as I was and generally didn’t vote or at least put off their decision until the last minute. Can you blame us?
Statistically speaking, the probability that you encountered a political conversation that was anything more than people spewing venous op-eds at each other approached zero. Otherwise kind, good-natured people seemed ready to get behind a pogrom against their neighbors over a simple disagreement.
“McCain gives tax cuts to Exxon” and “Obama is a Socialist” are specious, scurrilous tactics designed specifically to appeal to people who have no capacity for critical thinking. Did you believe one and not the other? You qualify as a slovenly thinker. Your politician of choice holds you in contempt to manipulate you like that. He probably even felt ashamed to do it, but your ignorant vote still counted so he figured he had no choice.
All those bumper stickers and lawn signs -- have any of those ever changed anyone’s mind? No, they are an act of self-definition for people of shallow character. They are the Gucci bags and Red Sox caps for the morally self-righteous. The people behind them really don’t know the complex details about issues, they are responding to a brand. It is a mutant form of tribalism.
Every ugly aspect of humanity was out there on display and even celebrated, and so only the ugly got involved. It is a wonder we survive. Here’s to a three year reduction in ugly.
