TIRED? BORED?—WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT??

By Edwin Cooney

So, you’re tired of so many things because they irritate you? Me, too!

Perhaps people get on your “last good nerve” on a daily basis.

People are invariably tired of politics, self-righteous religious types, secular human materialists, sports figures and movie stars (who are making more money than any “working man or woman!”). We’re tired of the “filthy corporate rich" and the “clinging expectant poor.” Yet the ramifications of a society without any one of these types of people could be disquieting!

Of course, really well paid working men and women would inevitably drive up prices, while the absence of those self-righteous religious types could mean that no one really believes in anything anymore -- certainly an alarming event in human affairs. Elimination of secular human materialists might well mean that we live in a theocracy rather than a democracy and that could be seriously detrimental to individual liberty. As for the absence of highly paid sports and movie stars, that could well mean that you and I simply don’t have enough money to pay for entertainment! Without the rich we’d be robbed of our self-justified envy! Without the poor we’d lose our sense of superiority!

As for politicians (yes, indeed, I deliberately saved them for last), the truth is that you and I wouldn’t be free without them! Can you name me a free society without politicians?

The problem, as I see it, is not really the existence or prosperity of any of the above. The problem is the vulnerability of our individual mind-sets to angry negativism. Some might argue that the real problem is the aging mind.

As we grow up, most of us are inculcated with a standard of values nurtured by the protective cocoon of our families, friends, teachers, and by our religious faith. We learn of what our country has done best along with the best characteristics of our founders minus even the slightest suggestion that they (or the nation they founded) consisted of fallible human beings. Then comes life experience and, after three or four decades of traumas both experienced and witnessed, our ideals are inevitably punctured (if not torn asunder) by reality, which, unlike most idealism, is neither consistent nor logical. Thus, as the result of chronic irritation, we often find ourselves losing our trust in almost everything if not in almost everyone.

Just the other day I received a message from someone who is exceedingly irritated by my continuing support of President Obama. His anger was filled with incredulity. It was personal more than it was logical or editorial. He seems to believe that Obama supporters consider the president to be “saintly” or above criticism. Perhaps he’s right; we may be as bad as today’s GOP which looks in vain among its presidential candidates for President Reagan.

What happens to too many of us, as I see it, is that we unconsciously grant too much power to those who differ with us politically, religiously, or even in the entertainment field -- especially sports. We seek constant reinforcement of our feelings, conclusions and beliefs. We make “nations” out of such realms as political talk show hosts and sports franchises. Thus we have phenomena such as “The Savage Nation” (talk show host Michael Savage), “Red Sox or Yankee Nation” (major league baseball), and
“Raider Nation" (NFL football).

These days, it seems that everything we love we sanctify with nationhood while anything that differs or opposes our views we consider at least emotionally treasonous!

Much of this, as I see it, has to do with the culture war that I personally detest so much. What neither side in this culture war grasps is how much it needs the other side. What would be the value of political Conservatism if there were no Liberalism? What would we Americans do if we didn’t have a world threat to protect against? Could labor do without management or management without labor? Even more unsettling: could there be right without wrong?

Perplexing and even irritating as all of these questions are, it does get old after a while, doesn’t it?

The evaluation of people, institutions, and events is essential to who we are -- painful, unsettling and emotionally fatiguing as that may be. Still, we could do ourselves a huge favor if we could consciously restrain the harshness of our criticism of one another and, with a little more frequency, grant each other the benefit of the doubt. Even more, we might even do ourselves a favor if we eased up on the tendency to take ourselves as seriously as we do.

Hey! Wait just a moment there! What are you pointing at me for? I have to take myself seriously. After all, I’m a columnist, aren’t I? Aren’t I?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY