georgia on my mind…
When I was a kid, I always had a sort of paradoxical reaction to old people. In the 60’s, the worst possible thing to be was "over thirty" – stodgy, conventional, scared, reactionary. Then, when we all started getting older, we just pushed the ceiling up to accomodate our aging – "over forty" and so on. But from my perspective, I liked the over sixty over seventy set. They didn’t have as much passion, tended to put things in context. They’d say, "Yeah, I remember when F.D.R. blah blah." I liked that. There was a humility in old age that I envied. It’s easier to admit you’re wrong when you’re old…
Well, now I am there, and I don’t feel so wise or as humble as I thought those old folks were. The only thing I do notice is that I don’t like silly fights that go on and on as much as I used to, like the one between the Washington Post’s Jim Brady/Deborah Howell and the bloggers, noteably a favorite – Firedoglake. The "Brady Bunch" did a boo-boo, now a boo-hoo. They fell for Republican "spin" and got called on it. I don’t know if they did it on purpose or it was something else.
The "something else" would be like happened to every white male in North America in the seventies and eighties. No matter how hard one tried, or how hard you worked for the "Cause," somebody was going to point out your unconscious racism or your male chauvinism on a nearly daily basis. The only defense possible was to memorize an increasingly complex lexicon of politically correct things to say, or retreat into a Sports Bar and lick your wounds, or listen [perish the thought] because many of the confrontations were true – even if they were driven be an equally powerful prejudice. Then you can come back and stay the course instead of whining forever in self-righteous obsolescence…
Brady and Howell got called on something, and it was a real something: Big-Time Spin, taken hook, line, and sinker. Their response was ultra-defensive. The attack reached "yippie" level, and Jim Brady is still explaining himself by attacking the entire blogsphere with all his might. It’s not pretty, and it’s boring. I’d suggest going to a Sports Bar for a while; licking your wounds until you get a little perspective; and coming back a little wiser [and a little older]. Right now, your attempts at defense prove your critic’s point in spades – even if some of your points are mildly correct. An ‘eye-for-an-eye’ is rarely pretty [or effective].
It’s called losing, and it’s okay…
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