I don’t do fluff. I don’t say it, I don’t write it,
and I don’t like it when someone sends fluff in my direction. One of my
professors once called the phenomenon “blowing bubbles.” As in, “Ellen was
blowing bubbles at me the whole damn time and we didn’t get anywhere.”
Over the years there were plenty of people who
thought I was rude. I don’t see it that way: rudeness is being crass or
deliberately offensive. The refusal to blow bubbles means that I cut through
the crap and tell it like it is so that we, whoever we may be, a) are on the
same page and b) can see things for what they are instead of floating off into
the wonderland of subtext and hidden meanings.
The farce and the tragedy that plays out when people
don’t see what’s right in front of them is the basis for many movies. Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine is a fine example: Jasmine is intentionally oblivious
to the fraud that her husband Hal commits because Hal finances her expensive
lifestyle until one day she discovers his extramarital affair, rats him out to
the authorities and loses everything when the guy commits suicide in prison.
It’s hard not to think of all the people affected by
the Madoff Ponzi scheme after watching that film – some no doubt had no idea
and simply trusted Madoff with their money; others, notably his tech employees,
did know what went on but chose to stay silent and comfortable until everything
went to hell. [1]
The Madoff family paid dearly for the failure to ask tough questions: one son
committed suicide two years after the scandal broke open; the second son
succumbed to a cancer relapse.
The 2015 movie Spotlight
is about The Boston Globe’s investigation into the child molestation cover-up
by the Boston Archdiocese. What Spotlight
makes clear about the scandal is that it went on for decades in large part
because nobody had the courage to dig in and say “Something’s not right.” The
leadership of the diocese moved priests to different parishes, the faithful didn’t
want to challenge the clerics because they wanted to believe these were good
men, and law enforcement did not want to get involved in a religious community’s
matters.
And so it goes. Financial fraud, child abuse,
infidelity, corruption and lately, breath-taking political scandals – these
things don’t happen in a vacuum. They happen because we’ve gotten comfortable
with people blowing bubbles at us: we think that someone else will stand up and
say the right thing, someone else will write that angry letter to a senator,
someone else will pen a critical op-ed. But that’s not how reality works. And
that’s why I’ve written more than a few letters to my elected representatives
with exhortations against supporting recent executive orders. I can only hope
that they are paying attention.
[1] Fishman,
Steven . “Ponzi Supernova”. Audible. http://www.audible.com/mt/ponzisupernova.
Last accessed on 23 February 2017.
1 comment:
I began your article with the idea that you were just as you described yourself; rude, crass, and deliberately offensive. I have now completed your article. Except for my belief that there are exceptions to situation, I would agree with you completely.
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