They used to say, ‘One swallow doesn’t make a summer,’ but perhaps we need to revise that to say that ‘three swallows definitely does’, because three totally disconnected outbursts by people in the public eye losing their cool has been heralded as The ATTACK OF INCIVILITY. I hear the Vice President is so vexed he is seriously considering creating a new Department of Homeland Civility. These attacks threaten to ruffle the national fabric of American niceness.
It has started a veritable plague of Op Eds and talk back shows decrying the outbreak of some sort of social malaise that might now spread like the swine flu. We are all to receive vaccinations of good manners. But if one steps back for just a moment, one sees that this is totally absurd.
Three people getting flu doesn’t make an epidemic of anything. Three elderly people died yesterday but how come we have no headline, “National Outbreak of Old People Dying.” Because celebrity and bad manners is a gift to a stale news cycle exhausted with all the bad news on Health and Wealth. and shows us that at least someone is venting. Given what the economy is doing, who wouldn’t want to scream? Perhaps the real story is how civil we still are to politicians and bankers and mortgage brokers, after all the mess they have got us into.
Congressman Wilson shouts “You Lie” and becomes the hero and villain of a comic opera. The second act features his unapologetic apology that he made because “they told me to make the call.” Will Rogers used to say that if you introduced truth into politics, you would kill it. In Australia, calling a Prime Minister a Liar is a tautology. And in other parts of the world with a more robust Parliamentry system, calling a speaker a liar is an insult to the person who yells it, being a sign of his political illiteracy. You have to finesse -”Sir- What you say is not a lie but nor is it objectively correct” or “You have the facts but you are twisting them into a spaghetti of the truth,” or even reprise the old Bushism “Fuzzy Maths,” but not the brazen “You Lie.” At least his was an honest outburst revealing he didn’t have to think hard about it.
When you translate most of political speak uttered by opponents, it means,’You lie.” So what is the fuss? Did someone tear up the Constitution? Is this the death knell of the Health Care reform? In fact, has Congressman Wilson ever said anything else in the House that anyone remembered? This is his five minutes of fame, so let him bask in it. It won’t come as easy again, unless we read of a future exchange with the Speaker that might read: “Shut Up.” Congressman Wilson explained.
And then there is tennis. Oh for the days of John McEnroe when abusing umpires, throwing racquets at ball boys and screams of “You must be joking” were part of the entertainment. Tennis loved to hate the bad boy. And now, its all become so nice, so Wimbledon and strawberries. Thank you Sarina for livening up the contest. Outbreak of incivility? She is playing in the American Open, so its not a tea party. At least some raw emotion is easier to tolerate than interminable grunts that come with every backhand. Get a grip people.
And the MTV awards? Kanye West dared to publicly endorse the loser, not the winner. Oh well, at least it wasn’t another Superbowl fashion mishap. But if this is the final nail in the coffin of civility, then the media are struggling for that third shoe to fall. Someone abuses the President, yes- a famous Tennis star loses her cool, OK, and then, a video star upstages the winner. Oh, yes, one can see a very definite trend. Its so clear. Mothers, shield your children.
What becomes clear in narrative analysis is not the story, but ” the story of the story” which exposes all this drama as nothing more than a beat up. Three events get co-opted into one melodrama-driven story line that becomes the starting point for public conversations about the decline and fall. Everyone swallows it. No one calls it out as bogus.
As I wrote in my book “The Presidential Plot” on the 2008 elections, this story pattern of “Decline and Fall” is a story that writes itself. Its part of a lazy story cycle, not a news cycle. Obama has been riding high for 7 months, and that story has become a little tired, so in the next 12 months, the media will be obsessed with “Has Obama lost his Mojo?” and that will write itself until Christmas. No one need do real news. Then, we have all next year leading to the mid terms for the media to ride the story of “Is Obama regaining his poise?” Stay tuned.
Its not written in the stars. Its just how stories work. The media are not about news. They are a story factory, a story industrial complex. (SIC) Rise and Fall is one of the stock in trades that they can dust off when three people get swine flu in Oregon, (Swine Outbreak hits Out West) or when the Red Skins lose their first three games, (Redskins haven’t Got it) or when Jay Leno’s first three shows don’t get rave reviews. (Leno Tanks) Funny how it has to be three events, but that is how stories work. Two events are a coincidence.You need three to declare a definitive trend.
So,watch for the next time when the media co-opt three unrelated things into their melodrama. Its a narrative sleight of hand.. And catch on to the series of lazy opinion driven pieces that declare the “The Decline and Fall” of anything. They have been running those stories since Plato. They are not news. They are simply old stories and storytypes being recycled. The Decline of Civility is one story that once had a use-by date around the 1600’s, a hundred years after Erasmus wrote his best seller on ‘Civility and Children.’ Welcome back. We missed you.