History, as they say, is yesterday’s news. That being the case, I shudder to think about the history we are writing these days. Discussion and debate appear to have given way to something else entirely. The “F-bomb” appears to have replaced logic and reason as our society careens through the years.
Call it the Age of Rudeness.
Time was, if you wanted rude, crude and socially unacceptable, you could find it on The Jerry Springer Show and other daytime fare. They sought out folks who, in the end, just couldn’t get along. At one point or another, someone would carpet bomb the audience with four-letter words and leap out of his or her chair with the intention of pummeling someone else. A bouncer would have to intervene. It was all very entertaining, I suppose. More than 4,000 episodes were aired.
But these days, four-letter words have become commonplace even at the “highest” levels of debate in government and society in general. In fact, garden variety cursing has lost whatever effect it once had. We now see all sorts of four-letter words creeping into our conversation, entertainment and discussions. Many movies, television shows, podcasts, music, placards and novels are chock-full of all sorts of
words that once were reserved for
the locker room.
And it’s all to our detriment.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is there remain plenty of examples of books, movies and other entertainment that resist that base urge.
What brings this to mind is one of my favorite books. It wasn’t written by a great “author.” Rather, it was written
by a veterinarian. James Herriot – the pen name of Dr. James Alfred Wight. He revealed more about human nature than many philosophers. His series of semi-autobiographical books such as All Creatures Great and Small tells us more about ourselves than about the dogs, cats, horses and cattle he treated during his 50 years of practice in Yorkshire, England.
They are stories that anyone can enjoy, even if they are like me and have only a lukewarm relationship with most animals, even my own. (For those who want a taste of Herriot’s books, PBS has recently aired a new series based on them.)
Back to my point. Those books are filled with conflict and life-or-death situations. Yet you can scour them for four-letter words. You may find one or two but by and large the stories and the writing are empathetic and, most of all, enjoyable without being crass.
I’m not trying to say that Herriot is the best writer ever. Rather, I’m saying that he was reflective of a time and a society in which differences were generally worked out without rudeness. It was a time when people had the ability to disagree without being disagreeable.
There are a great many other books and movies that display the same level of civility and humanity. You’ll note that the vast majority weren’t written or made in the 21st Century.
Among my favorite movies are Chariots of Fire, On Golden Pond and that Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.
Again, all have conflict and life-or-death situations. And all resist the temptation to sink to the depths that are so common these days.
Jerry Springer would be disappointed.
Carl Sampson is a freelance writer and editor. He lives in Stayton.
