Passivity, Authority, and Cynicism

Primordial Slack ^ | 10/24/2009 | Joan Varga

[JoanVarga]

We were invited to a church group picnic today to meet friends of our son and his wife. Amidst the fun and food, the D.I.L. trots out baby pics of my son that she had gleefully pounced on as we were still unpacking at the house. Paul's friends were amazed to see proof of his wittle, cute wittle, vulnerable self as a mere babe and toddler.

One young dad said to me, "It's really something to see pics of him so little and cute, because anyone will tell you that when Paul walks into a room, the testosterone level jumps up off the scale. He just brings such a sense of his own manliness with him, we're all impressed."

I secretly glowed with pride at such high praise that reflected so well on his father: The Authority. The Man. The Do-er. The One Who Will Not Be Bullshitted.

Back to today. Well, actually, to yesterday, as I went with my darling D.I.L. to visit the home of some nearby neighbors for the purpose of checking on the elderly matriarch to see if all was well. The home reeked of human grunge and little cockroaches were hatching before my eyes while the D.I.L. was sweetly speaking with the old woman. I kept a wary eye on the varmits, and on the other people in the home. The old woman's son was there, as well. As was a grandson or great-grandson. Men were in this house.

But Authority was not.

That home reeked of a passivity and lack of anyone ever taking charge, ever manning up enough to even just vacuum the carpet. It reeked in a spiritual sense that I could not ignore even in my stubborn resistance to enter into that particular attitude of involvement.

There was a poverty of action. Men, totally robbed of any desire. . . no, robbed of even the knowledge of What To Do. No authority, just a passive acceptance of what had been handed to them from whomever raised them. It is the saddest thing you can imagine. And it made me angry at the government class-mongering politicians that robbed these men of even the knowledge of What To Do in their own home. Men without a clue.

*****

The pernicious passivity that plagues so many of our menfolk, from Obama to my neighbors, reeks of a decay that eventually reaches the physical senses after it has eaten away the moral ones. The inability to act; to clean a pot, sweep a floor, or, if you will, send troops in support of our international obligations or enforce a deadline, is a passivity that will not bring peace to a home or a nation; indeed, it will bring death. A parent that will threaten but not follow through is setting up a negative result that redounds to their disinclination and their passive-- or just plain lazy-- attitude toward any challenge.

It leaves a person or a people open to the lightest winds of change as double-minded polarities of inaction lessen the pull of a gravitational center. We risk becoming lighter than air in a turbulent, troubled political atmosphere. Which makes for easy target practice for more single-minded men of action as we drift and bump along toward. . . wherever.

Cynical Passivity. Just say no.

If you read here you most likely have not given up or in to willful passivity. However, our particular challenge is to not become worthlessly cynical. Yes, it's true: all your wise cynicism will not buy you a cup of coffee. Lily Tomlin once famously said, "I try to be cynical, but it's hard to keep up." That's how it feels today. It is sooo tempting to just crack wise amidst the blurring chaff of so many national emergencies and the onslaught of the Nanny State directives. But you know full well that your old Dad (meant to include any parent who understands the nature of authority) would kick your ass for not caring about your Duty, because he had the Authority to move you from your place of complacency; he was no politician to be bribed, but a Reckoner and a Righter of Wrongs.

My task today is to provoke a bit of encouragement; to remind myself and perhaps you, dear reader, that we musn't grow weary in our vigilance. The temptation to cynical passivity is just as damaging as the enervating and hopeless situation of those who long ago heard the siren call of, "just let someone else take care of it. " Well, "someone else" is a hireling who cares less for your concerns than you do. "Someone else" is a politician, after all, to be bought and directed by men of action.

And now we have elected a man who refuses to enact the authority placed in him, fecklessly still voting "present" as though just showing up entitles him to accolades and considerations; who whines that nobody else is "mopping up the mess" because somewhere in his training, he was conditioned to let somebody else take care of things, thinking himself above or below the pay grade of any certain action. It stinks. It offends the senses and sensibilities of grown-ups everywhere.

Never forget how bad passivity reeks or the vermin it breeds. I certainly can't, even after just a few minutes in the anarchy of a home without active authority, I felt the need to thoroughly wash my mind and nostrils of the residual stench.

And the unforgettable sight of the little hatchling cockroaches headed toward my feet?. . . Not in my house. Not in my country. Not in our future.

Get up. Get out. Get loud. Get heard.

[JoanVarga]

. . . Not that Freepers need any encouragement to act!