 |
| Source:Rob Logan- Part of George Carlin's 1990 Doin it Again |
Source:Rob Logan
This is one thing that I agree with George Carlin, except for the racial component of it: all Americans regardless of race, ethnicity, color, etc, engage in this overly-flattering language, but his basic premise is definitely correct.
This also gives a couple of questions: who do these people who believe that other people need to be protected from hearing the cold, hard truth about themselves actually believe that they're protecting? Aren't they aware that trying to protect people from hearing the actual negative truth about themselves, is a form of bigotry? I'm not a fan of President George W. Bush and rare if ever do I ever quote him, but what Carlin calls soft language is actually is part of the soft bigotry of low expectations: that you have to lower your standards so some Americans can actually succeed. And in this case you have to hide the truth to protect other people's feelings.
The only way that people can ever approve at anything especially the people who have real weaknesses and issues, is to first know what the hell is wrong with them and where they're coming up short: except perhaps for short people, or am I supposed to say little people, because somehow short people is now offensive. If you don't know what your weaknesses are, how you supposed to correct them?
You take your car into the shop for repairs and you think the problem with the car is a low battery, when really the engine is rusting out and you tell your mechanic it's the battery and don't bother to look at anything else: sure, your battery might be fixed, but what about the rusted engine? And besides, if your mechanic is a professional, they'll probably look at your entire car anyway to see why the car isn't running properly anyway and then go about fixing the car or at least telling you what's wrong with your car: "Mr. Wilson, actually there's a big problem with your engine and we need to fix it before your car can run properly again. And we can fix your battery as well." You have to first know the truth about yourself, before you can fix what's wrong with you.
Explain to me how calling an obese person physically challenged or size deficient, help that person deal with their obesity and being fat: it sure as hell won't help them lose any weight, especially if they have some phobia about being obese and feel the need for people to be nice about their obesity. In a situation like that the obese person would probably be better off with someone who actually cares about them and their health getting in their face and telling them: "you're eating yourself to death, you pig!" Or even using some humor and saying: "their poor people who are starving right now, because you're taking too much food. You're not the only person on this planet who gets hungry: you just eat the most food."
And I'm not talking about using humor and being critical to put someone down, but to be constructive by showing the person their flaws and the consequences of them and them giving them an avenue they can take to improve. Insulting people to just get laughs, is not even funny unless you're an asshole who gets kicks out of people being put down. But using humor in a constructive way to show someone their flaws, but to help them improve can be very useful.
Feeling good and being good, are not the same things: athletes and teams lose sporting events all the time because they weren't prepared for their opponents. They thought they were much better than they actually were or their opponent wasn't nearly as good as they thought and lost the game, fight, match, whatever it might be, because they didn't do their homework and didn't play hard and well enough. You have to know where you are and where you stand in life, to know where you are and where you stand in life. Which sounds like the best example of stating the obvious in the history of the world and if that was Captain Obvious making that statement, the Captain would then get promoted to Major Obvious immediately.
But that doesn't make the truth lest truthful and less important. And using soft language to hide one's weaknesses, doesn't do a damn thing to help the person you claim to care about, because if anything those flaws will just grow, because the person isn't aware of their flaws and isn't doing anything to address them.
This also gives a couple of questions: who do these people who believe that other people need to be protected from hearing the cold, hard truth about themselves actually believe that they're protecting? Aren't they aware that trying to protect people from hearing the actual negative truth about themselves, is a form of bigotry? I'm not a fan of President George W. Bush and rare if ever do I ever quote him, but what Carlin calls soft language is actually is part of the soft bigotry of low expectations: that you have to lower your standards so some Americans can actually succeed. And in this case you have to hide the truth to protect other people's feelings.
The only way that people can ever approve at anything especially the people who have real weaknesses and issues, is to first know what the hell is wrong with them and where they're coming up short: except perhaps for short people, or am I supposed to say little people, because somehow short people is now offensive. If you don't know what your weaknesses are, how you supposed to correct them?
You take your car into the shop for repairs and you think the problem with the car is a low battery, when really the engine is rusting out and you tell your mechanic it's the battery and don't bother to look at anything else: sure, your battery might be fixed, but what about the rusted engine? And besides, if your mechanic is a professional, they'll probably look at your entire car anyway to see why the car isn't running properly anyway and then go about fixing the car or at least telling you what's wrong with your car: "Mr. Wilson, actually there's a big problem with your engine and we need to fix it before your car can run properly again. And we can fix your battery as well." You have to first know the truth about yourself, before you can fix what's wrong with you.
Explain to me how calling an obese person physically challenged or size deficient, help that person deal with their obesity and being fat: it sure as hell won't help them lose any weight, especially if they have some phobia about being obese and feel the need for people to be nice about their obesity. In a situation like that the obese person would probably be better off with someone who actually cares about them and their health getting in their face and telling them: "you're eating yourself to death, you pig!" Or even using some humor and saying: "their poor people who are starving right now, because you're taking too much food. You're not the only person on this planet who gets hungry: you just eat the most food."
And I'm not talking about using humor and being critical to put someone down, but to be constructive by showing the person their flaws and the consequences of them and them giving them an avenue they can take to improve. Insulting people to just get laughs, is not even funny unless you're an asshole who gets kicks out of people being put down. But using humor in a constructive way to show someone their flaws, but to help them improve can be very useful.
Feeling good and being good, are not the same things: athletes and teams lose sporting events all the time because they weren't prepared for their opponents. They thought they were much better than they actually were or their opponent wasn't nearly as good as they thought and lost the game, fight, match, whatever it might be, because they didn't do their homework and didn't play hard and well enough. You have to know where you are and where you stand in life, to know where you are and where you stand in life. Which sounds like the best example of stating the obvious in the history of the world and if that was Captain Obvious making that statement, the Captain would then get promoted to Major Obvious immediately.
But that doesn't make the truth lest truthful and less important. And using soft language to hide one's weaknesses, doesn't do a damn thing to help the person you claim to care about, because if anything those flaws will just grow, because the person isn't aware of their flaws and isn't doing anything to address them.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All relevant comments about the posts you are commenting on are welcome but spam and personal comments are not.