Fuck Civility

Civility: "formal politeness and courtesy in behavior or speech"

So, "formal"—some kind of ritual or dance.

And what's that word?—"courtesy"! What the fuck does that mean?

Courtesy: "the showing of politeness in one's attitude and behavior toward others"

Or more to the point: "polite, respectful, or considerate in manner."

And really more to the point: "having manners fit for a royal court".

See? It really means acting like a courtier, a person fit to be hanging with the king, instead of hanging the king, which is what a good republican (not the party, dumbass, the idea) should be doing.

Now, I have to say, with respect to full disclosure, I'm not a democrat or a republican (party or idea)—both sound pretty lame-brained to me—the majority of people are a dumb mob, who are not qualified to choose anything, including the elected representatives who will sell out their interests. Not only is democracy a questionable idea but, as we see continually, it doesn't work, at least not as piously advertised. The interests of poor people, for example, are left on drowning housetops in Katrina, while the interests of the rich and powerful (the smart people who own this system) get protected so they can keep collecting their billions.

After a week of televised, emphasized incivility, in other words a few celebrity moments of egotistical idiocy culled from the giant morass of rudeness which is modern American life, there are screaming meatheads questioning whether we need a "civility czar", to "enforce good mannered public behavior".

Of course I think that guy was trying to be funny, but as he points out, czaring problems is a favored White House approach, no matter what party is in charge of meting out social enforcements.

Well, let's look, individually, at the recent alleged offenders of civility and see if they really merit all this attention—especially in a country fighting wars all over the world—do you really think that's all that courteous an activity?

Joe Wilson—a couple of weeks ago this clown was a deservedly obscure member of the South Carolina US Congressional delegation, a fellow who loves his Confederate flags, the "honor" of the slave-owning Confederate States of America, and who probably wishes he could fire on Fort Sumpter again and get Act II of the Civil War rolling. Actually, in a way, that's just what he did. Most Republicans, many of whom absolutely despise the idea that a mulatto is President of the United States, generally accept the notion that the office of the Presidency rates some kind of formal (i.e., superficial) respect. Thus, during Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress about health care, they cheered or booed, but nobody shouted out the many awful things they think about Barack Obama. Nobody until Joe Wilson did it anyway. Right after Obama had gotten through explaining to Congress and the nation that Republican fear-mongering, like their stupid death-panel nonsense, was a pack of lies, Representative Wilson decided he needed to counterattack, and at Obama's next claim, that illegal aliens weren't going to benefit from his health care reform bill, Joe yelled out "You LIE!". As some people have pointed out, the word "boy" seemed to hang at the end of that charge, though I don't think anybody actually heard it. But given his Confederate sympathies, certainly Joe Wilson wouldn't have minded using the formal ending to address a person Wilson no doubt considers an embodiment of the folly of latter-day Reconstruction.

Now, Wilson apologized, it is true, in fact several times, and it is understandable he rapidly tired of having to do so, especially since he instantly created a new base of Obama-haters who absolutely love the fact he openly called the President a liar, especially in political church where he was supposed to keep his yap shut. I suspect they wish Wilson had thrown his shoes at Obama, or maybe worse, given all the guns these cretins are packing to Obama speeches. But Wilson now desperately needs these people, and their money, given the incredible amount of enmity he has created on the other side of things by opening his big mouth.

The questions we wish to look at are simple ones. Was Wilson being uncivil to the President, and if so, so what? As many people have rightly pointed out, the President isn't a king, so why does he automatically rate any unearned respect at all, especially if you think he's lying about something? On the other hand, the President is also head of state of the United States, which is supposed to carry with it an expectation of formal deference to the supposed dignity of the office, even if the person occupying the position is a horse's ass.

Unfortunately, we have had such a succession of horse's asses in the job for such a long time, people from both parties who have done an awful job (especially at being dignified), that most people can't understand why the office rates a drop of automatic respect from anybody. As we have heard repeatedly in defense of all kinds of rancid antics in the White House, the President is not a pope, and of course he isn't a king, and he shouldn't be (though Bush tried to be) a defender or pusher of any particular religion.

In fact, after Clinton and Bush, a good colloquial term for the President might be "First Dude". And Dudes might rate attention, depending on what craziness they're inflicting on the rest of us, but they certainly don't rate any automatic or unquestioning respect. These creeps we're installing (or tolerating) in the White House are not Washingtons or Lincolns or Roosevelts—they're people just like you—which is absolutely the source of the problem, as I'm sure you'll agree.

So, was it an act of incivility for Joe Wilson to yell "LIAR" at President Obama? I don't see how it could be, since the Congress is not the king's court, but a meetinghouse providing an opportunity for people to resolve conflicting views. Obama said the Republicans were liars. One of the alleged liars then called Obama a liar. Isn't that what you expect from your elected, paid-off, public representatives? Honesty and resolve and equal opportunity?

Next we have the psycho-bitchery of one, Serena Williams, she the bigger, badder side of the Williams Sisters act in professional tennis. When Serena was getting her big, bad ass thoroughly kicked by new mom Kim Clijsters (who had earlier beaten Serena's sister, Venus) in a semifinal of the US Open, Williams foot-faulted on a point, which in tennis is a bad thing. The foot-fault cost Williams a point, another bad thing, and Williams was having lots of bad things happen to her and, given that she had already been penalized for "abusing" her racket, she decided to go abuse the line judge who called the foot fault.

Now, the key point is that Williams later didn't dispute the call, in other words she admitted she had probably broken the rules and deserved the penalty. But that didn't matter. She was being made to look bad, mainly through her own ineptitude and of course through the good play of her opponent. But, why should Serena blame herself? Hey, that's bad for her self esteem, and everybody knows that celebrity self-esteem is protected under some amendment or something. So Williams told the judge, a diminutive woman, that she could stuff the ball down the judge's throat, among other colorful acts of violent retribution she allegedly threatened.

The judge got frightened, scampered over to the bigger judge, who called in other officials, and they once again penalized Serena a point, this time for being an uncivil jerk, and that point happened to be Match Point, meaning her opponent won on a penalty point, because Serena, like Joe Wilson, couldn't keep her fat stupid mouth shut.

Clijsters, who had really accomplished something, getting to the finals of the US Open, after entering the competition unranked, and coming back from a several-year retirement to be a mommy, was robbed of her moment of acknowledgement, because all people wanted to talk about was crazy Serena.

But again, was Serena Williams uncivil? And if so, so what?

Well, tennis without splutter and bloodshed is truly one of the most boring and stupid sports ever invented. Add a ranting asshole, like John McEnroe, or a psycho-bitch like Serena Williams, and you at least have a spark of humanity vitalizing a land of rich, robotic Borgians.

And, after all, it's a sport, you know entertainmentnot a joint session of Congress!

Speaking of entertainment, if there was ever an event which strives to elevate vulgarity and garishness over any consideration of civility, it's the MTV Video Music Awards Show. Now, true, it ain't what it used to be, a place where Eminem could hold hands with Elton John, and Madonna could share gum with Britney. Those fine moments in television aside, the MTV Awards Show is just another allegedly edgy event that glorifies the exploits of rich, often grotesquely arrogant and stupid, clowns. Who the hell, in any right mind they might allege to possess, would expect a pack of clowns on crack to care a whit about civility?

On the other hand, they do care a lot about and worship foolishness. Oh yeah. And let's face it, Kanye West is a god-damned fool. And that didn't just start the other night, when he grabbed the mike from Taylor Swift as she was accepting the Best Female Video award. West pointed out that an injustice had been committed, since clearly Beyoncé, who looked like she really had to agree with Kanye, had done one of the best videos ever, he claimed. The crowd started booing, just like they were supposed to, just they always do when the bad-guy character ambushes the good-guy character at a professional (i.e. fake) wrestling match.

And that's all American life is any longer—one unbelievably stupid narrative arc of a wrestling opera, complete with brutish bullying orcs, blustering about themselves, and oh also themselves, while kicking sand into some 98-pound weakling's face, like Taylor Swift's or the little line judge or even Barack Obama—the little, nuclear-armed, pansy-ass (who did however call West a "jackass").

After, the people look on, helplessly of course, until their public defenders, the noble meatheads of cable, ride forth to call our most saintly entertainers a pack of uncivil barbarians, and woe is us, what is the nation coming to? Blah...blah...blah. And everybody experiences another round of the two-minute indignation and then sucks their SOMA and goes back to work—if they're lucky enough to have a job.

Well distracted.

Meanwhile, a bomb in Afghanistan that you paid for tears a score of children to pieces.