I’ve made the acquaintance on another website of a woman who uses the pen name “Unbreakable” here on Open Salon.  I have never met her, but judging from her writing both here and at the other place, she appears an intelligent, witty, and temperate woman.

That impression was reinforced in my mind this morning when I read her entry entitled "Have We All Gone Mad as Hell?"  I encourage everyone who hasn’t read it yet to do so after (he asked immodestly) finishing what’s currently on your OS plate—this entry.

I have written with some consistency since I first entered the Blogosphere about the death of manners, not just on the Internet, but in social intercourse as a whole.  I have long maintained that it is the continual erosion of civility that will cause the eventual downfall of Western society.  We will crumble from within like so many of our precursors; when we cease to treat our fellow humans with respect and gentility, we have already taken the first steps on the road to perdition.

In the past, I have offered my opinions elsewhere on public policy issues and politics in general.  I tried to offer reasonable comments backed up by relevant data where possible.  My thoughts were mine; if you held a contrary view, that was, and remains, your right.

I don’t do political commentary anymore.  (And by “political” I mean it in its broadest sense.)  I found that by writing entries of that ilk, I a) won the adulation of folks whose position was similar to mine, for the perspicacity I showed in agreeing with them, b) invited varying degrees of excoriation from those I had the temerity to disagree with, and c) never changed anyone’s mind, as near as I can tell.  Besides, even if I did change one person’s mind, what ultimate good did it do?  Nothing.  One man cannot drown out the roar of the ocean.

“Unbreakable” is right:   there are plenty of things in life to get mad about.  She is also right that there is far too much outrage being expressed, on the Internet and in the world at large.  In these times of rapidly expanding technology, many have gotten the mistaken notion that life is infinitely perfectible.  When conditions are something less than optimal from the point of view of a particular observer, it is an outrage.  When an outrage needs improving, the best way to get that accomplished is through anger, bullying, and threatening.

I blame this outlook on two things:  the “Crossfire” mentality of political talk shows to set the example, and the widespread availability of the Internet to provide a forum for Everyman’s voice.  When engaging in a debate, the louder you are, the more snidely insulting, the more profane, the more passion you exhibit, the more convincing and entertaining you will become.  There’s a reason why thoughtful, patient, and agreeable Charley Rose is on Public Broadcasting System in the middle of the night, while Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Sean Hannity, and Rachel Maddow occupy prime-time slots on their networks.  Conversation doesn’t sell anymore, but extreme positions, snide sarcasm, pompous self-righteousness, and reflexive intolerance does—in spades.

Now, the Internet provides everyone an open mike shot at stardom.  As a late sportscaster acquaintance of mine used to say, “Opinions are like gasholes; every miner’s got one.”  Blog founders like Markos Moulitsas, Arianna Huffington, Michelle Malkin and others have achieved fame, glory, and some amount of fortune, so why can’t you?  And how do you get noticed?  By being louder, more abrasive, and more outrageous than the competition.

There is a post featured on the front page of this site that calls the President of the United States a criminal and a fraud, and equates him in certain respects with war criminals like Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.  The author accomplishes this with a liberal dose of YELLING and some vile but all too common vulgarities.  Civil discourse?  The farthest thing from it.  But it’s one of the most viewed entries on the site.

As for me, I have no aspirations to fame and glory.  I’ve retired my soapbox and hung up my pot-stirring spoon.  I’m too old and too tired, and maybe just a little too wise, to waste my time there anymore.  It accomplishes nothing constructive.  I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.

Instead, I’m wandering the meadows and prairies of Open Salon, writing and reading poetry, short fiction, and personal memoirs.  If you’re looking for me, that’s where you’ll find me.  If you like the political mudwrasslin’, please—don’t let me stop you.  Enjoy yourself.

But the name-calling, the incivility, and the echo-chamber arguments aren’t for me.

Are they really for you?

© 2009, Kenneth M. Rhodes