PittsburghThoughts

Shock Therepy,

 

Nothing shocks us anymore. Are there any recent scandals or malfeasance that we can't accept with cynical resignation? Personally, I'd be shocked to read that something was done by our government on the people's behalf. Bush extending jobless benefits certainly qualifies as shocking news until you consider his legacy and his last minute need to pad it a bit. 

 

Could that be why the use of tasers ("Don't tase me bro!") has escalated? Call it the need to be shocked, jolted out of our lethargy, out of our mediocre mind sets, jolted back to the real world of consequence and pain.

 

What's new about consequence and pain? Aren't they inescapable universal truths? No, not when people can become fabulously wealthy through their audacity, or through their disregard of: employees, customers, and civic responsibility. Today, the consequences aren't guilt and shame as one might expect, but adulation and reward.

 

Who killed the electric car? How can we allow CEOs to haul away truckloads of cash as compensation for mediocre performance? How much do hate merchants Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Shawn Hanitty and a host of others have squirreled away? Millions? Billions? Boastful pride has supplanted shame and we're not shocked. Shock has outlived its usefulness in our society. It's become the dodo bird of emotion. As Alberto Gonzales might say, It's become quaint.

 

I say bring back righteous indignation, shock and outrage. I say line them up and taser their asses. Bush, Cheney, Rummy and the rest. Tase them until they are ready to admit what shitheads they have been, until they promise to go and sin no more. Tase them until WE are shocked, shocked by the cruelty inherent in some men, until we become as cruel towards them as they have been towards the world and on our dime, doing the "peoples" business.    Gene