Has Absurdity Become the Fabric of Our Lives?

Post date: Nov 2, 2017 1:44:13 PM

The dictionary defines absurd as “completely unreasonable or illogical; ridiculous.” We are living in an era of the absurd. If you doubt this, just check out the internet or mainstream news media. (Sara Palin has very correctly referred to it as the “lame stream” news media.) Much of what is passed off there as “news” is actually political propaganda and sensationalized entertainment. We are being sold ideas through the mainstream news media, internet, television entertainment, movies and even sports events, but many of these ideas are absurd.

Dr, Charles Mackay published his book, now known as Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, in 1841. He said, “Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.”

I agree with Mackay's statement that “every age has its peculiar folly,” but ours has it in abundance. And, yes, the motives are “the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.” We live in an age of emotionalism and trendiness as well as absurdity. Genuine, honest thought has been replaced with feel- good nonsense embraced by mobs who sometimes express themselves through violence.

I recently came across Ann Coulter's book, Demonic. The subtitle is “How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America. You might say that the framework of her book is the work of a French physician, scientist, and social psychologist, Gustave Le Bon, who, as Coulter put it, “perfectly captured the liberal psychological profile in his 1896 book, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind.”

She tells us that “his ground breaking book, The Crowd, paints a disturbing picture of the behavior of mobs. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini used his book to learn how to incite a mob.

According to Coulter, “all the characteristics of mob behavior set forth by Le Bon in 1896 are evident in liberalism ----simplistic, extreme, black and white thinking, fear of novelty, inability to follow logical arguments, acceptance of contradictory ideas, being transfixed by images, a religious worship of their leaders, and a blind hatred of their opponents.” She gives numerous examples of these characteristics of absurdity in her book. It is well worth reading.

So, has absurdity truly become the fabric of our lives? You be the judge. I posed the question this way because of a slogan of the cotton industry: “Cotton: the fabric of our lives” and recent statement of offense by someone encountering cotton decor products in a store and being upset about that. I'm sure it didn't stop the individual from wearing clothes that day.

It's interesting to me that some individuals can find racism at every turn, and in the most innocent and mundane things. It's even more interesting to me that such absurdity is given the time of day.

The Apostle Paul's words in the first chapter of the Book of Romans, in the Bible, have certainly come to pass: “Professing to be wise, they've become fools....” Why does America suffer such fools?

Another example of such foolish absurdity is the current controversy concerning NFL players refusing to stand for our national anthem in protest supposedly of racial mistreatment of minorities by police. Seems to me they are painting with a very broad brush. Most police officers are honorable men and women doing a very difficult job. From what I've observed, they have received much more undeserved and unfair mistreatment than any minorities have. Maybe it's time for certain sanctimonious NFL football players to lose the chip on their shoulder. I'm not impressed in any good way by grown men being paid millions of dollars to play a sport who are whining about how oppressed they are as a minority. How ridiculous!

One of the characteristics of mob mentality given in LeBon's book is a religious worship of their leaders. Colin Kaepernik, who started this nonsense, has been canonized by some NFL players as the great shining example of fighting racism.

What I see there is a shining example of ingratitude and ignorance. He was adopted into a loving family and a comfortable middle class home. He was given the opportunity to rise to the top of his profession and make millions of dollars as he was idolized by millions of people.

This was all possible because he lives in a country where veterans paid for his freedom, some with their lives, and he has the audacity to disrespect them. Shame on him and all those who admire and support him and his fellow players who continue his cause. Do they think that they would have the opportunities they have in other countries. If so, go. I for one won't watch their games. I won't buy their merchandise and kudos to those who don't as well. It's time to send a message: We don't support the absurd.

Lastly, since there's no shortage of the absurd, most recently California has legally made a third gender, while The Boy Scouts of America are trying to do away with gender all together by inviting girls to join. (This even though there's already a girl scout organization in existence.) By the way, do we call them Boyl Scouts now?

Have we become so inundated with the absurd that we hardly even notice any more? Cotton is the least of our concerns, because absurdity has become the fabric of our lives.