I can't see faulting the others for it. That seems like political point-scoring in itself. It is not just a superstition that one should not speak ill of the dead. It is a civilising act, and when we face it in our private lives it is often good for us. We try to sum up, as best we can, what was good about people. In so doing, we sometimes discover things we had forgotten or had not thought of - good things we had failed to praise. We should take care not to be so ready to praise that we make things up, as I wrote previously. We can't swap in a eulogy of an imaginary person. But we can make a good effort.
Forgetfulness will be part of this for all of us, as it always is of the dead. Most either have or will forget they ever said the horrible things, or will forget they said nice things now and revert to form. Even among those who generally approved of him there will be some things they did not agree with, or were even furious about. Yet there will be some who will have the cognitive dissonance of trying to resolve the two, and it will be good for
Respectfully disagree. Jim Geraghty had a rather long catalog of these yesterday, including examples of marked shifts in tone depending on whether it was more useful to praise or attack Senator McCain, depending on the situation, during his life. These were not offhand or ill-considered remarks that might have been subjected to second thoughts, and remarks now are not generic praise nor generally indicate any remorse for prior insults. They are calibrated to be passive-aggressive shots in ongoing political warfare.
ReplyDeleteThe patterns are perfectly clear.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the "it's not personal, it's just business." Do the slimers actually hate the people they lie about? I suppose you can always work yourself up into a "Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia" if you try hard enough, but it is probably easier to just think of it as "business." Like someone who would "walk over my own grandmother."
As long as the manipulatees hate well enough and long enough to keep your people in power, that's all that really matters. Maybe you really do love your grandmother and admire McCain, but the party uber alles.