Cynicism of the Soul

It is now official. The African American culture and many people from numerous backgrounds in America have little in the way of a sense of humor. The ability to laugh at oneself and cultures within society has been challenged in the name of community standards. The big loser in this, other than Don Imus, is free speech.

We have witnessed commentary the likes of which are spoken in numerous art forms daily in the United States, yet over the past week the sheer hypocrisy of the players involved is stupendous. The biggest setback for everyone is the freedom of expression.

While the capitalist society has spoken and as it is suppose to function, the structure which supported Mr. Imus’ shows for nearly 40 years abandoned him in the name of political correctness. Being sensitive is one thing but railroading someone for their form of free speech is downright dangerous. You do not have to like or even listen to shows with shock jocks and talk-a-lots like Imus. Every receiver has an off button and a selector with which to change the channel. To silence voices because of what they utter is Un-American.

It is unfortunate that those who took action in denouncing the type of programming on the Don Imus program were many of the same people who became rich or richer because of the likes of him.

The knee jerk reaction is emblematic of something far deeper. That is the desire from certain factions of society to control other people no matter what freedom it may cost us all. The autonomy to express oneself is essential in this country and the very foundation from which our rights flow. You may not like what someone says but you should be defending the right to have someone say it freely. That is not to say that there should be no repercussions from utterances that are offensive. As a matter of fact capitalism is the secondary factor that has driven Mr. Imus from the airwaves. The first is political correctness. Those who inflict standards based upon political correctness are like minded thinkers who essentially lynched Mr. Imus this week.

In this case that is the market place at work. Bravo on the evidence that the free market, which is the backbone of American culture, is still responsive to the people. Capitalism wins. However the notion of censorship of speech, even offensive speech is truly anti-civil rights. Today the minority rules and the majority out o gutlessness accommodate such ridiculousness toward overt sensitivity. The desire to avoid being called a racist has driven the heart of America to bizarre lengths, without questioning the motives of those doing the labeling. Doing so incurs further deceitful practices of those handing out the racist label; in essence creating a catch 22.

It is time that all cultures learn to laugh at themselves and stop taking every utterance so seriously. There are major issues on the horizon and here we banter about being harmed by someone else’s speech: ridiculous! The bombs which are falling right now, we are hurling at ourselves because of such super sensitivity. For some that process is lucrative and hails from pure cynicism of the soul.

Every culture has had major hurdles in this country when it comes to their ethnicity and melting into the American way of life. Every group has been looked down upon, held back, prejudiced against spit upon, and made to feel inferior by a majority with seniority. Most have learned how to laugh through such situations to cope, and assist in overcoming invectives hurled at those segments. The African American culture still has not come to grips with learned how to find humor in their own culture when someone other than a person of color says something viewed as insulting.

The current melee has not advanced the banner of civil rights. It has actually set it back decades, by once again pointing out how African Americans are victims. In all of the coverage of the Rutgers Basketball team/ Imus incident never once did the media show us the insulted Caucasian girls on the team; only the African-Americans. Were the white girls not victimized along with the blacks? African-American culture that lends itself to victim-hood hands over incredible power to others when someone else’s words no matter how distasteful “hurt them”. A sense of humor negates victim-hood. The leadership in African-America should learn to laugh.