Why do so many folks seem to be running around with their hair on fire?
It’s like some sort of Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World condition has overtaken our culture. I remember growing up when our parents and their friends – on opposite sides of the political spectrum – could still joke about politics. And they didn’t seem to think their world was coming to an end when their side lost.
My parents were republicans, old school republicans. They had some dough, didn’t like being in those 70 to 90 percent tax brackets, but they didn’t lose it when JFK beat Nixon.
Oh, they gave it their best shot – campaign contributions and let people know who they thought was in the right. They also went to high society election parties – or hosted them – and nobody got beat up or black balled because they saw things in a different light.
And everybody lived to tell the story, or so it seemed.
Fast forward to today…
We live in a time where the sky-is-falling when the party of our choice takes an election night bullet. Everybody’s either cheating, or wish they had, when their side looses.
True confession: I voted for Trump – the first time almost as a lark. Like the times I voted for Ralph Nader. Even though as a “car guy,” most automotive enthusiasts thought of Nader as the Great Satin – an enemy of automotive fun. Making all those obnoxious, burdensome safety regs…the annoying seat belt buzzers people used to unplug or string their belts behind them and plug them in without actually wearing. Remember?
People tend not to like change, and I have to admit that it took me some time before I started putting my seatbelt on without feeling a little annoyed, Then again, most of my earliest cars were two seater convertibles, so I wasn’t exactly a safety nut – just a regular nut.
Back to my original point…
These days people seem hell bent on over overreacting to anything and everything. I feel sorry for my more liberal friends that have to put up with some of the crazy picks Trump is making. They’re besides themselves.
Am I missing something?
Yet after the past four years, even inanity seems refreshing.
Enter Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd with one possible explanation of why everything seems so extreme these days.
Cowherd was talking about the radical media takes on sports teams and players today. How mountains rise from molehills among the Jason Whitlocks of the world.
“You know what really cracks me up?” Cowherd began. “The media overreacts to everything. A lot of it is the media is so much younger today than it used to be. Companies now don’t have the money – especially traditional media. You know, so they’re going to get young and cheap in the media. So a lot of the media today is 31, 28 years old and their reaction to stuff is like, it never happened before.
“But that’s their life. I’ve been doing this so long now that – and believe me, this is not bragging – but I look at the media and I think, everything is cyclical. Everybody overreacts to everything. Everything, over time, either reemerges, emerges or returns to the mean. Take a breath, it’s all going to be okay.”
Cowherd’s a spry 60 – but still halfway hip. He’s not yet at the dreaded “get-off-my-lawn” age.
But I tell you – even though it’s been a few years – the younger hires at the Kansas City Star were of the wide-eyed temperament when they first broke in. I’m sure they’re all grizzled veterans now, the ones that still have jobs. And while clearly, I think they’re often hipper and funner, it takes a while to get all bent out of shape. Where you learn to take things in stride.
Doesn’t look like the “mainstream media” is ready for that yet.
The $64 billion question: Are we going to have to go through four more years of newsies totally losing it over every halfway “normal” things Trump does? Like banish men from women’s sports or remove tampons from young boys bathrooms?
Guess we’ll see…
