Day ten: No room for human beings in politics

I was going to hit on a few topics tonight, but the latest chapter of "gotcha politics" has turned my thoughts to a more serious condition that slowly is corroding the very fabric of our democracy.

Of course, I'm referring to Gerry Ritz's unfortunate attempt at humor made during a conference call regarding the lysteria outbreak coming to light.

Here's what really, really pisses me off.

1) Nobody can appreciate, even for a second, the incredible pressure people, particularly those with onerous responsibilities such as a minister in government, operate under when such a crisis hits. And everyone has their owns means of coping, not the least of which is a touch of some sort of humor to get people to lighten up if even for just a moment or two.

2) More disturbing to me, and to the principle upon which management in any situation rests, is that someone...who, please note, remains anonymous...betrayed the confidence of all involved in that call for what blatantly and patently was an opportunity to deliver a timely shot for purely political purposes guaranteed to have consequences to both the minister and the government. Someone who knew for certain that the media would run with this to wring out every last drop of blood, and milk every last possible headline.

3) Which brings me to the media.

Each and every day on this planet there are things going on, many of them horrendous, many more that are heart warming, all of it of consequence that anyone with even the slightest semblance of humanity or common sense would agree constitutes news that is important and relevant.

Nevertheless, be it here or even more spectacularly so in the US, the MSM, virtually without fail, will set all of that aside, and fill their headlines, their print, and the airwaves with endless and breathtakingly vacuous, inane drivel about everything from "puffin poop" to shockingly shoddily contrived gossip about Sarah Palin that is hardly worth mentioning over the backyard fence, let alone on "news" broadcasts to hundreds of millions of citizens.

But here's the real thing about all of this "gotcha" crap.

It demeans everyone.

But more dangerously, it undermines our democracy.

Democracy absolutely is reliant upon good and qualified people offering themselves for public service in order to help both the nation collectively and the individual people who live in that nation. It is an offer for service that involves mammoth responsibilities, ungodly hours every week, patience until hell won't have any more, and dedication most people couldn't even begin to fathom.

The kind of relentless, often petty, scrutiny of every single facet of personal lives and private moments that now comes with the job of public service, coupled with publicity that can, for all intents and purposes, skewer careers, relationships, if not entire lives, including that of family and friends as collateral damage, in a virtual heartbeat has gone beyond the pale, and is too much to ask of any single human being to endure, no matter what the cause.

So much so that fewer and fewer capable, successful people with a wealth of knowledge, experience, insight and leadership are willing to expose themselves to this dehumanizing and insulting gamut of the media's blood-lust to outright destroy them at every and any given moment over what too often is, under just about any other circumstances, banal and trivial crap.

For more and more people these days it just simply ain't worth it.

And that, my friends and readers, in the end will be the demise of the great institutions upon which social order and democracy essential to a free and vital nation depend.



UPDATE And if you think I'm carried away, today we have this example of idiotic pettiness by the media that completely defies description!