Martin Bashir, the MSNBC news personality from England, in a moment of pique, said some really filthy things about Sarah Palin because she equated the national debt with slavery. Then, after a day of meteoric blowback even from the Left, Bashir made a heartfelt apology, which was then lauded throughout leftdom, and even graciously accepted by conservatives, including many Christians I know.
The positive response to Bashir’s apology of the left was expected. His not being fired by MSNBC was also expected. After all, he’s guaranteed a short-term increase in watchers for the network, if only by rubber-neckers curious to see if he’ll fall off the wagon again. You know, the NASCAR Syndrome, where many people attend races only to see the crashes.
The response of my Christian friends was the more interesting, for they all lauded the sincerity of Bashir’s apology. But this can mean things other than genuine sincerity; one, that he’s done this before, so is more practiced, unlike Obama, or two, can really fake sincerity, like Clinton.
We live in a cynical age, sorry.
You do know that Martin Bashir is 50, well past the age we’d expect to see such outbursts from experienced interviewers, unless named Alec.?
We all have fits of rage, where we immediately launch into full tirade mode and say many things we would never, never say, as they say, in “mixed company” or in front of children. Thanks to political correctness, today that list of sanctuaries has extended to “people of color, gender, sexual orientation, and of late, native national origin. I live in Oregon and sometimes get the strangest looks from northeast migrants when I say “Indian.”
But when ordinary people have such fits of rage or idiocy, whether under the influence of alcohol or just under the lampshade, in the eyes of the beholder they are forever changed. Once children know we use words we tell them is wrong, even a sin, to use, they may spend several more years processing this new finding, usually to their detriment and usually involving some brand new sin we hadn’t even envisioned as we launched into that four-letter tirade. I heard my father say “hell” exactly four times and even as an adult, telling a story about flatulence, he’d stop and look around to ensure there wasn’t a lady within shouting distance before whispering that awful word.
In college we were told this was hypocrisy. A double standard.
I’m old enough to be able to wax poetic about the parental double-standard, as when Dad told me I was too young to smoke, while lighting up a Camel. Actually he was conveying a truth that would be revealed to me in several more years, for I smoked for twenty years before quitting, which seemed to be a standard case for my generation. It seems there really is window in which most people of average health can smoke for a few years without doing them much damage, assuming they will have the courage to quit when the body says it’s time
But a ranker form of hypocrisy is involved with infidelity, lying, and other sins we teach our kids to avoid, not because they will stunt our growth, or turn our teeth brown, but because they are wrong in every moral sense. Sins you can go to hell for. And maybe even jail.
Once revealed to others, in those cases we remain forever changed in their eyes. A father or mother remains forever different, and lesser, in their kids’ eyes once they are seen to be lying, or cheating, or bringing home things from the office that don’t belong to them.
You can see how serious this dropping of some veils can be.
As for Martin Bashir, then, to lose your temper and launch into a tirade of filth, especially when sober, reveals for all to see that the person they see every night on television is a false front; an illusion.
Two sins, not one, are revealed; one the inability to control one’s temper, and two, a paucity of language once that anger door has been opened. And possibly a third, as we’ve grown to be cynical about over the years, especially with the left, a complete lack of honesty in dealing with the public; the television journalist as actor, no more no less.
Every time you see Martin Bashir, try to imagine a side-by-side of Daniel Hannan, 8 years younger than Bashir!, who masterfully owns the English language while pissed off…as well as owning his own temperament.
Martin Bashir has forever wounded himself, probably irretrievable, for he has exposed who he really is, off camera, and off-mike, i.e., how he speaks when swapping pints and baring his innermost thoughts with his mates.
I think in terms in terms of alcohol, while the left, more often in terms of drugs, (cocaine, marijuana), but as I have gotten older even my old hippie friends from the 60s are amazed at how four of five leftists can sit around one another, and without any external stimulants, simply feed off one another’s hatred for things, such as Sarah Palin, then launch into the very kinds of tirades Bashir leveled the other night, almost as if they were involved in a left-wing white guy’s version of doing the dozens, “Yo mama so uglyyyyyy…”
Career-wise, Martin Bashir is more suitable to the 18-25 year old potty mouths, who probably are asking even now, “What’s the big deal?” Maybe I should say, “only suitable.” Or maybe he should only write, not speak, where there are times when he can reflect before pushing “Publish.”
Did I mention that Martin Bashir is 50?
