"I'm a lumberjack and I'm Okay
Sleeps all night and I works all day."
- Monty Python
I love words. There is magic in them for me. There are some words and phrases that just roll from the tongue, like Boolean Logic. In Neal Stephenson's new book, Anatheum, he has created the phrase, "Hylean Theoric Flow". Sometimes the symphonies that good wordsmiths are able to compose, can impact us as much as the meanings of the words. Of course, I could be "hoist by my own petard" if I did not mention an old friend, Bill Shakespeare, and his uncanny ability to create phrases that are still in use (or should I say overuse?). Why do I want to talk about words? Because they have meaning and because they can do great things by those who read them, listen to them, and act upon them. Why talk about words now? I just finished listening to President Obama's Inaugural Address for the third time, and I believe words have meaning for him and that they are important to him. And when he speaks them, he moves people emotionally.
Why is Monty Phython's Terry Jones pictured as the Naked Piano Player? Because I was thinking about America's 'Greatest' Twit, Tom Brokaw. Obviously, because Mr. Brokaw has been reading the news over many years in his best melodic voice he has come to believe that his opinions are fact. A situation that is innocent enough, but extremely dangerous. I certainly do not mind Mr. Brokaw having an opinion as to the WW II generation being one of America's 'great' generations, but when he calls them the 'greatest' generation, he is leaving out many generations he has not a clue about, generations as yet unborn. You may think this is a petty complaint. Maybe so. But I think it may be a small reflection of a much larger problem. People who are hired to read the news of TV are hired to do so because they have melodic voices, good delivery (occasionally), and are not too repulsive for the viewer to look at on the Tube. Hell, in the 21st Century, pronunciation is not even an issue. They are not hired because of their intellectual brilliance. When a journalist states his opinion as fact, especially one who is well respected within his profession, s/he moves into a new category, that of Twit.
Twits outnumber journalists on TV by an alarming number. Print journalism is becoming increasingly similar. That leaves the Internet to actually discover the facts about a story. Ah, but at one time it was so easy, today it is a bit more difficult. Tom may not be the 'greatest' twit, but he is one of the 'great' twits of his time, spewing his little redundant homespun homilies as though they were facts about a story and not his opinions. Hell, they do not really qualify as opinions, but that's another story.
Until next time Kimosabe, I remain just another Rodeo Clown watchin' the evenin' news, you betcha'!
In the beginning was the Word...
John 1:1
