c. 1997 Religion News Service
(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com, or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)
UNDATED _ As the old folk song goes,”There’s mean things happening our land.” But is there more meanness in our society now than there used to be? Some would have you believe so but the”good-old-days”fallacy assumes there was a time when things were better than they are now. It’s wrong.
Meanness has always been part of the human condition and is always disgraceful and deplorable. Yet in presenting a litany of contemporary mean behavior, it should be understood not that our times are no worse than times that have come before. However, it’s necessary from time to time to take moral stock of our social behavior.
First story: One reads that during a recent Notre Dame University home game, the family of Fighting Irish quarterback Ron Powlus was driven from the stadium by fans angry at his performance. This is sportspersonship? This is what one would expect at a Catholic university?
In fact, Powlus is a talented performer on a team of very talented performers who are doomed by the Holy Cross Order’s apparent inability to find adequate coaching for the premier football franchise in the country. But why curse the players? Why curse their families? Why curse at all?
Meanwhile at Soldier Field _ which might be better called”Drunken and Obscene Bum Field”_ the exact opposite situation occurs: the gifted coach of the Chicago Bears has to contend with a team possessing little talent. Yet the fans, egged on by local sports writers, demand the coach’s ouster.
Why take out one’s suppressed rage on athletes and coaches? Beats me _ except meanness sells.
Let us leave serious matters like sports and turn to the less serious area of politics.
Second story: Since he was elected, the national media have done all in their power to destroy Bill Clinton. But in fact, no one has get to find a”smoking gun”_ evidence of a violation of the law. So the media have had to be content with character assassination, innuendo, and shrill demands for yet another special prosecutor, despite the fact the absurd Whitewater special prosecution has found absolutely nothing.
A special prosecutor is supposed to find the dirt journalists and Republican congressmen aren’t able to find _ and harass and hector the president until he is no longer president.
Rarely do the national journals report that nothing has been found and that likely nothing will be found. Rather, they are determined to”get”the president regardless of the absence of evidence.
On a local level, faced with sharply declining circulations, the Chicago newspapers are engaged in a feeding frenzy against the mayor and some of his allies. Despite boasting they have discovered”corruption scandals,”the papers have yet to find a single, clear-cut violation of law. Rather, all they have come up with are the”appearances of serious impropriety.”What’s that? It’s whatever editors _ those paragons of ethical wisdom _ say it is.
One gathers from the papers that friends of Mayor Daley ought not win construction contracts, even if their bids are the lowest and their professional competence unquestioned. Moreover, it would appear from the pages of the newspapers that the mayor’s brother should have closed down his law firm the day the mayor was elected. Both actions are urged to avoid”appearances of serious impropriety.” Might it not, then, be improper for a newspaper’s sport section to report on a team owned by the paper? Should not all news about that team be banned from the paper to avoid the appearances of impropriety?
Such a suggestion is, of course, absurd, as are the charges in the feeding frenzy. But meanness is believed to sell papers, so meanness is still the order of the day.
MJP END GREELEY
