I’m tired of putting up with this!
I’m done!
I refuse to do this any longer!
No, I will not listen!
I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to going to take it any more!
With all due respect to Howard Beale — the fictional longtime anchor of the Union Broadcasting System’s UBS Evening News — and his infamous “mad as hell” movie quote from 1976, my sense is we’re hearing a lot these days of what many will no longer do…
… what they won’t do… what they refuse to do… and what they think everyone else should do, too…
I get it. There is a time to stand up, and a time to set boundaries; boundaries are healthy. And we each are entitled to discern when, where, and how to set those boundaries. The challenge is when we feel justified in setting everyone else’s boundaries, too.
Such is playing itself out within the social experiment still taking place on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The vitriol… the digression of respectful conversation… it continues to seemingly only digress because we keep attempting to set another’s boundaries!
We confront people for what they say… How dare you? How could you even think like that? You must be stupid or ignorant or not a real whatever-you-claim-to-be?!
We confront people for what they do not say… I will assume by your silence that you don’t care… that you’re not bothered… and that you totally agree with everything I do not.
Or we’re profane.
Or we’re insulting.
Or… we justify that, too.
Geeeeeesh. We are a rough crowd.
Again, there exists a place to stand up and speak out. Let me not suggest that we are to be entirely diminutive, meek people. We are not.
But there’s one element of the current vitriol that keeps popping up to me. I can’t quite shake it.
Read through the 5 quotes listed above again… starting with “I’m tired”… “I’m done”… “I refuse”… “I will not”… and “I’m mad.”
Notice the subject of each of the above?
Me.
Yes, that’s right… me.
The question I can’t shake this day — and must first and foremost evaluate my own falling prey in the process — is how much of “me” is included in our rants? Let me say this again… I am just as guilty; it’s an easy trap for each of us to fall into. How much of our rants is about “me”?
How much of “me” being tired, “me” being done, “me” refusing, being mad, etc. is the motivation for my desire to decide what everyone else needs to do, too?
Sometimes I think if we each had more patience… each were more humble… each were more gracious… then our communication would be better, developing solution would be more probable, and our relationships would remain intact…
… especially on social media.
Respectfully…
AR