By Sam Osborne January 24, 2011
If as Sarah Palin and apologists would have us believe, her public appearances and disseminations have made absolutely no contribution to a hostile climate in which violence beyond words may occur, everyone might be asking, Sarah who? However, most folks know via the media who Palin is and in the same manner they have come to know of the vicious loner that murdered and maimed so many. Media spreads the doings of public figures and Palin has sopped up a celebrity-status amount. The media’s coverage of Palin has not been prompted by noticeable demonstrations of leadership: aside from forsaking her elected responsibilities as governor of Alaska, she has little. Palin’s acquisition of celebrity is described in an aphorism devised from “The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America” by Daniel Boorstin: Plain is well known for being well known. Plain’s bombasts in quest of notoriety have spread and become only part of a climate of incivility from which all had best step back. Though one neither needs to abandon their political outlook nor refrain from critic of any other, it is time to end provocative contributions to the kind of acrimonious environment that historically has destroyed cultures. Best we remember that in ancient Greece there was a relatively tranquil Athens where favor was given to reasoned discourse, and in contrast a decidedly hostile Sparta where favor was a spoil extracted by threat and force. Today there remains an Athens, but Sparta long ago succumbed to its hostile spirit. Sam Osborne
Received January 22, 2010 - Published January 24, 2011
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