Tuesday 10 January 2012

Sultans of Snide

 Bottom Feeders

Storm clouds are gathering around Rick Santorum--running to win the Republican nominee for this year's presidential elections.  Santorum is a Christian who takes the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ seriously.  Consequently to the Commentariat and the media, by definition he is stupid, dumb, and dangerous.  The spittle is in full spray.

We blogged recently about the mockery Santorum is starting to face because one of his children was still born and the parents took the deceased child home so that the rest of the family could grieve and make their farewells.  This is being pilloried as a sign of someone of unsound mind.  Weird.  Kooky.

Blogger Patterico opens up with both barrels at the Sultans of Snide.

It could be because, increasingly, it seems that those in public life — especially Republicans — are seen as fair game for criticism of their most intimate decisions. Sarah Palin has a Down’s Syndrome child and is mocked. Rick Santorum brings home his child that died hours after his birth, and is mocked.
First, let’s dispense with the idea that this is objectively bizarre behavior. Allahpundit links advice from the American Pregnancy Association for parents of stillborn children — a situation very much like Santorum’s, whose child died after two hours of life:
After the tests are completed, you will usually have the choice to spend time alone with your baby. You can find comfort in looking at, touching, and talking to your baby. Most parents find it helpful to make memories of this precious time that will last a lifetime…

With the loss of your baby, your family members will also grieve. Your baby is someone’s granddaughter, brother, cousin, nephew or sister. It is important for your family members to spend time with the baby. This will help them come to terms with their loss. If you have other children, it is very important to be honest with them about what has happened by using simple and honest explanations. It is your decision whether you would like the children to see the baby. Ask for a Child Life Specialist at the hospital; these are trained professionals who can help you prepare your children for the heartbreaking news, and prepare them to see the baby if you wish.
So, not only it is not “weird” behavior, it is recommended behavior that helps the other children deal with the loss.
Patterico concludes that the behaviour of the snide smirkers is indecent.  He concludes by railing against those in the Commentariat who would resort to mockery of such personal and private and entirely appropriate actions.
But the problem is not just that some leftists can’t understand the love that some people feel for their unborn children — or for their children who (like Sarah Palin’s son Trig) were born with disabilities. What really infuriates is the contempt they show for parents who make different choices than they would . . . and the smug arrogance with which they pronounce judgment on the most intimate aspects of others’ private lives.

What Robinson has done, and what Colmes did the other day, is indecent. These men would never say such a thing to Santorum’s face. (Or maybe they would — which is possibly even worse.) What sickness has invaded our body politic that people feel free, not only to act the cretin, but to do so on national television while sporting insufferable, supercilious, self-satisfied smirks like those we have seen on the mugs of Colmes and Robinson in recent days?

In short: how dare they? How dare they?!

We have to go back to C S Lewis to answer the question of how such people dare to behave so indecently.  In coaching Wormwood on how to conduct the war against God, Screwtape gives the following advice:
"Flippancy is the best of all."  Not many people can cut a really good new joke but anybody can be trained to speak as if the good things of this world were ridiculous.  "If prolonged," he says, "the habit of Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour-plating against the Enemy (God) that I know, and it is quite free from the dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter.  It is a thousand miles away from joy; it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect, and it excites no affection between those who practice it."  Anthony Esolen, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2010), p. 152.
The habit of sneering at what is noble or great has become the weapon of choice amongst the godless.  It is the preferred humour of the dead.  It is the great leveller.  It is the favourite chorus among the damned welcoming new entrants to Sheol.   

That is the answer to Patterico's question, How dare they?  The Commentariat sneers and mocks Christians and flippantly jokes about all they do, say, and believe because they themselves have been reduced to foolishness.  Unable to argue, reason, dispute or debate--in short, unable to think--they habitually decline to the lowest form of ad-hominem attack.

Postscript: we understand that Alan Colmes has apologized for his snide mockery of Santorum's family life.  We are thankful and believe his public repentance should be acknowledged.   

1 comment:

ZenTiger said...

I agree. This kind of behaviour is truly appalling, and not enough has been said in the main stream media about it, especially as they lead the charge promoting this hatred.

The baby was delivered at night, it lived two hours. They decided to take it home to the rest of their family at 3am, rather than wait around at the hospital. They called the undertaker from home that day and he came around in the afternoon to collect the dead baby and arrange the funeral.

All perfectly reasonable actions, characterised as weird and sick, and the "play with the baby" line repeated ad nauseum. I saw one vile commenter on a thread describe this as "necrophilia" and wanting to charge the mother with "interfering with a corpse". Such people have no shame.

BTW, make a joke about Obama's family and watch the progressives swoop to defend the principle that families should be off limits in a political campaign (even as they beat up Sarah Palin's daughter)