I've noticed a trend in indignation.
I was at a "green friendly" grocery store the other day, and while checking out was asked if I had brought my own sack for the groceries. I had not. The fact that the check out lady could see I had no such carriers made the question itself annoying, but after I replied to the negative she
harummpfed at the cash register as if I was personally responsible for the glacier ice melt.
Then yesterday I used the following phrase to a co-worker, "well, then you'll kill two birds with one stone." Innocent enough, I thought. But I was told by the co-worker that she doesn't use that phrase. She's a vegetarian, so "killing-animal" colloquialisms are off limits. Wow, I'm thinking I must be out of touch.
These are minor offenses and ones for which I have no animosity towards the offended, but I do think it is odd the things that for which we get indignant. We all do, from time to time, think "how could they" do this or that. The telling thing is not that we get indignant, but what incites the indignation.
St. Augustine defined virtue with this short phrase: "ordo amoris." The order of loves. Such as, loving a pick-up truck is okay as long as you love your children more. St. Augustine recognized a hierarchy of goods and suggested that our affections and actions should follow that proper order. In some ways the things for which we show indignation indicate the things we love, or that which we consider most important.
My point is this: it is good to want to protect the earth, icebergs and chickens -- but what about the eternally valuable, can we show a little indignation on their behalf once in a while? Want some justified indignation? Travel to one of dozens of countries and see how women and children, the weak and sickly, are treated. "
We'd rather pick more comfortable indignations, ones where the only sacrifice is the time it takes to count our carbon footprint. It's nice to be able to afford the indignations of the wealthy. Indignations of convenience. But this disordered value is inhuman and embarrassing. Sorry, that's the way I see it.
I started the essay with a tolerant disposition towards the opinion of others, and now ended, being indignant over the indignant. So I guess I'll stop.
