{"id":310,"date":"2012-05-07T14:22:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T19:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/?p=310"},"modified":"2012-05-07T14:22:55","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T19:52:55","slug":"wheres-the-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wheres-the-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Where\u2019s the OUTRAGE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A city dweller\u2014a true child of concrete\u2014once spent the weekend with a friend in the suburbs. The friend\u2019s cat snared a bird and as cats will do, deposited the corpse as a gift on the doorstep. The city visitor was indignant. “Aren\u2019t you mad at Rudy for killing the pretty bird?” she demanded.<\/p>\n

“Why should I be angry at a creature for acting according to its nature?” the friend responded.<\/p>\n

Even at the time, I perceived a real wisdom in this answer (that city creature wasn’t me, by the way). But only recently do I see why.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sorry, I was going to post photos of a couple of these billboards\u2014they sure have great entertainment value\u2014but decided I didn\u2019t want to give those vodka makers any more publicity for than they already have. I hope that\u2019s an example of wise discrimination. Photo by Gary Deibler.<\/p><\/div>\n

Not long ago a friend showed me a photo of a now infamous Wodka Vodka billboard near the Brooklyn Bridge. On a red background, next to an image of a vodka bottle together with a lamb wearing something resembling a sombrero (don\u2019t ask me!), a headline read \u201cESCORT QUALITY\u2014HOOKER PRICING<\/small>.\u201d It was one of a series of so-called shock ads; others included \u201cCHRISTMAS QUALITY\u2014HANUKKAH PRICING<\/small>\u201d (two dogs, one wearing a yarmulke) and \u201cBLACK RUSSIAN<\/small>,\u201d showing a muscular black man in a wifebeater and a fur hat in front of an image of the Kremlin. The Jewish\/ Christian one had been taken down following a storm of outrage.<\/p>\n

My friend had shot the photo with his cell phone while driving on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. He showed it to me in anticipation of feminist outrage. But I didn\u2019t produce any, and I think he was rather disappointed. I thought the billboard was pretty disgusting, but I couldn\u2019t work up any ire over it.<\/p>\n

Fact is, I don\u2019t get angry as much as I used to. That\u2019s where the cat story comes in. Creatures (including people) are the way they are, they act according to their nature. And they may or may not be at a place where their nature can become kinder, gentler, wiser, whatever. If what they do is harmful, you try to prevent them from doing it, but more and more, indignation and outrage seem to me like a waste of time and energy\u2014even a form of self-indulgence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A city dweller\u2014a true child of concrete\u2014once spent the weekend with a friend in the suburbs. The friend\u2019s cat snared a bird and as cats will do, deposited the corpse as a gift on the doorstep. The city visitor was indignant. “Aren\u2019t you mad at Rudy for killing the pretty bird?” she demanded. “Why should I be angry at a creature for acting according to its nature?” the friend responded. Even at the time, I perceived a real wisdom in this answer (that city creature wasn’t me, by the way). But only recently do I see why. Not long ago[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,40],"tags":[41,44,124,42,15,43],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-meditation","category-social-issues","tag-advertising","tag-anger","tag-buddhism","tag-feminism","tag-practice","tag-vodka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}