Public civility is clearly on its deathbed.
As if it wasn’t bad enough to have a pop diva proudly wearing jewelry that says “Fuck You” to the world (see previous post), now it appears that gutter discourse is considered acceptable under the banner of one of America’s most distinguished literary magazines, The Atlantic Monthly. From the magazine’s online site:
“The Atlantic Monthly saw the first stories into print of Mark Twain, Henry James, Louise Erdrich, Sue Miller, and Bobbie Ann Mason. It was to The Atlantic Monthly that a little-known writer named James Dickey came when he had something called “Deliverance” that he wanted to publish. There is distinction, too, in the realm of politics. The Atlantic Monthly was the publisher of important essays by Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, by W.E.B. DuBois and Martin Luther King. King sent a handwritten draft to us, written behind bars, of what would come to be known as his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which we published in 1963. The Atlantic Monthly is where Felix Frankfurter, in 1927, spoke out in behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti. It was the platform chosen by Al Smith, that same year, to assert the competence of a Catholic to run for national office. It was where William Greider’s 1981 interviews with David Stockman were published, interviews that rattled the federal government to the doors of the White House, and prompted President Reagan, in Stockman’s words, to take the budget director to the woodshed.”
Ah, yes…a glorious legacy of great ideas, sharp debate, and crackling prose!
And today? Well, on The Atlantic’s webpage today one can find the literary descendant of Twain, James and King, Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg, musing on the fact that several readers responded to his piece about author/gadfly/atheist Christopher Hitchens’ battle with cancer by declaring that they were praying for his death. Goldberg delved into his storehouse of rapier-sharp wit and acid invective, and marshaling all his devastating logic, packaged in the persuasive rhetoric of the professional wordsmith that he is, produced this:
“As for the few of you who wrote to Goldblog to say they were praying for Hitch’s death, I can say that he does not care one way or another what you do or think or pray, but on behalf of myself and the entire team here at The Atlantic, let me just say, Go fuck yourselves.”
Mark Twain would be so proud!
Let’s get Rihanna a subscription to The Atlantic. They deserve each other.
Ethics Alarms 
Would “kiss my ass” be more appropriate? I remember watching that thing on the History Channel about the KKK, and an attorney general responded to a vitriolic letter from the Klan with, “In response to your letter of (such and such date)–kiss my ass.”
I thought that was great, but I was 16 when I first saw it, I think.
What if the oath was even gentler, like “get bent” or “your mother wears combat boots” or “your odor is unacceptable?”
I think there is a place for all of these, and a letter to the Klan is a good place to start. (My personal favorite is “Bite me.”) Not in a literary magazine, however, and no just because someone expressed an obnoxious opinion. It’s lazy, and it accomplishes nothing but degrading the discussion.
Considering that a great deal of the population (probably more males than females) spends a great deal of their waking hours thinking about nothing but that act, how did “F*** you!” get to be an insult anyway?
Spreading the bad butter thinner: “fuck you” is not only not an appropriate response for a publication of that stature, it is not a meaningful response at all — it’s just a playground reaction, a minuscule temper tantrum. In fact, kids (like Rhianna, Social Age 5) pick it up, like other “bad” words, and use it to show-off among peers and annoy adults. It gives them a false — and fleeting — sense of power which lasts only until the other kid says “same to you” and a silly fight ensues, or a grown-up intervenes. Which makes it doubly inappropriate for Goldberg to use, since he was not speaking to rational adults but to little bullies. He didn’t recognize that they had just said “fuck you” — i.e. stamping a little foot “I hate you. I wish you’d die!” — to him as well as to Hitchens, in the first place — and he fell for it.
What also bothers me about this is that it’s another good swear-phrase down the drain. Fuck-you has that Gilbert and Sullivan “short, sharp shock” sound to it. A tone of finality. But it loses all its punch when you throw it down on the ground where the target will never notice it and walk away.
If you’re not going to exercise the right to edit your letters-to-the-editor (there was an option to not mention the hate mail at all), lay one out there and let your readers have the satisfaction of tearing it to pieces.
You get many bonus points for the “Mikado” reference. You warmed this old Koko’s (twice!) faux-Japanese heart. Tit-Willow to you!
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