The talking heads on cable TV do it. The spit wads shooting through cyberspace are doing it — too many angry diatribes and not enough tact.
What the world needs now is less mean-spiritedness. Less throwing of spit wads at the folks at the other end of the so-called political spectrum.
It used to be that it was mostly middle-schoolers who threw spit wads. By the time they got to high school, they had grown out of it.
Grown Men and Women Still Throwing Spit Wads
But now we have grown men and women — on the political left, right and middle — throwing vituperative at each other on radio, TV and in cyberspace.
What the world — especially the world of social media — needs now is fewer sharp-edged declarative sentences, less judgement — and a lot more tact.
As president, Barack Obama was a master of the tactful sentence. And tact often involves a measure of toning things down, of obscuring things, of cutting people some slack.
I know, I know. Your English teacher deployed a big fat red pencil whenever they came across some vagueness in one of your essays. But obfuscation has its uses. And Obama knew exactly what those uses were.
(I could rummage through old presidential speeches and find great examples of tactful, diplomatic rhetoric from Republicans like Ronald Reagan and the Bush presidents, but this speech from Obama serves the purpose.)
Here’s One Way to Be Tactful
A tactful sentence is often a sentence in which the subject — the doer or agent — is concealed in order to avoid humiliating or judging that person.
Notice how Obama — very politely, and to good effect — used this strategy as he obscured the subject of his sentences during a speech he made to the Arab world in Cairo back in 2009.
Of the war in Iraq, he said: “Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world.”
The Chosen War — Chosen by Whom?
Here, the President – tactfully – avoids placing blame for the Iraq war on George W. Bush and his followers. He declares the Iraq war “a war of choice” — but he does not name the “choosers.” Thus, Obama avoids offending Republicans as well as any American voters out there who might have supported Bush and the war.
With the phrase, “strong differences,” Obama puts his Arab listeners on notice that not all Americans supported the war — again, without painting its supporters as egregiously wrong-headed.
In short, Obama avoids polarizing an already polarized political landscape. Politicians used to do that! What happened? Why don’t they — you and I — do that any more?
Later in Obama’s Cairo speech, he directs his comments to the Muslim world:
“Among some Muslims, there’s a disturbing tendency to measure one’s own faith by the rejection of somebody else’s faith.”
Here again, Obama avoids an accusatory tone:
He does not use “Muslims” as the subject of the sentence. He lets the noun “tendency” take the rap.
Softening a Verb
He softens the verb “reject” by turning it into a noun – “rejection.”
He does not stir up old resentments by naming Jews and Christians as the object of Muslim censure. He simply says “somebody else.”
The trouble with a obfuscated sentence, of course, is it lacks punch. It can put a reader right to sleep. Obama knew this. He kept his listeners awake by plugging in strong, precise verbs: Provoke. Remind. Resolve. Measure. Reject.
Too Many Angry Diatribes. Not Enough Tact. Why?
Sometimes blunt honesty is what’s called for. At other times, if we really care about each other (do we?) and honestly wish to get along (do we?), a little tact is in order.
But maybe we’d rather not get along. (And by “we” I mean progressives, liberals and moderates, along with the so-called conservatives who so love to own the libs.) Maybe it feels juicier to let the meanspirited rhetoric roll and the spit wads fly.
Ready for some levity? Read all about the mid-century girdle at “Mad Men Exposes the ’60s Girdle — But Will She Get It Off in Time?”