Driving home for my lunch break, I sat, stopped at the tedious red light, the one light we all suffer through on our route to and from work, the one that takes forever to turn green. I was in no particular mood on this day, only the common drudgery that the guy from All American Rejects was mocking in “Gives You Hell.”
I was sick of the wind and feeling like Dorothy as I walked the mile to my car (because of construction at work, I must park on the street). The clouds gave a chilly nip to the temperature, forcing me to keep the top up on my convertible even though it was well into May. My blueberry bagel awaited me at home, as did a pony-sized dog who would sit in the entryway upon my return, demanding to be petted before I could step into the kitchen. At least I only had 13 more days of this left before summer vacation.
“Gives You Hell” was not on the radio. Instead it was George Michael with his belligerent tone singing “Freedom.” Not the upbeat Wham! version, but the caustic one that burns up his guitar and “Faith” leather jacket. I was jamming out as I’ve always loved that song, especially the part with “That’s what you get.”
At the notoriously red stop light, I pulled up behind a small SUV. In my teeny tiny car, I could see nothing in front of me except the butt of the SUV. With another SUV in the left turn lane, the streetlight hid from my view. The clean white SUV had two decals on the back window. On the passenger side was a stereotypical alien who flashed a peace sign. On the driver side was Hello Kitty giving me the finger.
That sums up society well.
We simultaneously demand peace while saying “fuck you” to anyone that doesn’t agree with us. We expect to be treated with respect and embraced for inclusivity, while cancelling anyone we decide is disrespectful and shunning anyone who dares to utter a non-inclusive comment. Online communities insist total adherence to whatever it is we’ve joined: vegan rules, parenting rules, exercising rules. An all-or-nothing, black-or-white philosophy that gives us a feeling of superiority while simultaneously preaching that all are equal, all belong.
There’s no way around it.
Polarized is perhaps not the accurate word to describe society today, although that’s the word that’s thrown around most frequently. A better word would be hypocritical. It’s our hypocrisy that leads to polarization, it’s our hypocrisy that leads to our inability to be objective, it’s our hypocrisy that leads to superior thoughts. The most upsetting realization is that there isn’t a realization within our peace/fuck you mentality. We may giggle at its contradictory nature, its obvious conflicting viewpoints, but we don’t realize our own hypocrisy when we engage in societal arguments. We’re oblivious to the caricature we’ve created of ourselves, one that would disgust us if we saw a political cartoonist sketch of what we look like when we act as we do.
By nature we are hypocritical. It happens everywhere. At work, those in charge tell us guidelines we should follow, only to turn around and not follow what they have expected of us. It’s useless to point it out because our hypocrisy is so imbedded within us that we won’t see it anyway, as if such matters don’t pertain to us. While driving, all those idiots who are on their phones who don’t realize the light has turned green, then flip us off when we dare to summon them to existence with our horn. What do they do when the car in front of them doesn’t move?
The Karens of the world who have been recorded for all social media—do those of us laughing or disgusted with such behavior recognize pieces of ourselves when we’re having a public meltdown over the loss of chicken nuggets or poorly made latte? Maybe we should be thankful someone wasn’t filming us during a road rage incident or an infuriating exchange with a cashier.
But we don’t. That’s the problem.
We flash our peace sign until someone pisses us off or offends us or disrespects us. Then the finger comes out in full force, the unapologetic middle finger that is well-deserved to its recipient.
We’re only at peace when we get what we want. The second we don’t, fuck you.