The Crying Game (With Video!)

Emotion seems to be getting the best of people again these days. As a proud, card-carrying member of the Heartless Conservative fraternity (Kappa Tau Sniveling, pronounced as a stern command), I'd be mortified by what I've been seeing. But that would imply emotion on my part and we can't have that. So, we need to follow the advice of William Butler Yeats and cast a cold eye upon what we are seeing. No tears here, y'all. Let's survey the wreckage.

• You may have already seen the video, but ol' number 4 got pretty misty in announcing his retirement today in Green Bay. I have to admit I was a little surprised by how emotional he was. It seems to me that he is trying to convince himself that he really is ready to walk away, but today he didn't seem like he's actually convinced himself. Favre's place in football history is certainly secure, but I wonder if he really is ready to walk away. Now if you want to see Packers fans get emotional, make a suggestion like this.
• In politics, emotion has its uses, of course. Who could forget this magic moment? It has been argued that Hillary Clinton was able to win the New Hampshire primary because she teared up during a presentation. Back in 1972, tears proved to be the undoing of Ed Muskie's campaign, also in the snows of New Hampshire. In those days, we weren't especially interested in seeing public displays of emotion. I'm not sure when that changed, but it's clearly different now. The politicians of that earlier era were a lot more buttoned up than they are today. And it's not just those on the port side who like a good blubber now and then. Sometimes Republicans cry, too. And some our friends on the Left take a dim view of some of this emotionalism, especially from the Clinton campaign.

So what should we make of all this emotionalism? I understand why it happens, but there's entirely too much of it. There's long been a lot of fetishism about the idea of authenticity, which is especially prevalent among those who preceded me in the Baby Boom. As a child born at the end of the Boom, I understand the impulse. This generation was not impressed with artifice and the established order and sought to remove what seemed to get in the way of authenticity, especially where emotions are concerned. Of course, those who would tear away an established order often don't really comprehend why the order existed in the first place. And since a lot of the tearing away is based on the emotionalism that is always rampant among youth, what replaces the old order tends to be built on sand. Most everyone who makes a decision when emotions run high regrets the decision later. There's a larger meaning in that, especially in this season.