As usual, Jon Stewart is a voice of unmatched sincerity, insight, and sensibility where there is otherwise distressingly little. If you didn't catch Monday's Daily Show, here is Jon's comment on the incident in Tucson:
"So here we are again, stunned by a tragedy. We have been visited by this demon before. Our hearts go out to those that have been injured or killed, and their loved ones.
How do you make sense of these types of senseless situations? is really the question that seems to be on everybody's mind, and I don't know that there is a way to make sense of this sort of thing. As i watched the political pundit world, many are reflecting, and grieving, and trying to figure things out. But it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other. And watching that is predictable, I think, as it is dispiriting.
Did the toxic political environment cause this? A graphic image here, an ill-timed comment, violent rhetoric, those types of things?
I have no fucking idea.
You know, we live in a complex ecosystem of influences and motivations, and I wouldn't blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for columbine. And by the way, that is coming from someone who truly hates our political environment. It is toxic, it is unproductive; but to say that that is what has caused this, or that the people in that are responsible for this––I just don't think you can do. Boy, would that be nice.
Boy, would it be nice to be able to draw a straight line of causation from this horror to something tangible, because then we could convince ourselves that if we just stop this, the horrors will end. To have the feeling, however fleeting, that this type of event can be prevented, forever. But it's hard not to feel like it can't. You cannot outsmart crazy. You don't know what a troubled mind will get caught on. Crazy always seems to find a way, it always has.
Which is not to suggest resistance is futile, that sounded pretty dark what I just said there, now that I reconsidered it in my own head; "crazy people rule us all!" Um...I don't think that's true. I do think its important for us to watch our rhetoric. I do think it's a worthwhile goal not to conflate our political opponents with enemies, if for no other reason than to draw a better distinction between the manifestos of paranoid madmen, and what passes for acceptable political and pundit speak. You know, it would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn't in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on TV. Let's at least make troubled individuals easier to spot.
And again, to see good people like this hurt, it is so grievous and it causes me such sadness. But again, I refuse to give into that feeling of despair. There is light in this situation. I urge everyone, read up about those who were hurt and/or killed in this shooting. You will be comforted by just how much anonymous goodness there really is in the world. You read about these people and you realize that people that you don't even know, that you have never met, are leading lives of real dignity and goodness. And you hear about crazy. But it's rarer than you think.
And I think you'll find yourself even more impressed with Congresswoman Giffords, and amazed at how much living some of the deceased packed into lives that were cut way too short. And if there is real solace in this, I think it's that for all the hyperbole and the vitriol that's become a part of our political process, when the reality of that rhetoric––when actions match the disturbing nature of words––we haven't lost our capacity to be horrified. And please, let us hope we never do. Let us hope we never become numb to what real horror, to what real blood of patriots, looks like when it's spilled. Maybe it helps us to remember to match our rhetoric with reality more often, because the reality of dangerous rhetoric is...even those that speak hyperbolically, I think, all of them tonight would absolutely recoil and say, "Wow, that's...that is not the picture of what we were discussing and what we were talking about, and I have to remember that there's a reality to that situation, that we can't approach verbally."
Because someone or something will shatter our world again. And wouldn't it be a shame, if we didn't take this opportunity, and the loss of these incredible people and the pain that their loved ones are going through right now, wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't take that moment to make sure that the world that we are creating now, that will ultimately be shattered again by a moment of lunacy, wouldn't it be a shame if that world wasn't better than the one we previously lost?
So, how will we process this tonight? Absolutely no idea. We'll come back, I'll show a field piece about something incredibly stupid and silly, Dennis Leary will come out here, he and I will most likely insult each other playfully, and then tomorrow, we go back to trying what we normally do, which is highlight absurdity in a comical way that is a catharsis for people, and not a sadness. So, thank you for listening, I know this is probably more helpful for me than it is for you, but... we'll be right back."
Jon Stewart
Monday, 10 Jan 2011.
Little wonder he is the most trusted name in news.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-january-10-2011-denis-leary
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