Month: October 2014

Orin Hargraves insists they “form an extremely useful and functional part of every natural language”:

When you use a cliche there is little chance of being misunderstood, and at the same time you have made a declaration of unity with your audience, invoking an instantly recognised commonplace that puts you “on the same page” (if I may) with them. Cliches in speech are more acceptable than cliches in writing. Still, listeners and readers absorb cliche like diners absorb comfort food. Only when there is a glut of such fodder do we feel that creativity has failed. Most of us have something to say, most of the time, and most of the time it is not something that calls for startling creativity. Cliches provide a stock of dependable formulas for conveying the ordinary, which is often the central subject of our discourse.

Ryan Cooper had more on the subject earlier this year:

[I]t’s quite easy to convey a crystal-clear thought even if the prose is riddled with clichés. For example: “Upon deeper reflection, House Republicans’ last-ditch effort to repeal ObamaCare was motivated by naked partisanship. The connection to the policy itself was tenuous at best.”

It’s also possible to have excellent, original writing conveying ideas that are completely bananas. As Matt Yglesias said about Notes from Underground: “Dostoevsky is also an illustration of the power of great writing to convey radically unsound or even totally nonsensical ideas.” The same could be said of Nietzsche, for example, and many others.

Kevin O’Keefe sympathizes with Sam and his fans:

Sam has been the victim of several close calls all season long. He was a seventh-round draft pick for the Rams, and as a defensive end, he had to fight for a permanent spot on the team against several others in that same position. He eventually lost out, didn’t get picked up on waivers, and was picked up for the Cowboys’ practice squad shortly after.

Now, Sam has been cut to make way for linebacker Troy Davis on the practice squad. That may make perfect sense for the team. That doesn’t mean that people who had emotionally invested in Sam because of what he stood for aren’t entitled to disappointment—no matter what people who understand the decision logically might say. In other words: Calling the Cowboys’ or the Rams’ decision to cut Sam homophobic might be an overreach. But it’s an understandable overreach.

Jim Buzinski suspects that other gay athletes will now be even more reluctant to come out:

Any gay player contemplating coming out will need to answer this theoretical — if Michael Sam had not publicly come out as gay, would he be in the NFL? We’ll never know for sure, though there is enough evidence to suggest that would be the case. An established player with no fear of getting cut would be in the best position to come out, but this is the kind of player who will think long and hard about how this benefits him. Does he want what will be intense media attention, at least for a short while? Does he want “gay” pinned to descriptions of him in the media? Is he out to family and close friends and maybe some trusted teammates, so he has no need to take the next step and tell the world? This latter example was the case with Sam at the University of Missouri and he thrived. He was out to those who mattered and was in a comfort zone.

Scott Shackford, on the other hand, bets we’ll have a gay NFL player in the near future:

Sam hasn’t really ruined any sort of narrative, except for the perhaps some sort of fairy tale that the first openly gay football player was bound to be some sort of overachieving, record-shattering superstar, and that’s a fantasy we can do without. It’s not a “moment” of acceptance gay Americans are experiencing right now. It’s the slow culmination of a very long battle across decades that has consumed some people’s whole lives (on both sides). This gay marriage advance isn’t something that just happened, though it is certainly changing extremely quickly from a historical perspective. A gay NFL player coming out next year or the year after is probably still “now” in the terms of the current movement.

Sam’s experience did actually illustrate that the NFL and NFL fans are ready for the guy, and they’re ready for whoever the first openly gay NFL player ends up being.

A reader writes:

I want to share with you an anecdote that I think powerfully illustrates the disconnect between the hierarchy and the sensus fidelium on how LGBT people should be treated by the church.

I was born and raised a very conservative Roman Catholic environment in Texas. This was true for my home, my parish, and the private Catholic school I attended from ages 10 to 18. The liberal Catholics you describe were not only nowhere to be found, I had no idea such people even existed until I moved to Boston during college. The Catholics I grew up around had much more in common culturally and politically with Southern evangelicals than the East Coast lefty Catholics I got to know as an adult. They still do for the most part.

I’ve spent the last several years living in DC and now Brooklyn, but my job has sent me back to the home town in Texas for six weeks of training. Last Thursday, I had dinner with two friends (both about 15 years older than me) from the parish I grew up in. We got to talking about our kids, and one of my friends mentioned that he thinks his daughter (in her early 20s) is probably a lesbian. I have the same impression but don’t know for sure one way or the other (I’m friendly on Facebook with her) and told him so. At this point, I need to explain exactly how conservative this man is. He carries a concealed weapon at all times (not that uncommon in Texas), BUT – he told us that he even carries it to church, because he wants to be ready if ISIS invades through the southern border and attacks our church, which he reasons would be an obvious target (FYI, we are hundreds of miles from the border). He is 100% serious about this. That should give you an idea of where this man is coming from. Now, after he mentioned his suspicion about his daughter’s orientation, our other friend asked him how he would react if she came out to him.

He said that he’d tell her that he doesn’t share with her what he and her mother do in bed, so she doesn’t need to share it with him, but that he loves her and always will. He also told us that he’d respect her more if she came out instead of hiding who she is. One can certainly criticize this reaction, but there can be no question that it is one of unconditional love. We didn’t discuss any matters of church doctrine, but this is the type of attitude that I believe Pope Francis is trying show us we need to take towards our LGBT brothers and sisters: First and always love. This is how everyday Catholics know to treat real people in real life.

Andrew, if the hierarchy has lost my dear friend, who is as right-wing and reactionary as they come, I honestly don’t know who they still have. Both my friend and his daughter love the church and are quite active in it. As you’ve written, Francis is forcing the bishops to finally have a conversation the faithful have been having for years. And I’m beginning to think that the sensus fidelium may be that there’s little left to discuss. We can only pray that Francis succeeds in leading the hierarchy into the light of Truth, the Truth being love. First and always love.

(Photo: Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images)