Immoderation

Everyone agrees that life is lived most satisfyingly if done with a sense of balance. Implicit is the need for moderation in all things. And underlying moderation is recognition of humility as a basic virtue. We as a community, political and otherwise, seem to have downgraded humility from a foundational virtue to an embarrassing symptom of lack of self-esteem, which now itself towers as the supreme virtue. Because we are always right about everything, and we have the right to do, say, own, or denigrate everything, we no longer see any need to be moderate about anything we do, say, own, or seek to destroy. The result is the utter immoderation which now passes for public political discourse. Limiting discussion to the facts ? Who needs it, that's for the humble chumps who believe that being factually right is the same thing as being right because I said so. So the more outrageous the lie, the more bombastic the position, the better - there are legions waiting to accept as truth anything, everything, that supports in the listener his view that he is justified in his hate, that his ignorance is not ignorance at all but the wisdom of "real Americans".