Words are Medicine

This is a short blog because the title nearly says it all.

Those four little words have been the basis for so much cruelty, stupidity, and thoughtlessness. And a little while back at a local festival, they became one of a long list of reasons for going off grid.

We were waiting on line to get into a wine festival–not even to drink the wine, but to listen to a particular band and get some of the goat cheese we knew was on sale there.

We waited in line for about an hour as grim-faced festival "officials" carded every single person there. Half of those waiting were clearly, unquestionably over 50 if not older. One was probably closer to 80. He got carded along with those who looked like they were 18.

At what point reason?

There was more. When I finally proved my age (far over 21) and got my ticket, the man who saw me GET the ticket and saw me put it in my pocket asked me to take it out of my pocket again so he could give me yet another stamp of approval–a bracelet.

At what point reason? At no point.

I thought of Hannah Arendt and her book The Banality of Evil and how ordinary, even necessary it can seem when it starts out.

I'm sure they believed they were utterly right and were protecting themselves by asking the elderly for ID's. They had liability insurance and, no doubt, those insurance companies had put the fear of God into them about a festival centered around alcohol. But to me, there was something uncomfortably unreasonable and unthinkingly banal about the entire process.

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