August 9, 2021

A Tale of Two “Skits”

It has been a wild ride in America since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.  No one I’ve spoken to can recall a time when there was so much unrest in society.  Even all the unrest in the 1960s related to civil rights, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War, pale in comparison to 2020.  In 2020-2021, we’ve had police brutality, rioting, extensive destruction of government & personal property, multiple crime waves, subversion, racism, inner-city murders on an unprecedented scale, assault & battery in broad daylight, and hate crimes of every type.  In fact, who would have thought that one of the most security-conscious environments, passenger airliners, would see so many on-board fights & unruly passengers?  It was a chaotic year that surprised and disturbed most of us.  I saw things that I never dreamed I would see in my lifetime.

Back in 1970 I was a junior in high school.  I had always been interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff that it took to make movies & T.V. shows.  So, I took an elective that year in school called “Technical Theater.”  We learned all about building sets, lighting, filming, script supervision, etc.  The Technical Theater class served as the production crew for any school plays or concerts.

One day we were gathered in the school’s theater waiting for a beginner’s acting class to finish before we could start some set construction.  The beginners were doing improvised, satirical skits, so we casually watched the last two.

In the first skit the teens all lined-up facing the audience.  When the teacher called, “action,” the students all started acting like little kids who were standing in a line.  They fidgeted, whispered to each other, and jabbed elbows into their neighbor.  Typical little kids with ants-in-their-pants.  One kid took a step forward and said, “the first grade class of Mary Louise Phillips Elementary School will now say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.” The kid got back in line and told the others, “right hand over your heart, ready…begin…”

As they started to say the pledge, some elbowing got out of hand and two boys shoved each other.  Finally, one of them was knocked to the ground, and the other kid kicked him.  At this point the Pledge stopped, and all of the kids in the line ran up to the kid on the ground.  Rather than helping him up, they jumped-in with the bully who started it, and pretended to give this kid a class “A” beat-down!  When they were done, they got back in line.  The kid on the ground was now “dead.”  After the kids were lined-up again, they cleared their throats and said “…with liberty and justice for all.”

It was supposed to be satirical and we all chuckled mildly.  At the time I thought, “well, that was pretty far-fetched…ha!…like that would ever happen in real life.”

The second skit had the students laying on the stage as if they were relaxing under some trees in the park.  One kid declared, “it’s a nice day.”  Another said rather laconically, “yep, it’s a nice day.”  A third kid apparently thought the second kid was being mockingly sarcastic, so he ran over to the second one and loudly yelled in his face, IT’S A NICE DAY!!!”  The rest of the kids started chanting, “it’s a nice day…it’s a nice day…it’s a nice day,” as they closed-in on the second kid.  The second kid tried to leave, but the group shoved him to the ground and beat the living daylights out of him!  Once the second kid acted like he was knocked-out, the others laid down to relax on the grass again.  The very first kid who made the nice day comment piped-up and said, “you know, it REALLY is a nice day.”

Hmmm…So, what is the tale of the two skits?  In a Vietnam Era, American high school, I saw two skits with ridiculously weird outcomes.  There’s no way that either scenario could occur in real life, right?  A group of ordinary people could never be so unbalanced that they would assault another person for no apparent reason.  I held this belief over the past 50 years; there was NO tale to tell about the two skits…they were just part of a scriptwriter’s imagination.

Then 2020 came around and changed how I felt about the Tale of the Two Skits.  The screwy circumstances in the skits were no longer implausible.  We are in an era of contempt by many toward our national symbols…The Pledge of Allegiance, The National Anthem, and the U.S. Flag.  And the contempt for these symbols has now transcended the average citizen to public institutions and elected officials.  What used to be symbols of unity, are now lightning rods of divisiveness.

What about the kids in the first skit symbolizing what is normally a benign gathering…saying the Pledge of Allegiance?  Kids and adults will both act out sometimes, and the level of behavior used to be more commensurate to the situation.  We were taught that if you need to argue, do it behind closed doors, or take it outside if it is really heated.  Nowadays people seem determined that whatever might occur between two people is not taken off-line; it is going down right where they stand in the grocery line, in the bleachers at a ball game, or a local park while kids play on the nearby jungle gym.  What used to be two people discussing differing viewpoints, is now an open disagreement.  An open disagreement is now a serious argument.  A serious argument is now a shoving match.  A shoving match is now physical assault.  Physical assault is now battery with the intent to do serious physical harm.  The intent to do serious physical harm has now escalated into the use of weapons for defensive self-protection.  And finally, defensively brandishing a weapon to break-free from a fight is now using a weapon to permanently stop an altercation with someone, by killing them.

In the second skit, the teenager who took exception to what the second kid said, did so by simply reacting and immediately passing judgment.  No wisdom or discernment was applied…just react and judge.  American society is experiencing an unprecedented wave of public reaction & judgment.  Wisdom, discernment and cooler heads prevailing, seems lacking in 2020 America.

In today’s world, the Tale of Two Skits from 50 years ago would still be considered satirical.  But, do the two scenarios, or something similar, still seem like an absurd piece of fiction in 2021?  The underlying human behavior (not actual school kids or teens in a park) and the outcomes seem quite plausible to me.  If the American Dream could be compared to a sunny day, I would say the sun is still there…it just does not rise as high as it used to.

I feel certain that someday American society will exceed the fiction of The Tale of Two Skits…sigh…

Ciao,

Steve Miller, IAPWE – Certified & Member
Managing Editor
The Report on National Security Kinetics™
Seattle, WA. USA
vietvetsteve@millermgmtsys.com