THINGS THAT (SURPRISE!) ANNOY ME

1/27/10

One might think that the entire Insightful Pontificator is, and has been since its inception, one huge and unceasing parade of things that annoy me, and one would be excused for thinking that way. But I have entitled today’s post as it is entitled because three things have come to mind, all of which are related, to varying degrees, to the current primary election in Illinois, which especially annoy me, and none of these is long enough, or annoying enough, to merit its own post.

Those of you who, like yours truly, were devoted fans of Mad magazine in your youths, will remember the regular feature in that greatest of periodicals entitled “Don’t You Hate?”. If so, this post should be very familiar, and may become a regular feature. So, without further adieu, things that annoy me:

--Robo-calls and radio ads by politicians decrying politicians and accusing their opponents of being politicians.

--Robo-calls and ads, usually from Republicans, that castigate the public sector and public sector employees while extolling the virtues of the private sector…sponsored by politicians who have never been on, let alone met, a private sector payroll.

--Those ads on television, usually for some inane prime time drama, but also occasionally for an investment firm or a politician, in which the subject of the ad, at its conclusion, stares into the camera with an earnest, and, one must guess, supposedly intimidating, look on his or her face and then folds his arms. You’ve seen the ads; you know the ads; c’mon, you are similarly annoyed by these ads. If you haven’t, don’t, or aren’t, you will be after reading this post. The look the subject gives the viewers is supposed to convey, one supposes, something like “I am serious; I am a player; I’m a big shooter; watch out for me, I’m a tough guy (or gal).” What it does convey, though, is something like “I have a grossly and groundlessly overinflated opinion of myself.” The folding of the arms? I don’t know that is supposed to convey. Most people who read body language say that folding of the arms is a defensive gesture, saying something like “You’re getting to me; you’re on to me. I know I’m a fraud, and I think I’ll just hunker down right now and hope you’ll go away without inflicting too much damage to my psyche or to my physical well being.” If that is a correct interpretation, it is especially appropriate for these ads, but one suspects that is not the message the advertising wonderboys intend to deliver to their audiences. But perhaps an accurate assessment of the mental horsepower of the typical television viewer, and especially of the prime time shows these ads generally are employed to promote, has led these Madison Avenue types to conclude that the obvious conclusion is well beyond the intended audience of these commercial messages.