Dakota Beacon

To their credit, the longer people live the more experiences they accrue. Once upon a time older folks were considered wise by virtue of their accumulated experiences -- assuming they learned from their situations.

Conventional wisdom might depict the elderly at one extreme or another. Either they are incapacitated with senility or they are mild mannered grandmothers or grandfathers serving up tidbits of profound knowledge.

There is a third option, however. A fair number of these people are more apt to exhibit irascibility spawned by the foolishness incessantly displayed in today’s pop-culture. The applicable term for these folks is “curmudgeon.”

So, what is a curmudgeon? A dictionary would define such a person as irascible, cantankerous and maybe even a bit churlish. Maybe so. But, a curmudgeon’s reputation for being malevolent, nasty, mean and malicious is totally undeserved. A curmudgeon may come across as an unlikable grouch, but he, or she, is not mean-spirited. They can be as tenderhearted as the next person.

It would be wrong to think of a curmudgeon as a misanthrope. They don’t hate mankind. They just don’t have much truck with mankind’s excesses and stupidity.

Like the rational people they are, a curmudgeon will growl at pretentiousness, posturing and self-importance.

These realists snap at insincerity and duplicity regarding such qualities as dishonest and fraudulent.

Curmudgeons are quick to attack emotional and sentimental dispositions where firm reason and sound logic should prevail.

These irascible people would just as soon hurl vitriolic bombshells as remain silent when confronted with affectation.

Nature has not endowed these quick-tempered folks with a workable denial mechanism preparing them to ignore foolishness when on display. Consequently, their impulses override any sense of political correctness.

Nature has, however, given curmudgeons astute perception and keen wit with which to defend themselves against the slings and arrows of absurdity.

Their defense is an undeniable offense against which they brandish their weapons of irony, satire, sarcasm and ridicule.

The targets of their ire are legion. They include multiple daily displays of pretense, pomposity, conformity and incompetence.

Curmudgeons are mockers and debunkers. Their sourness stems from their inability to compromise their standards and their powerlessness to suspend disbelief at what they see around them. Their awareness and sensitivity is worn like a curse. Above all they have the cheek to comment on the human condition at will. They refuse to tolerate, much less cheer on, mediocrity. Their conception of truth is unsettling to those around them even as they soften their contempt with humor.

Curmudgeonly behavior is not limited to gender although the quintessential curmudgeon must be lexicographer, editor and reporter H. L. Mencken. Some of the great curmudgeons include Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O’Neill, Fran Lebowitz and Dorothy Parker. Add to the list Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, G. K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw, Groucho Marx and W. C. Fields to name a few.

It was Mencken who observed, “It is a fine thing to face machine guns for immortality and a medal, but isn’t it a fine thing, too, to face calumny, injustice and loneliness for the truth which makes men free?”

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).