#ugly
My timeline is ugly.
The news is ugly.
Statues revering people who enslaved others are ugly.
Nazi salutes, at any time ever, is as ugly as it gets.
Racism is ugly.
Posting against #Blacklivesmatter is ugly.
Criticising rational people demonstrating for equality is ugly.
Whataboutery is ugly.
Ignorance is ugly.
The confederate flag is ugly.
Using dog-whistling political tactics is ugly.
It’s time to expunge ugly. It really is.
Ugly makes you angry, sad, repulsed, rejected, fearful and desolate.
Hope is good but we need more fierce beauty and rock-solid kindness in the world. We need to cut the ugly off as we would a tumour-like growth. Starve it of exposure, cut off its supply and let it wither and die.
How do we do so?
We see the ugly and immediately we are shocked, we let out our abomination. But ugly doesn’t care, ugly wants you to notice it and is resplendent in its ugliness.
We need elegance, smartness, dignity. As Michelle Obama once said ‘when they go lower, we go higher.’
Making ugly the butt of something wickedly humorous isn’t ignoring the subject. It’s showing craft, intelligence and wit to overcome the violence and stench of ignorance.
If you have to share something online about ugly, do so with as much sharp wit and ridicule as you can. Don’t show your shock, show your sharpness of mind and make ugly the pathetic, embarrassing thing it is.
Ugly hates being ridiculed. It shrinks, it is embarrassing. Ugly loves the shock, horror, indignation and outcries. It hates being made to look ‘silly’. Making ugly feel pathetic is like the foam on a flame. Doused.
Controversial I know, but those herberts in London today, were I a police officer, I’d pull down their shorts not hit them with batons. Watch them struggle to cover up their beer-bellies, tiny weiners and bare butts to hide their embarrassment in front of their ‘friends’.
Don’t spray them with pepper spray, spray them with stinky, eggy water. Have their journey home be a disgusting, smelly affair.
OK, I know the logistics of this are not as easy as I’ve made out but you get my point, hopefully.
I’m reminded of the story of how one local authority combated anti-social behaviour in younger people hanging around, doing intimidating things to others in an underpass. They installed fluorescent lighting that highlighted acne. Kids disappeared overnight.
Want to drown out ugly chants? Play some Rhapsody in Blue at the highest volume possible.
Want to eradicate ugly?
Get rid of its putrid stench with some fierce pungent wit and beauty.
