Over the last decade or so, I’ve been bothered by the increasingly common use of the verb “grab” in online ads, TV commercials and general conversation. Here are some examples:.
“Let’s grab a sandwich.” Okay, pretty benign, just a colloquialism.
“5 years from now, you’ll probably wish you’d grabbed this stock.” From the Motely Fool today. Implications of desperation, greed, get-it-before-its-too-late, don’t be stupid.
“Grab this deal before its gone.” Same, with the implication that one needs to act quickly to beat out others.
“Grab ‘em by the …” Crass, offensive, implications of special rights for the privileged, denigration, disrespect, domination, wrongful assertion of power.
At the core of all this is the notion that we should act in our own self-interests, and quickly, before someone else has the same idea and takes something of value away from us. Sometimes this notion is justified by the (in my opinion false) Ayn Randian narrative that overall good, overall progress, is made when each of us acts in our own self-interest. This leads to a highly transactional and self-centered philosophy of personal interaction. Where have we seen that, and its results, in the last four years?
There was an interesting article by Cameron Hilditch yesterday in the National Review related to the grabbing problem. The article’s title is “Self Interest is Not Enough” and it discusses President Lincoln’s argument in 1854 against Stephen Douglas’s doctrine of Popular Sovereignty under which states and other localities would be allowed to make their own decisions about the continuation of slavery. Lincoln argued strongly against the idea that “there is no right principal of action but self-interest.” The article can be found here: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/abraham-lincoln-american-founding-self-interest-not-enough/#slide-1 .
Recently, a subset of Trump supporters have declared mask-wearing during our pandemic to be an assault on individual freedoms. On more than one occasion I’ve read of anti-maskers elevating masks to such a symbolic height that they say, “If I die, I die.” What worries many of us about such statements is not so much the absurdity and stupidity of not taking such a simple precaution. Rather, it is the blatant disregard for the safety of others. Yes, masks do give the wearer some measure of protection, but they are even more effective in preventing the spread of the virus from the wearer outward. And none of us can be certain at any given time that we are not unwitting carriers.
So, my hope for the coming year is that we will all learn to be much more giving and much less grabbing. Maybe the new bumper sticker should be, “Give More, Grab Less.”