Word Study

 Chutzpah. 

I looked it up. "Shameless audacity, impudence." That's what the dictionary says. It comes from a Hebrew word, and one of the first cited examples is Moses arguing with God. "Why ten? Could you trim it down to five? Those stone tablets aren't light, ya know." 

Ferris Beuller had a lot of chutzpah. When he impersonated Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago, he was the living embodiment of the concept. Most of what Ferris does, especially on his day off, fits this model. 

So, is chutzpah a good thing? Some might say that wearing a red MAGA hat and no mask at an indoor rally shows a lot of chutzpah. Or is it something else?

How about when you're sitting across from the governor of a state that is on fire, and “ Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary for natural resources, said, "We want to work with you to really recognize the changing climate and what it means to our forest, and actually work together with that science. If we ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it’s all about vegetation management, we’re not going to succeed together protecting Californians.” The response? “K, it’ll start getting cooler. You just watch.”

So maybe that's chutzpah. 

But the exchange continued: “I wish science agreed with you,” Crowfoot said. And the reply? Well, I don’t think science knows, actually." 

The "president" is not trying to get a table at Chez Quiz. This is the man who continues to cling to his office in spite of all evidence that might have suggested that he is unfit for that office. Which makes it all the more bizarre that recently the "president" blamed his opponent in the upcoming election for not instituting a national mandate for wearing masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. Initially excusing his own tendency to go without he said, “Well, I do wear them when I have to and when I’m in hospitals and other locations.” And then he persisted, “But I will say this. They said at the Democrat convention they’re going to do a national mandate. They never did it, because they’ve checked out and they didn’t do it. And a good question is, you ask why Joe Biden. They said we’re going to do a national mandate on masks.”

Suddenly, I found myself being reminded not of Ferris Beuller, but of Spinal Tap's lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel. When asked about the knobs on his specially made amplifier, "Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?" After a long pause, Nigel responds dully, "These go to eleven."

Not chutzpah. Just dim. I think it's vital that we start to recognize the difference.