Better Than the Middle Finger

The middle finger is fascinating. The longest of all fingers, when raised, it’s message is unmistakable. Without uttering a word you can tell anyone, “F*ck You!” This gesture communicates in ways that words cannot. From car to car, to a large crowd without a microphone, or across a large crowded room. If they can see your hand, you can tell them how you really feel.

For some, raising your middle finger to drop the f-bomb on someone feels better than saying it. Many think that saying the “f” word feels too vulgar. Perhaps this is why so many have grown fond of extending their middle finger.

Today it is commonplace; woven into the fabric of our communication to the extent that most barely notice it. Last week I read more than a dozen blogs and many news articles. In several of them writers went to great lengths to pay a gesture to someone with their lone, central digit.

This may raise questions as to what kind of blogs and articles I am reading. Let me set your mind at ease. Many of the blogs were written by those who call themselves Christians. The articles were from respectable news sources.

So, what does any of this have to do with the middle finger? Good question.

In all the blogs and articles no author came out and literally wrote the words, “F*ck you!” What they wrote was slightly less offensive; like the middle finger. They did not have to say the actual words because their writing clearly sent the message for them.

Much of what I read was about someone else’s way of thinking or something another had said. The writers took it upon themselves not to address only to what was said, but also used their words to destroy the person who said them. It seemed less a response and more a hostile reaction.

The times I have extended my middle finger have been in reaction to someone who has made me angry. This is not an excuse, mind you, but an observation. For years it was a basic law of my existence. Every provocation was met with a middle finger. It works the other way too.

I have been flipped off too many times to count, and with good reason. I provoked the person to the point where their middle finger rose to the occasion.

Flipping a person off is nearly always a reaction to someone who has roused our anger. In my reading last week it dawned on me. Much of what was written was a reaction to someone who said or did something that roused the anger of the author. The articles were little more than a linguistic middle finger.

When we waste our time in reaction we don’t move anywhere. We just stall and hover over a particular argument. Soon the argument or issue at hand evaporates quickly, and our communication devolves into personal attacks.

It struck me as horribly unoriginal. These blogs were as uncreative as wildly, gesticulating with your longest finger, and annoying as someone who uses the word "f*ck" as an adjective for everything. Surely, we can do better than this. The world does not need more middle fingers. Most of us already have two, barring an unfortunate accident.

What we do need is fresh thinking that invites the consideration of new possibilities. Storytellers that incite imagination. Voices that paint an alternative picture of the future. This is necessary if we are ever to move ahead.

Of course, there is a warning in all of this. If you choose to propose new ways of thinking, or chart new territory that spurs imagination, chances are you will provoke someone. And that person may have grown quite fond of extending their middle finger.