Show don’t tell is an important principle for life, as well as story telling. Most successful writers understand the importance of “show don’t tell.” Any information you can transmit to the audience visually, without words, you should. Watch the beginning of any Better Call Saul. The show often begins with a long, wordless sequence in which we follow Jimmy McGill or Mike Ermentraut as they go about their business. Jimmy in his Cinnabon. Mike obtaining a fake ID card. At the end of the sequence you nod. “Now I see!” The principle also applies to prose. You could write “Vern was a vicious creep.” Or you could write “Vern crossed the street to kick a homeless dog.” The latter makes the point more strongly than stating Vern’s characteristics.
There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of ordinary people who go out of their way to help others. They donate to worthy organizations. They volunteer at soup kitchens. Most of them don’t take selfies of themselves feeding the homeless and write, “Here I am feeding the homeless!” The fact that they do so without fanfare, often incognito, reveals far more about themselves than bold announcements.
“Show don’t tell” is at odds with today’s virtue signaling culture. The virtue signal is now more important than life itself. The ubiquitous WE BELIEVE lawn sign sprouted following Trump’s 2016 win. This is no coincidence. Trump is a loudmouth and a braggart. He’s easy to dislike on superficial characteristics. But no President in our lifetime has delivered more for the average American. Gas was cheap. Inflation was low. Our enemies feared us. The “media,” however, which I call the lickspittle, had different ideas. Insulated in their urban enclaves, cut off from any meaningful interaction with real Americans in the heartland, which they refer to as “flyover country,” the lickspittle dutifully and willingly became a branch of the Democrat National Committee. The New York Times proudly declared objectivity was not important. Don’t take my word for it. Search for “NYT declares objectivity not important.” Don’t use Moogle. Use Freespoke, Swisscows, or Duckduckgo.
Back to the sign.
“The sign's design was originally created by librarian Kristin Garvey, of Madison, Wisconsin. Garvey thought of the concept the day after the 2016 United States presidential election, a day she described as more of a sense of loss than after any other election.”
Madison is my home town. I visited recently and walked around the block in a trendy neighborhood. I counted thirteen WE BELIEVE signs. What prompts a person to plant such a sign in their yard? Why the advertisement? One of the signs of narcisissm is “Requires excessive admiration [regularly fishes for compliments, and is highly susceptible to flattery].” You can parse that sign however you want. Some of my best friends have displayed that sign. Not to argue with any of the tenets. Except one. “NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL.” Nice sentiment. But if that human sneaks across the border carrying fifty pounds of fentanyl, there might be issues. We are reaping the fruits of that sign on our southern border. Over 80,000 Americans died of fentanyl overdoses in 2022. So perhaps that mule with the backpack might be illegal. I’m not declaring xim illegal. The United States is. The law requires:
In most cases, someone must sponsor you or file an immigrant petition for you.
Wait until the petition is approved and a visa is available in your category. Then apply for an immigrant visa. ...
Get a medical examination.
Go to an interview.
Wait for a decision on your application.
If you spot a car with its hind quarters festooned with bumper stickers, odds are that person is a liberal.
“Modern American liberalism is no longer a system of beliefs about the role of government, the conduct of international relations, or the nature of personal responsibility. Rather, it has become a series of bumper stickers—actual bumper stickers that signal mental bumper stickers. They don't make sense individually. They don't make sense in concert. But if you peel them away, one by one, from the foreheads of liberals, there's nothing underneath.” —Mark Goldblatt.
Or as Emerson put it, "The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."
Show, don’t tell.
My wife followed the law to immigrate and taught herself English before arriving. Over three years of following the processes and $15,000 of expenses later, we are still waiting for paperwork from the government. Apparently we are the fools for following the law.
Old saying: "What you do speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say."