There are times when I feel a kindred spirit to Howard Beale(1). Some may remember Howard – he was played by Peter Finch in the 1976 film classic ‘Network’ – who, as the Network News anchor-man, exhorted the mums and dads of America to get up out of their seats, throw up their windows, lean out, and howl their frustrations to the world…
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
For those with a more nuanced bent, a gentler alternative might be the Yellow Pages boss who – partially – lifted the window and caustically cried after her departing staffer… ‘Not happy, Jan!’
I fear Lorne may soon reverberate to my own caustic frustrations when, coincident with yet another sensationalist report by the media, I rush to the deck and bellow to the vacant beach “this unprecedented repetition of ‘unprecedented’ is unprecedented… I have listened to my last newscast – ever!”
It is true that – occasionally – something truly new does occur in the course of human history. The glimmer from Sputnik as seen by a curious 11-year old boy in a darkened Geelong back yard in October 1957 was, in my view, an unprecedented moment. The first ripple-soled imprint of Neil Armstrong’s boot in the soft moon dust was unarguably unprecedented – unless, that is, you are one of the misguided few who embrace the more conspiratorial interpretation of those events! The cresting of the world in 1953 by Hillary and Tensing and the 1960 descent by Walsh and Piccard into the Mariana Trench inside the bathyscaphe ‘Trieste’ … both were undeniably unprecedented.
But, as for the breathless – and almost invariably incorrect – over-application of that word [I simply cannot bring myself to type it again] to mark and describe the undeniably challenging but not unprecedented events of recent times… well, really, ‘get a grip!’
Or, if ‘getting a grip’ eludes, then best seek another word!
I do not seek to diminish the emotional turmoil, practical impact, or up-ending enormity of the changes, challenges, limitations, and re-imagining forced on us all by recent events – whether this has resulted from fire, weather, famine, viral, or economic threat … the recovery of lives and livelihoods from which will take years, decades, to re-imagine. But, please, look to history. None of the events that have recently been dubbed as ‘unprecedented’ are ‘unprecedented’… not a single one!
Considering pandemics, the Justinian Plague of Roman times is estimated to have killed between 25-100 million. The Black Death of the 14th century some 50 million souls: between ¼ and ½ of the then European population. The Spanish Flu – the deadliest known pandemic in history – affected 500 million people world-wide [about a third of the population of the planet at the time] and killed some 8-10% of them.
As for fire, and while the extent of the fires of pre-recorded times is clearly unknown, the recent fire season [2019-20] was neither the largest in estimated size [1974], nor the most destructive of property [1939], while the greatest loss of life occurred in 2009(1). While none of this should be seen as some ghoulish competition, facts do seem to be facts, and these data certainly suggest precedent.
In economic terms, the current turmoil is challenging and will clearly be a difficult period for governments, businesses, and individuals alike to negotiate… but unprecedented? No. National and global periods of financial stress – nay, crisis – are common… with the Great Depression still far and away the most profound in modern history, albeit dozens of similar blocks of financial disaster dot the pages of history back to Roman times(2).
A simple ‘synonyms’ search in Thesaurus for ‘unprecedented’ yields a number of candidate replacements – indeed, 56 returned from my search of that essential tome, despite that some appeared to be listed twice in various guises. A few of these: bizarre; extraordinary; unparalleled; aberrant; freakish, exceptional… could be occasionally interchangeable with ‘that word.’ 
Another tantalising possibility recently occurred to me when witnessing our Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, describe the Covid-19 budget blow-out as ‘eye-watering’ [magically, his eyes obeyed, right on cue, with his use of the descriptor]… the idea of developing a range of physiological shock-and-awe terms.
With this thought in mind, I have added a few body-functional parallels of my own… eye-watering; nose-wrinkling; brow-furrowing; heart-stopping; breath-stealing; gut-wrenching; spine-tingling; sac-contracting; navel-everting; hole-puckering; lip-pursing; jaw-dropping; gob-smacking; knee-trembling; sweat-drawing; and there is even oh-f***ing.
And so to my thought for the week… let’s bin the ‘unprecedented‘ word, unless a true lack of precedent can be exampled and confirmed.
Better yet, the next time you hear that word being uttered without substantiation on the nightly news… consider channelling your very best, most eloquent Howard Beale, and do your own impression of his ‘dummy spit to beat all dummy spits’…
Get up out of your chair of isolation… go out onto your deck, or into your garden… face the east [well, why not?]… and yell…
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore”
It may not diminish the inane use of the word; it may not de-activate the cloying lack of rigour in its use; but it may make you feel just that little bit better… and put you into a calmer frame of mind to face Gogglebox!
John Agar
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