"It's Only a Sentence"

So at the moment you don't have to go too far to find some debate or discussion about the Gordon Brown gaffe. Not without merit, of course, and its good to see the notion of British herd mentality somewhat dispelled by the variety of opposing reactions. However, there is one particular reaction that demonstrates the most detestable, absent-minded pseudo-intellectual way of thinking. "It's only a sentence", "people are over reacting" and variations thereupon. This is a stock response that crops up at every major news story. Jordan and Peter divorce; so what? There are more important things happening. This is true, but the problem with this response is that it has become automated at the cost of actual thought. Is what Brown said "only a sentence?" Well of course, at face value. "Arbeit Macht Frei" is only a sentence, yet it evokes half a decade of genocide. "I have a dream" is only (part of) a sentence, yet it fuelled the biggest breakthough for human rights in history. "The force will be with you, always" is only a sentence, yet it gave demi-God status to a man who made three slightly cheesy sci-fi movies. What these airheaded backlashers have apparently completely failed to grasp that it is 'only' a sentence providing you take a totally superficial approach to words, not allowing for any word to resonate beyond its aesthetic impact.
"Bigoted woman" sounds horrible, especially when said about a pensioner who is only bigoted in the eyes of someone who believes expressing a slight concern about immigration is a bigoted view. In any other context, say for example a pub conversation turned heated and one participant branded the other a bigot, which I've seen happen plenty of times, a mass reaction would be an over reaction. But in this context, the key to the outrage being justified is the context of who the words were said by, and what they evoke. With 'only a sentence', Brown has made public what anyone with fully-functioning neural passages has always suspected, that the public face of a politician is not worth the steam off their piss. With 'only a sentence' Gordon Brown has more-or-less confirmed that he thinks anybody with differing opinions to his are bigoted, even his own supporters. In short, that minute or so of dialogue from inside the car has revealed that the current Prime Minster (and it would be arguably naive not to assume this also applies to the potential two) is a complete fraud, who has nothing in common with his public persona and has no faith in the intelligence of his supporters, the people who stuck by a man that nobody voted for and spent his years in power trying to get other people to tidy up the financial mess he helped make before he was in charge. As such, the reaction is more than justified, and not 'another example of the British dwelling on triviality' as somebody put it. If this is what a politician thinks of supporters with a slightly divergent regard for some of his values, what the hell does he think of the people who outright disagree with him? "Dogshit nazis conceived to fuel the coal-heap" is one option. Feel free to suggest others. Its only a sentence, and a sentence is all it takes to turn the world on its head.