Mel Gibson's Rant

Mel Gibson is in trouble again with the media because of his rant to his wife Oksana Grigorieva. Most of the media is quick to jump on the condemnation bandwagon and say that Mel is just a terrible human being and stuff like that, but I want to offer a different perspective.

The words that Mel uses during the phone conversations are pretty terrible. He is extremely angry and shouts racial slurs and uses threatening language. But this is not uncommon, unfortunately. I doubt very many readers of this blog could honestly admit they've never lashed out at somebody and said some unfortunate things. Telephone can be particularly bad because you must project your anger using only words and not expressions.

What I see in the conversation is a man who has become extremely angry and is unable to control it. He lashes out and tries to find the most offensvie things to say. Many people are guilty of this. But fortunately, our conversations are not usually recorded for the world to hear.

I'm suspicious as to how this stuff even got on tape in the first place. My assumption is that Oksana either recorded it herself or had someone else do it. I think it is extremely unlikely that someone had the phone bugged and then released the conversations. Therefore her actions seem rather terrible as well. I doubt she set up a recorded to record nice things he had to say. She knew he would react improperly and she wanted to have a record of it.

I am not defending what Gibson did here, but I also have an issue with how Oksana was communicating. It seems like she is purposely trying to provoke him. She maintains this very cool, catty tone, which only provokes Mel's anger more. The things she says only inflame Gibson. The reason people lash out verbally at someone else is to hurt them. When it seems that what they are saying is having no effect, the angry person will up the ante until the other one reacts in some way.

I think if Oksana was in a real conversation, she would lash back at Mel, not sit there seeming unaffected by what he was saying, almost teasing him and provoking him even further.

Imagine this situation. You are quite angry with someone and the two of you are in an argument. You set up recording devices for your phone, then you call that person with the objective of rilling them up and provoking their anger. I can certainly imagine a situation like this erupting. To me it seems inconceivable that Oksana was not behind this recording and I believe her only motivation was to defame Mel's character.

I do not wish to minimize anything that Mel did or said during his explosive conversation, I just want to give another point of view. It seems there is some level of hypocricy when people act as though they've never been angry or said mean things to someone or that Mel is suddenly the worst person on Earth.

I also want to add that Mel Gibson has not been officially found guilty of physical abuse. I will leave that to the proper authorities. Obviously if what Oksana alleges about Mel's actions toward her in the presence of her child are true, then it becomes a much more serious issue.

I also want to add that I am not defending Mel Gibson and that if you see it as such it is not related to his religion. Some people might think I am defending Mel because he is Catholic. But the truth is, he is not in communion with the Pope and has formed a splinter group, so I wouldn't defend him on that grond anyway.

One thing we can learn about this phone conversation is how bad anger can be. Anger, like all sins, always seems unquenchable. We are never satisfied. People who get angry just get worse and worse. The anger builds until eventually violence can occur. Anger is one of the seven deadly sins.