Going for the Jugular

The season 4 finale of The Walking Dead , AMC's hit show about an apocalypse of "walkers" and survivors, set a new record with 15.7 million viewers.  The episode was a doozy of a cliffhanger, and had me on the edge of my seat. Central character Rick in the prior world was an integrity-driven sheriff, and struggles with what is required to survive in the new world. Most of the people the group of survivors meet are ruthlessly evil, more to be feared than the zombies. When some of those depraved marauders surprise Rick and company in the still of the night, one holds a gun to Rick's head while the others attempt to 1) beat Rick's sidekick Daryl to death, 2) have their way with Rick's young son Carl and the lone woman in the group, Michonne, before they kill Rick. In the inevitable ensuing struggle, Joe (the incredibly bad guy) believes that he has Rick not just beaten up, but beaten. “What you gonna do now, sport?”, he taunts, inches from Rick's face.  With a nanosecond's  "whatever it takes" decision, Rick lunges forward and rips out Joe’s throat with his teeth! He severed the man's jugular vein, and Joe was powerless instantly, dead in less than a minute.

That made me think about a term I've used many times,  without truly and fully appreciating it. The jugular vein is a large and vulnerable artery in the throat which if ruptured will lead to swift death. When we say figuratively that someone "goes for the jugular" in an argument, we mean they attack ruthlessly, going straight and forcefully for someone's weak point, something they know will really hurt the other. We might attack a vital and vulnerable trait, a feature, a past failure--whatever is a sensitive area. And what's the reason we would do that? The same as Rick's motive--it's an attempt to overcome another person swiftly and totally. Maybe we're feeling attacked ourselves. Maybe we are just annoyed. Perhaps we just want to shut them down so we don't have to hear their opinions. Or it could just be that we want our own way.

So we go for the jugular. We say the thing we know will wound, hurt, shut them down. But the problem is, going for the the jugular doesn't create a minor flesh wound. Going for the jugular kills. Swiftly kills memories, relationships, possibilities. Oh, the people with the gaping wounds may still stick around, but they are the walking dead. The relationship has lost precious life.

You can make a case for going for the jugular if an enemy is actually threatening your life or that of a loved one, as in Rick's case. But to go for the jugular, you have to be in close contact. Figuratively speaking, the people with whom we are in close enough contact to know and hit their weak spot are not enemies--they are friends, family, brothers, sisters, spouses, children, parents. In a moment we have a desire to win so strong, we go for the jugular. We say the words that humiliate, hurt, horrify...we win.

But something dies. Something precious drains away.

I've been thinking. Rick's brutal bite was justified. But it was fictional. My bites are all too real, all too deadly. There's a better way. "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." Galatians 5:14-15