Sodom and Gomorrah

[Warning: something about this word made me go really biblical.]

The word of the day is....drum roll...flagitious, an adjective meaning disgracefully or shamefully criminal; grossly wicked; scandalous.

Hmmm...this could be fun.  Who or what does the word flagitious bring to mind?  People who cheated on the Bankruptcy exam since it was so easy?  The instructions were to do it at home but on our honor, to only spend three hours.  In the hyper-competitive world of law school, I'm guessing some people caved to the pressure.  But honestly, I don't really care about those people.  If their integrity is worth a little jump in one grade then either they will feel guilty about that for far longer than I will remember my grade in the class.  Or by the time they are seasoned lawyers they won't even notice the whistling sound wind makes passing through the spot where their souls used to be.  Or somewhere in between, the point is I don't care.

People who cheated on life because it was so easy?  (I'm picturing you Bernie Madoff.)  Nah, again his conscience should be punishment enough.  And if it isn't enough, then maybe there is such a thing as karma, he recently had to go into a medical prison facility because he had dizziness and high blood pressure.  Even if there is no such thing as karma and he is just sick, his illness just makes it slightly less likely he will finish out his 150 year sentence.  So while I think the situation he left people in was truly terrible, the feeling of sorrow for those who lost everything is not mitigated by Madoff's sickness.  Somehow he just seems like an old sick man.

I guess the first real thought that comes to mind when I hear the word flagitious is how it doesn't apply to our world anymore.  These stories above and many more have dulled the meaning of flagitious.  As if the idea of grossly wicked acts has been overused and stretched out and not allowed a proper cooling off period between applications and now it just lies there like a single, irrelevant, gross old gym sock which you won't use again.  What happened to times when things could be scandalously, disgracefully, and shamefully criminal?

DWIs and drugs and flashing your "Britney"
Offenses and transgressions untainted by litany.
Frauds and lies and crimes that are vicious
All threw a retirement party for good old flagitious.