Exuscitatio (ex-us-ci-ta’-ti-o): Stirring others by one’s own vehement feeling (sometimes by means of a rhetorical question, and often for the sake of exciting anger).
“Who else has had enough of this bullshit? Larry, what about you? You’re a spineless lizard with no backbone! Carl? How long are you going to stand there pooping in your pants before you do something? Wha are you? A pack of broken down geriatric weasels with poor eyesight, bunions, congested lungs, and wild free-range dripping bladders?”
Bill was at it again. At least once a week he tried to foment revolution at “Frisky Pines Nursing Home.” For some reason, he believed that demeaning the residents of Frisky Pines would rally them to his cause. He was wrong—the bad things he said about everybody depressed them and made them want to go back to their rooms and cry or watch TV, especially at 4:00 when “Happy Betty” came on the tube.
She would put a positive spin on the hell they were going through as they headed for death. She would say things like “Pooping yourself is like baking a chocolate cake in your PJs.” This would cheer up the pants poopers—especially when they were wiped, believing their “cake” was being iced by their nurse. She said their bunions were like “lilies on a hill” making their “footscapes” scenic.
This is all quite insane, but Happy Betty’s show “Going, Going, Gone” was the number one show watched in nursing homes throughout the United States. In second place was “Put Out The Lights.” It was a docu-drama about elderly people, suicide, and euthanasia. They kept statistics on how many people “died” after viewing the show. They also tracked how many episodes it took to get them over the edge. The average was 4. Even though it was less popular, Put Out the Lights’ impact was more tangible. Two of its biggest sponsors were the International Association of Undertakers and the World Congress of Organ Harvesters
All of this is what angered Bill. He had been a part of at least 25-30 protest movements during sixties. From Aardvarks to Zygotes, he had seen it all. He had taken a lot of acid and seen a lot of things. He decided to burn down the nursing home to end the exploitation of the residents—the taking or their money, deluding them and prodding them to die. He lit a fire in his wastepaper basket and the fire alarm went off. He was laughing maniacally when the orderlies broke into his room.
He was taken away for “observation.” He was never seen again.
Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu
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