Clever Title eh? I stayed up all night trying to think of it.....
Anyway, from Bob Herbert's column today in the NYT:
Al Gore slipped into Manhattan last week and gave a rousing speech downtown before a very young audience at New York University. He got some coverage, but Mr. Gore has never been mistaken for an entertainer. In the superamplified media din created by the likes of Arnold and Kobe and Ben and Jen, it's very difficult for the former vice president, a certified square, to break into the national conversation.
That says a lot about us and the direction we're headed in as a nation. You can agree with Mr. Gore's politics or not, but some of the points he's raising, especially with regard to President Bush's credibility on such crucial issues as war and terror and the troubled economy, deserve much closer attention.
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The essence of Mr. Gore's speech was that these corrosive false impressions were part of a strategic pattern of distortion that the Bush administration used to create support not just for the war, but for an entire ideologically driven agenda that overwhelmingly favors the president's wealthy supporters and is driving the federal government toward a long-term fiscal catastrophe.
What if Mr. Gore is right? There's something at least a little crazy about an environment in which people are literally stumbling over one another to hear what Arnold Schwarzenegger has to say about the budget crisis in California (short answer: nothing), while ignoring what a thoughtful former vice president has to say about the budget and the economy of the U.S.
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"The Bush administration has managed to dodge the hard questions and benefit from an atmosphere in which the media and much of the public would rather contemplate Jennifer's navel and Arnold's fading pecs than pursue a possible pattern of deceit at the highest levels of government."
This is close to my own possible doomsday scenario. We've pointed to a lot of sources to blame for Bush's corruption and malfeasance: His PR Team is just too deceptive, he's not afraid to lie, people are willing to cut the President some slack in times of national crisis (but how long is this supposed crisis going to last exactly...?), the media have let the public down by acting as cheerleaders for the administration and its policies, leading Democrats have been afraid to challenge Bush, we're all afraid of looking unpatriotic (but what does it mean to be patriotic exactly?...another post for another time.)
There are a litany of reasons, these and others, and most of them are true to differing degrees. But here's one that Herbert brings out in his column, albeit gently, but it still takes courage to mention it.
It is OUR fault, the public, the people, whatever, that this guy gets away with what he does. We're simply too damn busy with our own little lives, watching American Idol, playing golf, playing videogames...we're simply too damn busy to care, or worse, we just don't give a shit. Don't get me wrong, hobbies and entertainment and, yes, even American Idol are all fine to a degree. But when these things NARCOTIZE us, the public, to the point that really important issues are drowned out, our society and civilization are in jeopardy.
A gross exageration? Well, maybe. But consider the following:
Could it be that we just don't give a shit when people in other parts of the world die?
Could it be that we just don't give a shit when the poor have necessary govt. services cut because of an outrageous, regressive taxcut?
Could it be that we just don't give a shit about corporate thievery, stolen elections, famine across the globe, disasters that hit places we can't locate on a map, etc... because we think that these issues somehow don't affect us?? Well, at least, maybe not yet.
Bob Herbert is right. There is a serious problem when the latest rumor about J. Lo and Ben generates more attention than a massive White House scandal.
The evididence is out there folks. And this time it's not the media's fault or anyone else's. The problem lies with us as a nation and a culture, and I hope to God that we do indeed give a shit about the items I've listed. But more and more these days, I have my doubts.
Posted by mike at August 11, 2003 02:30 PM