For people who like to poke fun of people, this is no time to live. People just up and make asses of themselves these days. There’s no need for someone to point it out. Today’s newspapers are beginning to resemble The Onion. Only it’s all real. Yes, a man did get bitten by a rattlesnake attempting to pet it. Yes, a man was caught at LAX with 16 songbirds hidden in his pants. Yes, Oklahoma is taking federal money and complaining about the conditions placed on it. Yes, a hedge fund manager who bilked money from investors did accuse Obama of abuse of power. Yes, Rush Limbaugh did accuse Obama of starting Swine Flu. Yes, Texas did talk about seceding from the union. Yes, in each and every case, these were grown men and women. In some of the cases they were grown men and women that other grown men and women voted into office under the assumption that they weren’t windbag dumbshits. And maybe, compared to those that did the voting, they weren’t. But what does that say for the rest of us?
Personally, I think we’re all stupid. Or at least more so than we used to be. Or our heads are occupied with things that don’t lead to being able to accomplish anything. We might not know how to do our jobs, but we know that, according to a quiz on Facebook, we should live in New York because we like to eat hot dogs.
Pardon my cynicism. But I made the mistake of visiting a “third world” country a few weeks ago, only to learn that they were better at just about everything we hold dear. Internet? They had us beat. Cell phones? Cars? Food? Better. Better. And better. They also seem to be better informed about us than we are about ourselves, what with being better at speaking our language and more informed about our past and all. Man, did they grill me though! Asking me all sorts of questions about domestic policy and war and credit card debt and George Bush and…well, all I could tell them is LeBron James is a really good basketball player and…hey! Brad Pitt is ours! We’re not all bad! Lay off! But it did put me in my place. Made me realize what a big tent empty propaganda machine we’ve become, coasting on our successes now sixty seven in our past. I contend that the last thing we did of any import was the movie Ghostbusters. Before that it was coming in at the end and helping defeat Nazism.
That was a while ago though. And if we keep our noses buried in Iphone apps and reality television, it will be a while yet before we do it again. The good news is, with the exception of China, we’ve so thoroughly destroyed the finances of every country on the planet, that nobody but us – or China – is in any shape to take our place on top of the pop culture mountain. So yay! We’ve still got that.
