The Deconstructionist:From Common Sense to Loose Change Part 2
Deconstructing the Course of National Discourse Since 2006
Let’s see… last week we were talking about why the internet has so far proved to be a poor method of delivering Common Sense-sized ideas. There are a few reasons for this, some Al Gore mentions in his book ‘The Assault on Reason’ and I’ll throw some of my own ideas in because disagreeing with Gore has become a national pastime.
The first obstacle to galvanizing the country with a treatment of an issue is that only some small percentage of the nation gives two craps about the internet. Gore states several times that the internet is no match for television, which seems odd to me because I spend more time on the internet than watching television. I would guess that many of you reading this on-line essay may share my habits (or, as the spellchecker suggested, hobbits), but apparently that doesn’t hold true for the greater percentage of the U.S., who still exist somewhere in the early 90’s, where the internet is strange and foreign. So even if Thomas Paine V. 2.007 wrote the Best Blog Ever, only a comparatively few folks out of the millions of Americans would see the damn thing, unless (if Gore is correct) someone made a 30-second cartoon out of it and ran it during reruns of ‘Full House’ (remember- most Americans are living in 92’ or thereabouts).
Another barrier is that most folks who come to the internet to talk ideas are more inspired by Oliver Stone than Thomas Paine. I know that when I think of an attempt to distill truth on the internet the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Loose Change’ which isn’t really about truth at all-it’s a grab for attention, about as honest and sincere as shouting ‘leave Britney alone’ while under a blanket with a flashlight, and with the same purpose in mind- to get people to leave Britney alone! No, really, it’s to try to get some attention, to make some scratch. That’s’ all very American but it does seem irresponsible, given the subject matter.
The other bad habit that something like Loose Change reinforces is that truth needs many sexy edits and star-wipes. It is due to technical acumen that something like Loose Change is successful in spite of its poor logic. That is, Loose Change is more about the medium- Look! It’s a movie! The pictures move! -rather than addressing the reality of the statements being made or exploring how the world we live in would be effected were such statements true.
When you are dealing with the biggest truths, such dazzle is unnecessary. When you look at the folks who are remembered for defining ideas whose time had come, you see that they did so clearly and simply. The job of anyone who would be a Lincoln, or a Jefferson, or a Dr. King is to identify that core truth, make it plain, then stand by it.
The last reason I can think of is that, despite the assertion of Al Gore and dozens of others, America isn’t really in crisis yet. Oh, things may not be great for us in many ways, and people are dying in a war that may be illegal and which is certainly being poorly managed, our civil rights are being threatened or repressed, the planet may indeed be warming up and there are a dozen other terrible things that may be looming just over the horizon, but the worst horrors have not arrived yet. A comprehensive look at U.S. History such as ‘Don’t Now Much About History’ reveals again and again how much Americans will take before they finally act, even in their own best interest. You may believe that the number of soldier killed in Iraq is too high but it’s still far fewer than in Korea than Vietnam, which means the deaths are touching fewer lives directly. Similarly, global warming, energy crises, ecological disasters haven’t hit many of us where we live yet, as the Depression, the Dust Bowl, or Influenza did. So it’s not so much that no one is trying to write Common Sense for the modern day, it’s just there’s not a single subject that the entire country cares so intensely about. The definition of a big issue is one that gets people off their asses and out of their homes, and while we have some great candidates for such a problem, we’ve got no winner.
I think this viewpoint- that things aren’t bad enough yet- is supported by Gore’s actions, even if his book and film wholeheartedly disagree. Gore spells out the very real threat the President’s policies and attitudes pose towards the survival of American democracy as intended by the founders, and also proposes what seem to be logical and workable fixes, yet after all of this, he refuses to run for President. At the end of the book, I was ready to put my reservations aside, and get behind Gore once again, but that’s not possible because the architect of these wonderful strategies for belling the cat of ailing democratic debate won’t leave Smurf village (in this metaphor, the cat of ailing democratic debate is Azreal).
True, Gore may be waiting for a Secretary of State job in an Obama administration, or some other treat, but if so, then the message of his book isn’t that the time has come for immediate action, but rather for considered strategies that will hopefully show results over time.
Somehow, I think it will take more than that to get us off our asses.
The Deconstructionist with Gordon Weir gets off its ass every Wednesday.