The illusionists who shape our culture, and who profit from our incredulity, hold up the gilded cult of Us.
Will Tiger Woods finally talk to the police? Who will replace Oprah? (Not that Oprah can everbe replaced, of course.) And will Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the couplewho crashed President Barack Obama’s first state dinner, command thehundreds of thousands of dollars they want for an exclusive televisioninterview? Can Levi Johnston, father of former Alaska Gov. SarahPalin’s grandson, get his wish to be a contestant on “Dancing With theStars”?
The chatter that passes for news, thegossip that is peddled by the windbags on the airwaves, the noise thatdrowns out rational discourse, and the timidity and cowardice of whatis left of the newspaper industry reflect our flight into collectiveinsanity. We stand on the cusp of one of the most seismic anddisturbing dislocations in human history, one that is radicallyreconfiguring our economy as it is the environment, and our obsessionsrevolve around the trivial and the absurd.
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Reality is condemned inthese popular belief systems as the work of Satan, as defeatist, asnegativity or as inhibiting our inner essence and power. Those whoquestion, those who doubt, those who are critical, those who are ableto confront reality, along with those who grasp the hollowness anddanger of celebrity culture, are condemned for their pessimism orintellectualism.