I am still waiting for the national sense of seriousness to set
in. Here we are as a nation, potentially facing our biggest threat
in history, and we are still gloriously over-consuming. What
happened to the repression that comes with war? What happened to
even having interest in war, or the groups who oppose it?
It was less than 40 years ago that John Steinbeck voiced concern
about the complacency of the generations of relative postwar
affluence, their lack of a certain appetite for the so-called
American dream, or way of life.
And while Steinbeck saw some hope in the American college
students who were taking interest in politics, the period of time
he observed was the relaxation after the repression, the carefree
after the careful.
Indeed, cycles always occur in society because people are
nostalgic, forgetful and fickle. So it’s not surprising to
find old trends in clothing get recycled once in awhile. But
historically, there have been broader cycles in human behavior.
They ranged from a collective self-imposed suppression, during
times of war or depression, to an unusually rebellious, cathartic
frenzy.
The Roaring ’20s were followed by the Great Depression in
the ’30s. With the war in the ’40s came the rationing
of necessities like gasoline, meat, coffee, sugar and butter. There
were men enlisting and women riveting. It was an extremely
patriotic time. The ’50s included more wars, the threat of
polio, as well as the fear of communists. Senator Joseph McCarthy
held witch-hunts for supposed communists lurking in America. Then
everything exploded in the ’60s. Having its share of crises
with assassinations and riots, the ’60s were about
questioning the Vietnam War, and psychedelic hippies fighting
social norms with acid. The blind patriotism that existed in the
’40s no longer existed.
In the ’60s, television coverage of Vietnam jaded and
sobered Americans; today, it makes us apathetic and accepting.
Americans are so desensitized that images of war no longer make the
evening’s headline news. And there is no real questioning of
U.S. policy because of widespread apathy.
Today’s Americans are spoiled and preoccupied. They act
like it’s ridiculous to make sacrifices when there are so
many other things to do and enjoy. A show of patriotism is
constituted by car window flags, and the attention span of national
interest appears to be proportional to the durability of those
cheaply made flags.
Of course, nowadays, there is no need to ration meat and fabric,
but there is also no willingness to do so. I’m not advocating
blind nationalism, but people’s current unconcerned and
unthinking state is disgusting.
Maybe people have gotten smarter and are not as easily fooled by
the political propaganda machine. But this doesn’t
appear to be the case. People just don’t
care. Even considering the smattering of protesters
against war (including the thousands that showed up in
Westwood on Sunday), there is no real national interest in what
this government does except when it is blaring in our faces, like
two crashing buildings. And even then all the fervor dies down too
quickly.
They said Sept. 11 took America’s innocence, comparing the
event to Pearl Harbor. But nothing has changed since that day last
year. People are still as unconcerned as ever. If Sept. 11 ended
anything, it was the daily routine that people had known. Yet,
after a while, things have returned to normal, with terrible TV
shows filling the airwaves.
Please wake me up when things get more serious. Or when they
cancel “The Bachelor” ““ whichever comes
first.