It’s said that human beings can become accustomed to anything, but on any level, the past six years have been hard to believe. Since 2001, we have been passing through an era that was almost science fiction in its relentless unpleasantness and unbelievable dementia. Forget for a moment the trauma of 9/11, the endless stalemate in Iraq, the color-coded terror alerts, and the price of gasoline creeping up to $4 a gallon. Forget that New Orleans is still largely in ruins and a new hurricane season is upon us. The 21st century has been the time when radical right-wingers, reckless corporations, and fundamentalist Christians seized control of large sections of the national agenda. A spurious War on Indecency was instigated that impacted everyone and everything from adult entertainment and broadcast radio to Howard Stern and Janet Jackson, and even saddled us with a former attorney general so morally offended by the bare bronze breasts on the neo-Classical statues in the halls of the U.S. Department of Justice that he ordered them draped in fabric. And, while nearly 50 million U.S. citizens survive without health care, the media spent December 2005 fabricating the asinine War on Christmas.
This new century has, so far, proved so damn weird that it becomes hard to recall how things were back in the comparative sanity of the 1990s, when the biggest scandal erupted when the president was blown by a willing intern who couldn’t resist talking after he dumped her. Beyond that, we had relative peace, a national budget surplus, a sense that problems had solutions, and progress was possible.
I’m not, of course, claiming that the Clinton era even approached being a golden age. It had its troubles. The U.S. sent troops into the former Yugoslavia, but that situation was resolved without a single American casualty. Back at home, a bunch of high-rolling speculators lost money (in what became known as the dot-com bubble) by investing in unworkable Internet systems. Even that debacle, though, was at movement with future progress, in total contrast to the backward-looking, energy-consuming, global-polluting modern mindset. Today we lose our money to Enron or at the gas pump.
The entire concept of online erotica was born during the Clinton era—another good idea of a more reasonable time. Since, one way or another, whoever wanted pornography would get it, why not download it from this brand new Internet? No fuss, no muss, and no problems with plain brown wrappers in the mail or dubious adult video stores in bad parts of town. The technology even provided blocking devices to protect children and those offended by sexually explicit content. A decade later, however, the defenders of decency talk about the Internet as the cyber-domain of Satan, and freak about what the kids might be getting up to on MySpace.
But then, suddenly and almost without warning, the light of possibility dawned. Sure, we knew those currently in power included a serious contingent of crooks and liars, but even the most suspicious of us didn’t fully grasp just how crooked and duplicitous they really were. As I write this, we learn more about the depths of corruption on an almost daily basis. Scooter Libby rolls over on his White House bosses. Jack Abramoff rats out everyone on his lobbyist payroll. Stories circulate of videotaped, hooker-included sex parties being hosted by defense contractors at (of all places) suites in the Watergate Hotel. The slime of corruption makes tracks through Congress and heads for the White House.
Many of us who thought we were stuck with George Bush and his cronies until at least 2008 sense a faint whiff of hope on the air. Could it be that, in November, the Republicans could lose control of the House, and maybe even the Senate? I know the Democrats are far from perfect with morality hacks like Sen. Joe Lieberman among them, but right now, even the smallest return to old-time rationality would be an improvement over the current fine mess.
Mick Farren blogs at Doc40.blogspot.com
