Facebook: A Testament to “Me” Perhaps the most searing example of this phenomenon is Facebook. It is, above all else, a testament to “me” in all my glory. In all of American history, there is no comparable example of a time when so many people dedicated so much energy to chronicling the mundane and the trivial at best, and the truly twisted, at worst. It is almost inconceivable how many people have posted self-indicting accounts of criminal behavior. Apparently boasting about one’s thuggery is viewed as a reasonable tradeoff for the possible incarceration that could occur when a jury sees a video starring you and your homies “knocking out” some unsuspecting grandmother, simply for the thrill of it. Yet there is a bigger thrill. Several other websites glorify such thuggery including one, worldstarhiphop, that compiles “excerpts of hundreds of fights, from women being sucker-punched to brutal gang attacks,” writes Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist James E. Causey, who further reveals that those videos “often earn thousands of views and ‘likes’ and ‘recommendations’ on Facebook, which turn the perpetrators into overnight sensations.” That’s as “all about “me as it gets. Rush Limbaugh: “low information voter” Radio host Rush Limbaugh coined the increasingly popular term “low information voters” (LIVs). I believe the term is somewhat inaccurate. These Americans are not bereft of information. They are not cut off from television, radio, the internet, i-Phones, texting, tweeting or any other source of information exchange. In fact, most Americans, including the LIVs, are inundated by information. What they actually pay attention to is the great separator. We live in an age where the public school system promotes the maintenance of self-esteem over genuine achievement, and trains younger generations of Americans to feel, rather than to think. And now that everyone gets a trophy just for showing up, the distinction between banality and greatness no longer applies. Everyone is “special,” and there is little reason to dwell on anything that occurs outside one’s personal universe. By accident or design, the Obama administration and their media lapdogs have been masters at exploiting this phenomenon. No sooner does one scandal arise than another takes its place, followed by another and another, seemingly ad infinitum. Keeping track requires genuine effort in an age where effort has given way to the cruise control of self-absorption. Those who remain genuinely outraged are either dismissed as over-wrought, or denigrated with a label such as “misogynist,” “homophobe,” “nativist,” or “teabagger,” with the understanding that, once labeled, no further thought is required. Yet despite their good fortune, this administration pierced the collective fog of self-absorption with the ultimate over-reach known as ObamaCare. Or as the coordinated attempt to put the genie back in the bottle is rolled out, the scrapping of the name ObamaCare and the return to the term Affordable Care Act, lest our feckless president be permanently associated with his “signature achievement,” yet another appellation undoubtedly headed for the ash heap of history. In one of the more colossal outbursts of hubris, Obama and his fellow Democrats decided that millions of Americans getting their insurance policies cancelled would be as indifferent about that reality as they have been about every other scandal, and/or lie of omission or commission, foisted upon them by our Prevaricator-in-Chief. No such luck. Few things are more personal than one’s health, and the notion that this administration has put millions of Americans’ access to healthcare in jeopardy—even as they were assured that nothing of the sort would happen—has engendered the kind of outrage that even our hopelessly corrupt media cannot tamp down. Not that they aren’t trying. The trumpeting of the so-called historical deal with Iran that was nothing of the sort, along with the implementation of the “nuclear option” in the Senate, were the latest attempts to overwhelm Americans. Today the administration will attempt to put more lipstick on the pig known as HealthCare.gov, in the hopes that Americans will conflate the website with ObamaCare itself. No doubt many will, until other realities intrude, such as the loss of one’s doctor, as networks tighten up to contain mandated costs, or the realization that “cheaper” insurance comes with hefty coinsurance requirements and deductibles that must be satisfied by the insured themselves. Then there is the ultimate time bomb that will explode next year when millions of additional Americans have their employer-based policies cancelled. The ultimate nightmare for this administration? A sense of outrage that breaks through the containment barrier of healthcare. The possibility that Americans eventually discover that this scandal is not anomalous, but part of a larger pattern. A pattern where even most self-absorbed Americans may be prodded to ask themselves disquieting questions, leading to evermore disquieting questions. “There is no escape from happiness, attention, affection, freedom, irresponsibility, money, peace, opportunity and finding out that everything you were ever told is wrong,” writes O’Rourke, in reference to the Baby Boom generation. With any luck, O’Rourke is vastly underestimating the size of his audience.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:19:39 +0000
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