Recently I glanced a few pages of Al Gore's latest book: The Assault on Reason. So he was upset that Americans are all over the constant coverage of entertainment news and outrageous murder cases while not focusing on critical events that really matters such as the war on Iraq. America's reasoning ability is under assault by our addiction to TV media...
I wonder what kind of world it is going to be if he won the 2000 election. What would he do differently after 9/11?
A while ago an anti-war mother of a killed soldier gave up peace movement after exhausting money and everything. She claimed her son died for a country "which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."
Yes, Americans watch American Idol and follow closely to soap opera style news stories. If you want to look for statistics that make Americans look even worse, you can point to obese statistics and our horrible reading and math scores.
But there is nothing wrong with watching the American Idols.
The truth is this: I can watch the American Idols (although I don't) but I can't do much to help the quagmire of Iraq and other criticial issues. Nothing. I am no powerful politician. You suggest me to write to my congressmen? What do they care. Heck, I don't even know any of their names except the 2 senators.
Waita minute, I am not totally powerless. As a citizen, I have the right to vote. Ok, even Gore won the popular votes he didn't win the presidency. What kind a of strange power we are given?
For those given power in elections: remember the regular citizens have empowered you, do what is good for the country! However, for most politicians, the desire for political power has probably overcame the desire of serving the people perhaps in day 2 of their job.
Given this helplessness of individual Americans, we go back to the TV for entertainment.
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