Born Again, this time as a farce All things re-emerge in another form, my friends. You can run but you can’t hide. Disco is back, punk rock soundtracks drive commercials, and protest has being absorbed into the grand fabric of advertising. Advertising and spin make the world go ‘round. It manufactures wants that it turns into needs and also manufactures fear that it uses to drive sales. It even sells your memories back to you, for a mark-up. I remember when I saw the first commercials, first product pitches, that were based on the protest movement. I sat and watched a man encourage hoses to be turned on him at a protest so that he could make instant iced tea. You never saw that many big rallies on tv after that. People may have attended, but they were not marked “present.” Once your movement has been absorbed into the machinery- used as a punch line to sell artificially flavored and sweetened iced tea granules in a can- that is the day your movement dies. The decades (60s 70s 80s) all come back in a neat commercial package. All shiny and pretty. Not that they are really as you remember them- well, actually, they are as you remember them, just not how they were. Like when you remember people in your past more fondly than they deserve, or you watch a movie you loved as a kid and find out that it’s actually crap. There are movies I loved years ago that I’m afraid to watch. Actually afraid- that the cherished memories will turn out to be false- that the memory is better than the event- I fear I will destroy the past as well as the present and the future. It is this fear that separates us from the animals. Fear drives everything man does; and when I say man here I refer to mankind, inclusively. I say this to reassure the feminists, who have certain fears in this area. It’s all academic though. The current US government is pushing fear so hard, I fear the public will burn out on it. Can we face the future without fear? I am terrified at the prospect. George Bush has returned repackaged as George Bush jr. The new version is, at the same time, both less- and more- than the original ever was. He does the same things. He fights the same wars. He appoints the same people. The war that Bush Sr. promised would “not be another Vietnam” has become the war Bush jr. has intimated will never end. And we’re all supposed to be terrorized by terrorism; because if you’re not terrorized by terrorism, the president reasons, then you’re letting the terrorists win. Just recently though, a high government official announced that the war was going to be like Vietnam after all. Which is not a contradiction. Those of you who remember that Bush said the war was over- remember also that he said it would be everlasting. The troop deployments are growing, the troops in place are grumbling, and the president is facing an evaporation of trust. Sounds a little like Vietnam. The new Vietnam will, in fact, be more like Vietnam than Vietnam ever was. At least this generation will get it's own Vietnam- so that after 12 years of fighting the war can end, and we can all congratulate ourselves for the next 25 years that "we stopped a war, man." Is that bitter enough for you? Hippies and Republicans in one shot. I am of a generation that experienced a few hippies gone bad, listened to a few corporate scumbags wax poetic about their experience back in the day. It’s stunning how fast most people can sell out what they believe in; and more stunning still that they can rationalize their beliefs so that their past will sync up properly to their present. Eventually what we think of as real has little relation to reality. By the time that it gets to your tv it has been edited for television. Acts are devoid of meaning and context. People assemble for no reason. Things blow up for no reason. People react to dramatic events, most remarking that they are confused that all these things keep happening for no reason. That makes people angry. It’s supposed to be a high tech war - with smart bombs- the images stream for a sense of immediacy, even though it’s all edited for television; the days turn to minutes, or events are orchestrated for viewers at home. Our fixation on violence is an A-Team fixation on bloodless battle with good pitted against evil on a canvas sketched with no grays; where you live to fight another day. We are less accepting of casualties on our own side, the side that has a face on the media. The body bags that stream home in a steady flow are more shocking than the ones that used to come home in tallied piles. Eventually what we think of as real has little relation to reality. It’s all been edited for television. Simulations seem more real than reality. The laugh track; artificial snow; astroturf; saccharine; nutrasweet. It will all work out in the end, as people stop being afraid of boogeymen and start being afraid of their own government again. Or at least we’ll be sold an image of it all working out as people stop being afraid of boogeymen and start being afraid of their own government again. What’s the difference? David Raffin is the editor of Vision? Nary! magazine. A writer and a performer, he may be contacted though his home page. This column is available by email. If you are interested in running this column as a regular feature in your publication, contact here.