Let's See Action - Among

Let's See Action - Among the most pleasant discoveries of the past year is finding that four of my favorite comics - Dennis Miller, Jackie Mason, Drew Carey and Larry Miller - not only skew to the right, but in fact are quite articulate about it.

Miller in particular has developed a healthy side-racket as a pundit - and a fairly good one.

This is a great article about America's attention span:

it's not just the pundits, it's all of us, and it happened so quickly, didn't it? One second we were arguing about whether or not the Turks were screwing us up in the North, and watching Baghdad Bob insist the sky was green. Next thing you know, we were all putting the kids to bed, strolling into the bedroom, picking up the remote . . . and not turning on Fox. ("Whatever you want, honey, just not one of those goofy decorating shows. Wait a minute, is this the one with the little Scottish blond? Okay.")

On Friday I got into the car after work and couldn't listen to any of the radio talk shows. I just couldn't. I tried one, then another, then another, then the first one again, and finally just turned the thing off. They all felt so . . . shrill. Redundant. Reaching too hard. Even NPR was so boring I couldn't get angry at it.

America does seem to trend toward the next big thing; war is so March and April.

Of course, this curious period of detachment may be temporary for all of us, and things in the world can shift in a flash. Everything in the Middle East may fail spectacularly again, or another terrorist attack may occur, or we may again start seeing Hans Blix walking away from the camera in a tight suit. Two of these will instantly re-focus the nature of good and evil, and one of them will make us all go on The Zone. But how should we describe what is happening now? Doldrums? Disengagement? Regrouping? Mass self-involvement? I don't think it's apathy, but who knows? It's here, though, and it sure happened fast.

Here's a good way to sum it up. Two weeks ago, a reporter who strolled into any bar in America and said, "Yeah, I was embedded with the army," could drink for free all night, and have any woman in the place, or at least a good shot at them.

Today, I'll bet you the same guy would be lucky to get an extra bowl of peanuts.

Hell, never mind that. The poor sap would probably find himself drinking with Jayson Blair.

The article reads like one of Miller's standup routines - which, given Miller's choppy on-stage style, isn't necessarily good news for prose. But it's worth a read.

(Via Yale Diva)

Posted by Mitch at June 3, 2003 08:25 AM