Morning After In America

Simultaneously the comedian and the punch line, the United States today is a joke, though perhaps the funniest thing about it is that we don’t actually mean to be. The easiest way to appreciate the humor is by looking at the rather slapstick slew of 2012 Republican primary candidates: there’s Michele Bachmann, who actually believes that if gay people were given rights everyone else would lose theirs while Herman Cain, the presidential hopeful du jour, is now known primarily for his Sim City-inspired tax plan and for his alleged sexual harassment of women.

Always lurking in the distance is Susan Boyle lookalike Newt Gingrich, whose highly intolerant statements are alarmingly similar to the late Osama Bin Laden. Then there’s Rick Santorum, whose talents include owning nice suits and utilizing his First Amendment rights to display his own ignorance to a national audience. And of course, one cannot forget the tanned and innocuous Mitt Romney; or actually, one can. Most neglect to mention Ron Paul or Jon Huntsman, mainly because there’s nothing particularly funny about knowledgeable individuals who base their beliefs on actual principles.

News for the Nescient

Much like a senile uncle at a family reunion, the 2012 Republican primary race has provided the much-needed comedic relief in an otherwise overwhelmingly depressing juncture. The facts are crippling and the foreseeable future is rather bleak: no one wants to talk about rising unemployment and poverty rates, an abysmal and ineffective prison system, mindless resource consumption, or the score of other problems that over the next few decades will prove to be crippling, if not fatal, in the global society.

It is not surprising then that as Greece teeters at the precipice of a national economic default with global aftershocks that American news sources have instead focused primarily on a potential paternity suit for pop sensation Justin Bieber, the failed marriage of Kim Kardashian whose lifespan was less than that of a brine shrimp, and the alleged sexual history of Republican candidate Herman Cain. None of these things matter, yet Americans consume them as real “news.”

With a 53% disapproval rating and a constant shuffling of the Republican primary deck, there is no doubt that many Americans today are disenchanted with both the Republican primary picks and the Obama Administration. However when a nation treats pop culture junk as worthy of attention of say, the dissolution of the European Union, we should not be surprised that our current and aspiring political leaders are about as profound and inspiring as a partially desiccated puddle of mud. No, these candidates don’t simply appear; they are physical manifestations of our current ideals and future practices. What, then, does this motley crew say about the priorities of the United States?

Video Killed the Radio Star (And the Serious Politician)

2011 marks the 30-year anniversary of the Reagan Administration as well as the birth of MTV. At the time, both were welcomed as rather prophetic symbols of innovation and growth: in his 1980 campaign Ronald Reagan vowed to restore “the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism” and MTV aimed to be a serious network for avant-garde artists.

However, the result is something of which we are all painfully aware: economic and cultural impoverishment and malaise. Median household incomes have dipped, as have the standards for “news” and meaningful exchange of information. American politics and entertainment have engaged in a rather parasitic relationship for the past 30 years and as a result both have suffered tremendously.

While many are quite familiar with Ronald Reagan’s famous “Tear Down this Wall” speech, many neglect to credit (or condemn) the Gipper for physically convening the American presidency with Hollywood, a pairing that has resulted in the ubiquitous Inside Edition-esque hullabaloo in today’s political sphere. A former Screen Actors Guild President and actor in over 50 films, before he was elected into office, Reagan was a household name. While likeability has always been a key component of one’s electoral viability, Reagan was unique in that he infiltrated the consciousness of his future constituents from a different vantage point: he was an actor, and he knew exactly how to highlight his rosy cheeks and ideals to millions through the screen while simultaneously concealing their many flaws.

Many lionized his character and still do to this day, as evidenced with the glowing panegyric in the September Republican debate at the Reagan Library. Along with his Hollywood Hills pedigree, Ronald Reagan was the closest person many today consider to be American “royalty.” In 1966, his charisma and recently found conservative views (he was once an ardent admirer of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal) won him the California gubernatorial election and a mere 14 years later (and after a series of successful television debates) Reagan won the 1980 Presidential election. Thus, a former actor assumed the presidency and his legacy has remained in the Oval Office ever since.

MTV: From Visionary Device to Vacuous Doodad

Marking its genesis on August 1, 1981, MTV premiered with impressive footage of the Apollo 11 rocket launch. Much like the Reagan administration, MTV presented itself as something novel, perhaps even a vision of hope for the future. It was serious, too: artists had an additional way to express themselves to a larger audience that would hopefully result in a more visceral reaction and therefore have a more lasting impact.

However pioneering and other worldly MTV’s opening footage made the network appear, MTV took no giant step for mankind but rather a series of small ones that lead to nothing more than an abyss. As Rolling Stone columnist Stephen Levy said in 1983, what the network gained in artistic exposure was lost in the years due to “[its] coaxing rock & roll into the video arena where you can’t distinguish between entertainment and the sales pitch.”

And today, MTV does not serve so much for its original purpose as it does to exploit the lives of pregnant teenagers, various upper echelon brats whose biggest concerns involve finding the perfect Lexus in which to enter their 16th birthday party extravaganza, and most notably the tanned and tacky individuals of the New Jersey ilk. If MTV has truly been a cultural “lift off,” Jersey Shore should be its fatal crash landing.

Yet many Americans do not see it that way, as it is MTV’s most viewed series telecast of all time. As such, the cast members’ Jersey jargon has disseminated throughout the country and is quickly becoming an international hit: many today consider it to be a phenomenon (it should also be noted that for a time many considered the plague to be a phenomenon); Snooki is an author, and the eight member “core group” are reported to have received $100,000 per episode in its fourth season.

As a result, the promulgation of “reality” dross and Reagan’s practiced displays of folksy bonhomie yet spiny resolve have catapulted the American population from one defined by constant innovation to one that consists primarily of vitriolic bottom feeders that can’t tell the difference between champagne and cheap beer.

Social Media: A Microscope into the American Consciousness (or lack thereof)

One of the easiest ways to gain insight into the void that is the American psyche is to see what Ashton Kutcher is up to. And for better or worse, that is Twitter. According to web-tracking site Alexa, Twitter is the ninth most visited site worldwide. And if its tweets were printed on paper at a rate of 20 per page, said tweets would fill the equivalent of 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” However, after natural catastrophes and grassroots uprisings Twitter has proven that despite its suffocating and obligatory pithiness it can be a meaningful medium to exchange information and international consciousness.

What’s on the average American’s mind, then? Not much. Rounding out the top five most followed figures are Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, and Britney Spears. And as reported on ABC, despite Hurricane Irene, an ongoing drought in Texas, and economic stagnation, it was Beyoncé’s August 28 pregnancy announcement that resulted in a record posting of 8,868 tweets per second.

Though perhaps it’s not fair to judge an entire population merely based on what it posts on a social networking news site. However, mainstream news networks don’t do much better. A potential paternity suit against Justin Bieber consistently shares headlines with Greece’s debt crisis; reports on the UN vote to end the no-fly zone over Libya have come at the tail end of the latest scoop into Kim Kardashian’s divorce, and liberal pundits repeatedly choose to lambast Herman Cain’s seedy sexual past instead of his equally asinine tax plan that is largely responsible for his ascension in recent popularity polls and is worlds more frightening than a few lascivious actions in the past.

Thirty years of gimmicks have brought us to this rather depressing point in time, and in the process we have allowed ourselves to become part of them as well. We view current events as irrelevant if they don’t involve a pop sensation or a politician with some sort of bathroom stall or “textual” deviance. Politics don’t matter if they don’t entertain us or fill up a 90-second segment on the Colbert Report.

How can we be surprised, then, that supposedly serious members of a party that aspires to lead us in the future employ the same hollow demagoguery as a B-list actor? How can we be disappointed with elected officials’ alleged ineffectiveness when we have been disconnected from reality via its manipulated form on a screen for years? If we are to be disconcerted with our jejune current and potential political leaders we must first admit to our own superficiality, as they are merely a reflection of ourselves. Though it doesn’t look like that will happen any time soon; “glibness” isn’t trending on Twitter.