Mean-spirited
” ’I wish Barbara Bush had had choice available to her.’ That was a snippet of an ongoing conversation — and it was characteristic of more than one — overheard Sunday night on an Amtrak train from Washington, D.C., to New York City. The train was filled with March for Women’s Lives participants.
“And that was characteristic of the whole weekend. At a pre-march rally on Saturday night at the D.C. Armory by RFK Stadium, California [Rep.] Maxine Waters told George W. Bush to ’go to hell.’ Going to hell with him, said Waters, should be John Ashcroft, Don Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice. In a brief, non-impromptu speech, that’s what a member of the United States Congress chose to say. …
“There was a crass, angry framework to the whole march weekend, in fact. … Abortionist George Tiller actually referred to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft as ’the four horsemen of the apocalypse’ — which, I guess, makes eternal damnation all the more fitting.”
— Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing on “We’re … Feminists,” Monday in National Review Online at www.nationalreview.com
TV mirror
“[T]he television audience is no longer composed of ’viewers’ in the minds of many television executives. It is made up of ’consumers.’ …
“Now the idea behind so many television programs is to fabricate a fig leaf of passively enjoyed entertainments, and to hide behind that a dynamic invitation to get involved in the show as an active, acquisitive consumer. Reality television, with its direct appeal to the viewer’s experience, is only the most obvious such tactic. Shows about neurotic detectives, depressed gangsters, conflicted teenagers, dysfunctional couples — that is, shows about us — abound. … This goes way beyond vicariousness. We’re not living through the characters’ exciting and exotic adventures. They’re living through our boring and mundane daily lives. …
“Now all popular culture aspires to full viewer participation — along the lines of karaoke, movieoke (in which you substitute yourself for an actor playing a role in an actual film), and video games. That’s why honest-to-goodness movie stars like David Duchovny and Willem Dafoe now lend their talents to sophisticated video games, in which players virtually become a character in a movie. That’s why video games like ’Mortal Kombat’ (Christopher Lambert) and ’Alone in the Dark’ (Christian Slater) have become and are becoming feature films.”
— Lee Siegel, writing on “Mixed Message,” Monday in the New Republic Online at www.tnr.com
Making it
“Donald Trump used to be just another celebrity, known for his wealth, high-profile divorce, and penchant for dating supermodels. But on ’The Apprentice,’ we saw an experienced, savvy businessman who actually made his fortune. Unlike most reality shows — which are really fantasy shows — ’The Apprentice’ focused not on instant success but on what it takes to become successful.
” ’The Apprentice’ shows that the business world is a highly competitive meritocracy. And, ironically, the same is true of the entertainment industry, even though this is the source of the public’s ’celebrity’ fantasies. …
“Although luck — actually providence — is necessary to make it big, entertainment, no less than business, is driven by the laws of the marketplace: supply and demand, competition, hard work, product quality. Even celebrities need more than mere celebrity.”
— Gene Edward Veith, writing on “Real-world reality,” in tomorrow’s issue of World
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