There’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. Being visually and auditorally assaulted for two straight nights, by the MTV VMA’s on Sunday and the Emmy’s on Monday, made me want to run to the shower and scrub down with copious volumes of Betadine soap, and yet, like a twelve-car pile-up on the other side of the road, I couldn’t help but stop and stare. Last night around nine, when I’d had just about all the narcissism, self-congratulation, maudlin sentimentality, and flawless skin that I could stomach, Mrs. Left said to me, “Well, would you rather watch this or Rachel Maddow talking about bullets in Missouri and Russians in the Ukraine (or words to that effect)”? To my eternal shame, I sheepishly replied with something like, “Well, I do want to see if Billy Bob Thornton wins for Fargo”. And in the back of my mind, I wondering why in the fuck I could possibly have the least concern for the success or failure of a guy who’s seen Angelina Jolie naked or a bunch of producers who ultimately just want to keep me glued to the screen long enough to convince me to buy a year’s supply of Cialis from Eli Lilly. Scanning the news wires this morning, I want to read the stories about the Ukraine and Michael Brown and immigration and Ebola and ISIS and Syria and the clouds of war…but I keep clicking on reviews of Taylor Swift’s dance moves and Nike Minaj’s butt (one glowing and one not so much…you figure out which is which). Karl Marx remarked that religion is the opium of the masses, but he didn’t live long enough to get daily updates from People Magazine and TMZ. The cult of celebrity is the new societal heroin, and I’m just as addicted as anyone. It’s Monday, and today my devotion to keeping up with the Kardashians makes me feel dirty. By Friday, it’ll make me feel like a poor man’s Perez Hilton, my fingers professionally palpating the pulsebeat of modern life. What a difference a week makes.
While we reassured ourselves that the guy who used to be the dad in “Malcolm In The Middle” was the most dramatically gifted meth dealer on cable and that women in prison are more than just a meme in porn videos, the world continued to be a violent, dangerous, corrupt, and supremely unjust place. (Best line of the night at the Emmy’s, from Bertram van Munster, producer of “The Amazing Race”: “The world is not such a bad place, actually.”)
Things have quieted down in Ferguson. The streets are nearly empty and the kids are back in school. The evidence has been presented to a grand jury. One thing that can reliably be depended upon is the short attention span of the American public. Outrage calms and anger fades and fatalistic acceptance of the status quo prevails. Today an audio of Michael Brown’s shooting was released, unconfirmed by the Ferguson authorities, but already investigated by the FBI. In the recording, you can hear the man who released it sexting with his girlfriend, which gives credence to its authenticity, since it’s at least mildly embarrassing. In the background you can clearly discern at least ten or eleven gunshots in two groups of five or six, with a pause between the groups. It’s hard to imagine a scenario that required Darren Wilson to fire that many shots at Michael Brown, but I think one of the commenters got it right: “The last five shots were to make sure Michael Brown never testified.”
Another report came out that Officer Darren Wilson’s career started with the police department in Jennings, Missouri. That department was deemed to be so racially biased that the Jennings city council ultimately disbanded the entire department and fired all the officers. I doubt that any of this will make the least bit of difference. Wilson could have positioned Brown against a wall, taken five steps back, aimed, fired, and delivered a coup de grace, all recorded on five video cameras and witnessed by two nuns, and the prosecutor would still find a way to declare it a justified shooting…which is almost certainly what will happen. After that, the Justice Department, in order to forestall what might otherwise devolve into an outright rebellion, will bring federal civil rights charges against Wilson, which is a form of justice, but a diluted and ultimately unsatisfying justice.
But hey, “Modern Family” was the best comedy for the umpteenth time in a row, so hand me the remote and the chips. Life goes on.
BW
NOTE: The hyperlink to the audio tape of the Michael Brown shooting was misdirected. The correct hyperlink has been inserted. It’s worth a listen.
Kibbitz Corner 