Shoulda Watched Justified
January 25, 2012 1 Comment
Seriously, though, I’m learning that some people actually watched the State of the Union address voluntarily, ‘for fun’ (?) or leisure, not out of any professional obligation (i.e. not journalists/commentators/pundits, not even bloggers who decided to “live-blog” it). Some people on Facebook for example seem to have done this, and are advertising it.
Not that I can fully explain why, but I’m kinda embarrassed for them all. It’s like being at the Homecoming Dance and actually actively wanting to hear the Homecoming King’s acceptance speech, and then cheering wildly for it. Like those extras you see at the periphery of various school-dance or lunchtime-table scenes out of Sixteen Candles or Can’t Buy Me Love. Just why would you want to voluntarily make yourself into That Person? Does not the center of your life lie elsewhere? Even if not, isn’t there like a ton of better stuff to watch on TV than the yearly President Show? It’s not like you can’t read (later) what the guy said if you really care and think these prepared speeches actually mean anything. Do something at least more entertaining with that time. You all have cable and on-demand up the wazoo. Justified, Episode 2 should have been tonight. Temple Run on your iPad. Something, anything besides the annual laundry-list-of-reality-proof-applause-lines-and-oh-yeah-here’s-why-I’m-so-great from the President.
They watch because politics is religion for Smart People (and they’re far more evangelical about it than the most militant snake-handling fundie).
Probably the least original observation ever, I know, but I find myself sounding like a broken record every election season: No, there is NO such thing as a free lunch. No, you CAN’T just raise taxes on “the rich” and everything will work out fine. The President cannot “fix” the economy by fiat, and he cannot give you a unicorn.
Etc. etc. I’d much rather believe in the Invisible Best Friend in the Sky than the Benevolent Government Fairy, if only because worshiping at the altar of bureaucracy and praying to President God-King seems so Middle Kingdom to me. But then again, I never claimed I was Smart.