The Name of Action Lost

Recently there was an op-ed piece in The Baltimore Sun wondering if shows like The Daily Show have helped to inure the American people to the depredations that have resulted from the actions of the Bush administration.

The writer, Courtney E. Martin, says, "If Marshall McLuhan was right that "the medium is the message," in the case of wildly popular fake news, the message must be: Laugh your head off or you'll just end up crying your eyes out. But what if a few angry and motivating tears are what we need? What if all this laughing is pacifying us - making us inert?"

I don't read The Baltimore Sun. I found out about this piece as a result of an entry by Nicole Belle over at Crooks and Liars where the comments run hot and heavy denigrating Ms. Martin's op-ed piece. American popular culture is after all the greatest thing that the rest of the world still pays attention to and values and the comments on C&L bear that out in spades. The defence of TDL and condemnation of the Sun piece is loud and clear.

Living outside the US as I do I do find it somewhat encouraging that the show is on the air and as popular as it is. Ditto Colbert and several others.

But still...

I have commented several times in the past that I found the passivity of the American citizen opposition to Cheney/Bush rather dispiriting. There's very little vigour, it's all verbiage which doesn't disturb the junta in the least.

I wonder if Ms. Martin has hit on something.

Perhaps the laughter is acting as antidote to the anger.

As old Will has Hamlet say in regards to another mental response and in another context,

"...thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action."