|
The Denver Post
Every day, every way, we're going to potApril 20, 1996
Section: Denver & The West Page: B-07
Hans Bjordahl
One look at the newspaper or television makes it clear: Life in
America has never been worse.
The American workplace is more
brutal than ever before. Two-career families face unprecedented
challenges. Politics grows increasingly rancid. The economy teeters
with perilous "uncertainty." White males are angry; black males are
angrier. America is in a state of moral crisis. The American family
is threatened. "Stress" is at an all time high. It's a crisis and a
tragedy.
And a sham.
Why do American media feed us
crisis after crisis? Because crisis sells. Americans, as a whole,
like to be assured they are the most unfortunate wretches who ever
walked the planet. Marketers, whether they're selling a product, a
politician or a war know that the key to establishing trust with a
consumer is to coo that he or she is the most pitifully unfortunate
soul who ever lived ... and thus deserves very special
treatment.
In politics this year, Pat Buchanan proved himself
a master of this tactic, whipping Republican primary voters into
such a frenzy of anger and self-pity over their job prospects that
he was able to claim the New Hampshire primary. The amazing thing
about Pat's "you've never had it so bad" pitch was that its
popularity belied a booming U.S. economy - in New Hampshire,
unemployment stood at a razor-thin 3.2 percent. In a way, Buchanan
borrowed a page from the playbook of President Clinton, who won the
presidency four years ago by looking the citizens of the world's
lone superpower in the eye and saying, "I feel your
pain."
Politicians often point to the 1950s, when lifetime
employment was the norm and one-income families easily
afforded
upper-middle-class lifestyles as an example of what
Americans should expect their economy to deliver. The trouble with
the '50s was that it was an economic anomaly, enjoyable but
completely unsustainable. You think life is hard for working people
in America in the '90s? Try the '30s. Try the 1890s.
Other
politicians, such as Newt Gingrich, cite the "moral climate" of the
'50s with its neighborly neighbors, white picket fences and freshly
baked apple pies as a comparison point to illustrate the sheer hell
of living in modern times. While the '90s may not be the idyllic
'50s, it's important to note that not even the '50s were the idyllic
'50s.
While Newt may yearn for the days of segregated
drinking fountains, government radiation experiments on unsuspecting
civilians and the imminent threat of global nuclear annihilation,
others would contend that's too high a price to pay for a 5-cent
Coca-Cola.
Even as politicians pander to the electorate with
whimsical visions of molding the U.S. into a retro Disneyland,
voters complain loudly every election, to throngs of eager
reporters, that they're "dissatisfied" with the choices available.
This "voter dissatisfaction" is then fed back to the electorate via
the press as evidence that Americans have been somehow cheated out
of a fulfilling democratic process. This "dissatisfaction," however,
is unlikely to ever compel these prima donnas to pry themselves off
the couch and actually run for office, because 45 percent of them
typically don't even bother to vote.
The press has discovered
that coddling its readers (and viewers) with sympathetic stories is
a sure tactic to keep them coming back. Every six months, "stress"
becomes a hot topic as a primary bane of modern life. "Stress"? For
that we should rejoice; not too long ago it was "plague." "The
overworked American" is another semiannual cover story, but how many
of us would trade places with the "overworked Cambodian?" The media
fabrication known as "Generation X" brought self-pity to the younger
generation, detailing the travails of whiners cursed with being
slightly less overprivileged than their parents had been. The
horror.
During the commercial break, the pandering only
intensifies. Want to sell something to America's working moms? Let
them know you're sympathetic to their appallingly hectic struggles
and brutally difficult lives. The battle for suffrage was apparently
a cakewalk compared with the demands of getting the kids to soccer
practice on time. Want to sell a soundproofed luxury car to a white
male executive? Advertise it as the perfect balm after a "hard day"
of conducting meetings in an air-conditi oned
high-rise.
Every day Americans consume so much information
telling them how difficult their lives are that they are actually
beginning to believe it. In reality, America is the world's lone
superpower, with a bustling economy and a bright future. For a
country our size, our standard of living is unmatched. In terms of
historical and global perspective, few people have ever had it so
good.
That is not to say that we live in a utopian
society.
There are real problems in America today - crime,
poverty, militarism, the environment - that demand vigilant
attention.
However, challenge and tragedy have been a
constant of the human experience from the beginning. It's time to
stop throwing our national temper tantrum and realize that while
living in America in the 1990s may be far from perfect, it's
nonetheless a distinct and powerful privilege.
Hans
Bjordahl is editor of the Internet publication Zone Interactive
and co-creator of the Cafe Angst comic strip, which runs in the
Denver Post.
|
All content © 1996- The Denver Post and may
not be republished without permission. Send comments or questions
to NewsLibrary
All archives are stored on a library system from
NewsBank Media Services. |