UNAVAILBLE ON iPHONE OR iPAD

They say once our bodies grow cold enough, we slip into a state of painless semi-consciousness, and gradually die. Is this what could be happening with today's cynics? The what-the-hell shrug of those convinced to go with the flow inasmuch as it can't be changed anyway?

Often this is the cue for the old-timer to step in and say something like, "In my days, the world was a lot better place to live in." But the young cynics have heard that and refuted that many times before with, "The good old days were old, not good. You just don't remember, old man."

Here's what I remember...

Each age has a role model for its times. In the 18thC, Washington and his cherry tree. In the 19thC, Tom Sawyer and his whitewashed fence. In the 20thC, Mickey Rooney as Andy Hardy in the movies. Please -- no knee-jerk reaction about how all those images are only fictions. Of course they were only fictions, but fictions whose influence was far greater than mere facts!

If you intend to really know a country, don't tell me about its laws and its GNP. Tell me about its songs and especially its popular role models. We can't bring back George Washington, and Tom Sawyer seems a long way ago. But most nights you have one of the 16 "Andy Hardy" movies from MGM, produced in glorious black&white between the years 1937 and 1958. Years when America was deep in a depression. Deep in a world war. Deep in a cold war.

In other words, Americans weren't a naive society dancing their way through buttercup times. And still, Rooney's puckish, irrepressible Andy Hardy was the number one box office hit in the world. City after city. Year after year. What did these cotton-candy scripts have that so held the hearts of kids, parents, politicians, and soldiers alike?

Ahh, now here's where the old-timer has the edge over his hard-living, hard-loving iPhone and iPad generation going with the flow. He remembers something from America they can't access on their technology. Exactly what...? Well, there's really nothing exact about it....! You simply have to immerse yourself in these small-town USA Andy Hardy films, and sorta get the feel that 200 million Americans back then sorta felt.

Careful, though! The experiment doesn't mean you have to believe 150 million Americans believed everything Andy and his family believed. But for the experiment to work, you do have to believe this is pretty much what 150 million Americans wanted to believe, because they felt these were the right things they should believe --

America is a good place to live...neighborhoods and neighbors are good to have...parents love their kids...kids love their parents....everyone respects their teachers, their police and their president....boys and girls fall in and out of love more than in and out of bed...goals are good...honesty is right....honor is rewarded...happiness is possible...God smiles over our nation...oh, and we're still trying to learn how to make this Equality thing work.

Music up. Fade to black....