CUING THE CULT

So it's come down to this, has it...?

American democracy is show business and show business is American democracy. Clearly there is no longer any clear line of demarcation between them. Not when actors become pols, pols become actors, presidential campaigns are run like Oscar campaigns, and everything in both Hollywood and Washington is costumed, scored, rehearsed and cued right down to the carefully planned ad lib and photo op.


Most voters by now have come to accept -- well, at least admit -- this is the way it is. And inasmuch as most students and adults don't know a tinker's damn about our national history, then perhaps this current putrefacation of democracy is not as disappointing and painful as it should be.

But if this is the way it is to be, at least one last plea. A plea not only against celebritizing politics and politicians, but against the disingenuous way in which we are constantly being cued to cheer. I mean if we citizen lambs are to be slaughtered by this frenzy of political show business, can we at least be allowed to find our way on our own...?

But no! As it is now, in both Hollywood and Washington there is always the required crowd warm-up. Those Pavlovian ways in which we are primed and prepped for the big moment. Take your usual music concert. First the room fills with the roar of soundtracks from something like ROCKY or STAR WAS...we are suddenly engulfed in a spectacle of sweeping beams and flashing lights...the dramatic baritone on the PA announces the moment like Biblical Resurrection...now the curtains part, the drums roll, and then -- Then even an entrance by the building custodian would bring the frenzied crowd to its feet.

Same thing in television studios before the host enters, in Oscar Night before the MC appears, in political conventions before the speaker arrives, and in any rally for any reason that takes place on the Washington Mall. It's all show business, pal, and we all love it. Expect it. Need it.

At one time or another, everyone holds high the memory of our Founding Fathers and their grand document of democracy [even if we haven't a clue as to who, when and why they were!]. But lets be honest. Most of those Fathers well understood the ways of the world and their fellow man. They were very much flesh-and-blood, hardly polished-marble. And yet, were they to come back to this, this spectacle of sound-and-light-and-tent-barkers, chances are they wouldn't buy a ticket to the show.