But wait. What if a newspaper written for a fifth-grader is only a symptom of a much larger issue? You don't have to look too far to find evidence of America's thriving fifth-grade culture.
So what got me thinking about our culture's deepening Peter Pan syndrome? Mainly the fact that I am on yet another flight full of business travelers and adult vacationers where the feature film is a cartoon - something about penguins surfing (obviously). While this movie is marginally better than the infamous scene in Airplane! in which passengers are watching a reel of other planes crashing, I am hardly impressed. Granted there may be other explanations for this film's appearance - keeping children from crying or a debilitated airline that will be put out of business by one more frivolous lawsuit and therefore only chooses to feature the most saccharine fare. Maybe. But judging by the transfixed idiots around me - not to mention the box office success of these films, I think people love this stuff. Whether it is the desire for a perpetual childhood or a necessary escape from the cartoonish character they elected president, I will never know. But America's sexless, violence-free, moral-laden version of anime appears here to stay.
Last night's CNN-You Tube Debate was a parody of its promise. Not since the SNL version of the Bush-Dukakis debate has so much political absurdity occurred on a presidential debate platform. Don't get me wrong. I think we - the small percentage of Americans who pay attention to the issues and vote every two years - are very noble for trying to think up creative ways to get all the others to give a damn about our country's direction before we slide irretrievably into a Sodom and Gomorrah like state. Yay us! But does that mean we need to lose all respectability and decorum in the process? Certainly our current president has shown an abject disregard for all societal conventions, but that hardly bolsters the case for more of such behavior. Now, I also understand that CNN is desperately looking for ways to dominate Fox News in the ratings, but reaching for the lowest common denominator of snowmen asking the candidates questions crosses some kind of line that frankly makes me uncomfortable. The candidates took it all in stride yesterday and feigned laughter as necessary. But I wish one of them would have said what had to be on all of their minds: If we want a serious president this time and not a coked-up frat boy, why are we subjecting our candidates to such a moronic event?
The boys at the NYT L-O-V-E pictures like this. They are determined to have us save the earth if for no other reason than it's so damn cute! Bravo gentlemen.
