Thursday, April 20, 2006

Everybody, and I mean everybody, has an agenda.
The more insidious it is, the more rigorously it is denied.
Ray's Rules
Don't believe the above is true? Congratulations! You just proved my point.
We'll discuss this topic further very soon. Right now, I have other, more pressing business on my plate.
Just kidding...
Whether it's using an impending childbirth to promote your upcoming movie or just plotting your way through the day, we all have agendas. True, they're apt to change in a heartbeat-- check any given episode of 24 or the weekly audience votes for American Idol contestants--but the agendas are always lurking.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the spin cycle world commonly known as the Bush Administration.
A bit of backspacing is in order here, and for that we must turn to the administration of George the First and his initial declarations of the need to be "politically correct." The first time I heard the term, I thought, this makes no sense, sort of like "alternative music"--alternative to what?
But in the down the rabbit hole logic of the Bush Wannabe Dynasty, it makes perfect sense. If language is watered down enough, all issues are rendered impotent. Blind people are suddenly visually impaired, cripples are physically challenged, people in ghettos are economically disadvantaged.
In short, dilute reality to the point that it means nothing and we can get away with anything.
Pontius Pilate would have been proud.
Fast forward to now.
The younger George doesn't have the finesse his father did. He may even have an Oedipal complex. He's determined to outshine his father (not that difficult a task) but he's failing miserably. He surrounds himself with incompetence and insists he's making the right move regardless of the miserable results. The war in Iraq, the Katrina aftermath, soaring energy costs, on and on, ad nauseum.
What does this have to do with pop culture?
Anybody but me remember Kentucky Fried Movie?
There is a skit in it in which a very pre -Law and Order Richard Belzer plays a kick-ass president. What has always stood out in my memory is his line:
"I'm the fuckin' President and I make the fuckin' rules."
George toned it down a bit and said, in his usual nonsensical way:
"Im the decider and I decide what's best."
Charming, ain't it?