Tuesday, December 1, 2009

What Do Levi Johnston, Evangelicals and Oprah Have in Common? They All Blind Us to What Really Matters

We yearn to stand before the camera, to be noticed and admired. We build pages on social networking sites devoted to presenting our image to the world. We seek to control how others think of us. We define our worth solely by our visibility.













Will Tiger Woods finally talk to the police? Who will replace Oprah? (Not that Oprah can ever be replaced, of course.) And will Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the couple who crashed President Barack Obama’s first state dinner, command the hundreds of thousands of dollars they want for an exclusive television interview? Can Levi Johnston, father of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s grandson, get his wish to be a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars”?

The chatter that passes for news, the gossip that is peddled by the windbags on the airwaves, the noise that drowns out rational discourse, and the timidity and cowardice of what is left of the newspaper industry reflect our flight into collective insanity. We stand on the cusp of one of the most seismic and disturbing dislocations in human history, one that is radically reconfiguring our economy as it is the environment, and our obsessions revolve around the trivial and the absurd.

What really matters in our lives -- the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the steady deterioration of the dollar, the mounting foreclosures, the climbing unemployment, the melting of the polar ice caps and the awful reality that once the billions in stimulus money run out next year we will be bereft and broke—doesn’t fit into the cheerful happy talk that we mainline into our brains. We are enraptured by the revels of a dying civilization. Once reality shatters the airy edifice, we will scream and yell like petulant children to be rescued, saved and restored to comfort and complacency. There will be no shortage of demagogues, including buffoons like Sarah Palin, who will oblige. We will either wake up to face our stark new limitations, to retreat from imperial projects and discover a new simplicity, as well as a new humility, or we will stumble blindly toward catastrophe and neofeudalism.




No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

select key words

2007 National HIV Prevention Conference 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit 2011 LGBTI Health Summit 2012 Gay Men's Health Summit 2012 International AIDS Conference ACT Up AIDS AIDS Foundation of Chicago Africa BUTT Bisexual Bisexual Health Summit Brian Mustanski Center on Halsted Charles Stephens Chicago Chicago Black Gay Men's Caucus Chicago Task Force on LGBT Substance Use and Abuse Chris Bartlett Coaching with Jake Congress David Halperin David Munar Dr. James Holsinger Dr. Jesus Ramirez-Valles Dr. Rafael Diaz Dr. Ron Stall ENDA Ed Negron Eric Rofes FTM Feast of Fun Feel the love... Friday is for Faeries Gay Men's Health Summit 2010 HCV HIV HIV care HIV drugs HIV negative HIV positive HIV prevention HIV stigma HIV strategic plan HIV testing HIV/AIDS HPV Howard Brown Health Center IML IRMA Illinois International AIDS Conference Jim Pickett LGBT LGBT adoption LGBT culture LGBT health LGBT rights LGBT seniors LGBT youth LGBTI community LGBTI culture LGBTI health LGBTI rights LGBTI spirituality LGV Leon Liberman LifeLube LifeLube forum LifeLube poll LifeLube subscription Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano Lymphogranuloma Venereum MRSA MSM Monday Morning Perk-Up National AIDS Strategy National Gay Men's Health Summit One Fey's Tale Peter Pointers Pistol Pete PnP PrEP President Barack Obama Presidential Campaign Project CRYSP Radical Faerie STD Senator Barack Obama Sister Glo Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Susan Kingston Swiss declaration Ted Kerr Test Positive Aware Network The "Work-In" The 2009 Gay Men's Health Agenda Tony Valenzuela Trans Gynecology Access Program Trans and Intersex Association Trevor Hoppe Who's That Queer Woof Wednesday You Tube abstinence only activism advocacy african-american aging issues anal cancer anal carcinoma anal health anal sex andrew's anus athlete ball scene bareback porn barebacking bathhouses bears big bold and beautiful bisexuality black gay men black msm blood ban blood donor body image bottom chubby chaser circumcision civil rights civil union communication community organizing condoms crystal meth dating dating and mating with alan irgang depression disclosure discrimination domestic violence don't ask don't tell douche downlow drag queen emotional health exercise female condom fitness gay culture gay identity gay latino gay male sex gay marriage gay men gay men of color gay men's health gay pride gay rights gay rugby gay sex gay youth gender harm reduction hate crime health care health care reform health insurance hepatitis C hiv vaccine homophobia homosexuality hottie hotties how are you healthy? human rights humor hunk immigration international mr. leather internet intimacy leather community leathersex lifelube survey love lube lubricant masturbation mental health microbicides middle music negotiated safety nutrition oral sex physical health pleasure podcast policy politics poppers porn post-exposure prophylaxis prevention prostate prostate cancer public health public sex venues queer identity racism recovery rectal microbicides relationships religion research safe sex semen sero-adaptation sero-sorting seroguessing sex sexual abuse sexual addiction sexual health sexual orientation smoking social marketing spirituality stigma stonewall riots substance abuse treatment substance use suicide super-bug superinfection syphilis testicle self-examination testicular cancer testing top trans group blog transgender transgender day of remembrance transgendered transmen transphobia transsexual universal health care unsafe sex vaccines video violence viral load writers yoga youtube