Thursday, April 15, 2004
Hyping Osama and Omarosa
One of the first things you learn in any college course about 20th century American foreign policy is the myth of monolithic Communism. We believed back then, during the high halcyon days of the Cold War, that every communist movement was being directed from the Kremlin, and was all part of an orchestrated international conspiracy to subvert democracy and the purity of our precious bodily fluids. Now, of course, we know that many Communist movements were indigenous, and didn't take direction from shadowy powers in Moscow. Not that we've taken the lesson to heart or anything. We're making the same variety of mistake again as we face terrorist threats. I just came across a piece that appeared last week in the International Herald Tribune that says by lumping all terrorist movements from Uzbekistan to Spain under the broad umbrella of the "War on Terror," and then focusing so much on Al Qaeda, we actually "extend the reach and prestige of Al Qaeda." Fact is, local terrorist movements, like local Communist movements 40 or 50 years ago, often grow from roots far removed from Osama Bin Laden's apocalyptic clash of civilizations, roots having to do with more localized political issues. So despite the rhetoric coming from American politicians (some of whom are old Cold Warriors themselves), every terrorist threat can't be defeated by the same blunderbuss approach.
Please, God, Make It Stop: Tonight is the finale of The Apprentice, which has mutated from TV phenomenon to broader cultural phenomenon to fingernails-on-the-blackboard annoyance in record time. NBC replaced The West Wing last night with an hourlong preview of tonight's two-hour finale, and will present a two-hour recap in prime time tomorrow night. Four of the "fired" contestants posed in lingerie for a magazine, and their photo is one of the most e-mailed of the day today on Yahoo. (They turned down $250,000 to pose naked in Playboy and did the other photo shoot for free. This lack of business savvy explains why they didn't make the cut with Trump.) And somebody associated with the show named Omarosa has become approximately Elvis in the last week or so, for reasons that are unclear to me. In the end, The Apprentice is not about the apprentice who wins the "job" with Trump tonight. It's about Trump himself, who seemed so 1980s when the show started. He hasn't reinvented himself as much as he's recycled himself. Good thing mediagenic boorishness never goes out of style.
One of the first things you learn in any college course about 20th century American foreign policy is the myth of monolithic Communism. We believed back then, during the high halcyon days of the Cold War, that every communist movement was being directed from the Kremlin, and was all part of an orchestrated international conspiracy to subvert democracy and the purity of our precious bodily fluids. Now, of course, we know that many Communist movements were indigenous, and didn't take direction from shadowy powers in Moscow. Not that we've taken the lesson to heart or anything. We're making the same variety of mistake again as we face terrorist threats. I just came across a piece that appeared last week in the International Herald Tribune that says by lumping all terrorist movements from Uzbekistan to Spain under the broad umbrella of the "War on Terror," and then focusing so much on Al Qaeda, we actually "extend the reach and prestige of Al Qaeda." Fact is, local terrorist movements, like local Communist movements 40 or 50 years ago, often grow from roots far removed from Osama Bin Laden's apocalyptic clash of civilizations, roots having to do with more localized political issues. So despite the rhetoric coming from American politicians (some of whom are old Cold Warriors themselves), every terrorist threat can't be defeated by the same blunderbuss approach.
Please, God, Make It Stop: Tonight is the finale of The Apprentice, which has mutated from TV phenomenon to broader cultural phenomenon to fingernails-on-the-blackboard annoyance in record time. NBC replaced The West Wing last night with an hourlong preview of tonight's two-hour finale, and will present a two-hour recap in prime time tomorrow night. Four of the "fired" contestants posed in lingerie for a magazine, and their photo is one of the most e-mailed of the day today on Yahoo. (They turned down $250,000 to pose naked in Playboy and did the other photo shoot for free. This lack of business savvy explains why they didn't make the cut with Trump.) And somebody associated with the show named Omarosa has become approximately Elvis in the last week or so, for reasons that are unclear to me. In the end, The Apprentice is not about the apprentice who wins the "job" with Trump tonight. It's about Trump himself, who seemed so 1980s when the show started. He hasn't reinvented himself as much as he's recycled himself. Good thing mediagenic boorishness never goes out of style.
