As satire has done through the ages, Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” has found a comedic way to focus national attention on a serious issue: Will the United States begin acting like a responsible force in the world or will it continue to wander off into its own ghastly dreamscape?
Millions of Americans have responded positively to Stewart’s message, with thousands arriving from all over the country to take part in Stewart’s semi-serious rally at the National Mall in Washington on Saturday. But other Americans are confused about why someone would call a march for “sanity,” and some who get the point are perturbed by its implicit criticism of their own craziness.
Whether Stewart’s rally will have any lasting effect is another question. Is it possible that many Americans don’t want to be sane? Or put differently, are they addicted to the crazy?
Is watching the madness of Glenn Beck simply too much fun for many? Are Rush Limbaugh’s rants a way for listeners to feel better about their own personal grievances, by blaming the hated “liberals” or the “minorities” or some other scapegoats?
Especially on the Right, crazy has become the bread-and-butter. For Muslim-haters like Michael Savage and Steven Emerson – not to mention the bigger names like Limbaugh and Beck – irrationality and fear-mongering are how they rile up their audiences and make their money.
Crazy also is how you trump rationality. You can dismiss it as “liberal elitism” brought to you by those pointy-headed, we-know-better-than-you-do Al Gore types, folks who want us to listen to the “scientists” as they explain about the looming calamity of global warming and stuff like that. Isn’t it more fun to simply call scientific judgments “myths” and feel superior to all those PhD guys?
TVNL Comment: This is a vital read for anyone who wants to understand how the last three decades have led to the total insanity that is America today.