4 days/ 7 minutes / 99 and one Tuesday morning 4 years ago

When I went to college in the fall of 1999, it seemed like a change was happening in the world. We were at the end of national flashpoint where Americans had actually decided to challenge the morality of our highest office. Unlike a minor act with far reaching implications of corruption like Watergate, or a major crime that wound up in a dog and pony show like Iran Contra, we waited for a year with complete fixation over the Presidency and the notion of what it needs of an appointed leader should be.

The country was in some of the best economic times in nearly fifteen years. It was a time without enemies in the world. We were not at war; neither cold nor military nor diplomatic. It was one a period of national introspection, perhaps the first in national history. And in a period where intense introspection is the only mode of worldview, intellectual conjuring becomes a byproduct and pastime. There is a new freedom that is begat from existence without struggle, and that is one of great expression or contention.

When I came to school, there were all of the normal groups, the hippies, the jocks, the frat boys, the stoners etc. Yet most every person fell into one of two groups, self destructive or self-improving. To me, that is freedom; the ability to choose between living for now or tomorrow, as best as I can think of a definition.

If there was ever a short period of time that could have lead to a new renaissance, it was the twilight of the western worlds 20th century; for the first time in history improvement was not hampered by external problems such as fear of attack or national economic downfall.

I look now at the impeachment as a national act of reassessment; in the aftermath of a scandal that shook the country, we as Americans were not so much interested in appearance, but in character of our leaders. It was one of the first times we may have questioned the politics needed to win the highest office; or at least before the rise of mass media. I felt like the next president we elected may be totally without the normal charm, filled with ideas that the normal man didn’t connect with but benefited from, and one who’s image was not too important to both the voters and their self worth. In a country that had been without a great leader for more than 50 years, it seemed that maybe we were getting ready to revert to a time when policy mattered again.

And I think of the entertainment we had. Hip-hop was in a lull after the death of the two biggest stars of its time. Rock was past the death rattle of the last important movement in a generation. Pop was non-existent, limited to a group that most Americans despised in the Spice Girls, who we saw through the quality and hype enough to prevent them from lasting beyond one album.

When the two most critically beloved albums of the year before (1998) were a thirty-year-old live performance by Bob Dylan album and a hip hop album by a woman, the music scene was one of niche markets for choice. Expansiveness of choice is one thing; it’s another when corporation denominators or file swapping make finding a new choice a difficult and more personal journey.

One of the most talked about texts on my floor and in my experiences with kindred people was Radiohead’s Ok Computer. Already my favorite album ever at this point, I loved talking about. While there was one moment during the year when I walked into a room playing the album, only to keep playing the singles, I did not turn from disgust as I normally would, but I appreciated that they were listening to something so abnormal to popular culture. It dawned on me then that then that I was not only watching people listen to what I loved, but a change in the times; when people were listening to a different style of music (and this goes beyond the college radio and personal preferences that normally accompany this type of recollection). It might as well have been a room listening to Mozart or Kind of Blue.

The reason this wasn’t just purely about the music was the meaning of the text itself. OK computer stands as the ultimate musical piece about the 90’s because it deals in the problems as is as well as those to come. The album is a warning of things to come in living in a world of the fantastic. It’s DeLillo’s white noise in a 53-minute album. It’s not only about being surrounded by technology, it’s about conforming to these new ways and seeing the danger in being too comfortable. When one of the tracks is about a plane crash and titled Lucky and people are getting it on one level or another- that’s a start.

***

After the aftermath when two planes took out national iconography in just under two hours, many people said that the age of irony was dead.

For how could cynicism live in a world of black and white absolutes instead of one of a thousand grays?

It seemed the world was too real for many to be mocked by the unsure for effect by the others.

***

The sad part is that the real cynicism was already at the end. We were looking on to the other possibilities. We no longer believed our leaders. It wasn’t an act of mocking decisions we didn’t like, but questioning if we needed them at all.

The Matrix may be a movie that supposes that the current world isn’t real, but to call it an escapist adventure cruelly misses the point. Even if the idea that our world isn’t real and that technology has taken over our lives is secondary to bad acting and awesome asskicking, it’s still an idea most of the viewers understood. Unlike Star Wars or Star Trek or ancient fantasies, The Matrix was a Sci-Fi film that could happen. (And not in the Twilight Zone, a man wakes up to find… kind of way)

There is much to admire about the film without becoming philosophical, between the effects that were mind-blowing at the time and the sheer entertainment of the film itself. But the whole point about the world with the filmmakers was to be about something other than the effects. And for those who liked the film, they got that point.

As someone who considers themselves Buddhist, any text where people are opened to questioning what is real or necessary is a great thing. The main tenet of Buddhism that I am drawn to is the idea of self-realization; that one must first understand their actuality and inevitability to fully come to terms with the rest of the world to move on.

At the time Neo is shot by Agent Smith, he was merely going on newfound possibility. He was told he could do these great things, but he didn’t understand why. Opposed to Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star because he believes in a greater power, Neo comes back from the dead and accomplishes the unthinkable because he believes in - not as the one, but as someone in control of his own world- himself. I consider myself Buddhist because I see it not as a religion (as I am certainly not a true practitioner) but as a view of the world on this distinction; that our life is our fate and gift because, not a path preset which we are not to stray from.

***

Yet, most of the vote of the election comes from the religious side that sees the candidate as the closest person of faith they have seen.

***

There was American Beauty: a film about rebelling against discomfort only to remember the course that lead you to a point and loving what you have (think of his final speech and the bag in the wind)

There was Three Kings; a film that looked back at the real truth of a war and the American need for greed, with the ultimate meaning being stay out of what you shouldn’t be in.

The Insider was an inquisition into how much commerce can damage humanities well-being.

It’s not that you have to take any of the meanings of any text as is; it’s that a medium was growing to a point where questioning the actual reality is the means of a new cinema.

Even if a film about sweaty gladiators won best picture for 2000, most people remember Traffic, a film that looked as the drug war not as a struggle, but as a part of our life that cannot be defeated without a massive change.

***

And yet, I think of one movie alone when I come to this point now, and more specifically one scene.

There is a shot of a pop icon saying that trust the President absolutely.

Britney Spears saying that she supports President Bush is not ironic. It’s a sign of American demise, wrapped in terrible irony.

I have said before, the two most influential people of this century are Bush and Britney Spears. One is because of their acting role as a leader in a nation of changing times. The other has a far more reaching effect on the people themselves.

Bush may be leading us to an outcome, but it’s an outcome of a world that wouldn’t have happened without a teenage starlet in a schoolgirl uniform.

If you go to a mall in the suburbs and notice that every young girl looks like a hooker, you have few people to blame. If you are a mother, you should blame yourself for allowing your daughter to dress like a mindless bimbo. If you are a father, you should blame yourself for not speaking out about the dangerous appeal of seeing a young girl in short skirts to men of all ages, to both your girl and your wife.

And you should blame the person that started it all. Britney Spears ruined America because she succeeded where the Spice Girls could not; she won over America most delicate youth and elders with pure sexuality. Actually, won over is a misappropriation. She confounded the nation. Between giving a nation of AIDS scared boys a new found and careless sexual drive, and giving a powerful sexuality to their counterpart girls, she became a *wink wink* virginal icon and told them it was ok to dress smutty.

To a bunch of tweens and teenagers Spears became an icon that they paid attention to because of her sexuality even if they hated her. That was her power, we watched because she was hot.

And with that notion we ushered in a new era of pop culture where sexuality, and not quality, was the main driving force. Who would have known that AIDS could have suppressed our appetite so far? We were desperate for flesh, and when it came to having a long debate about what life was about or fucking, we chose the easy path.

I say this without proof or evidence, and only with conjecture, that if not for Britney Spears, Bush would have not won the election.

It was her underage sexuality that mobilized the religious right to new heights. They came out in opposition of her because of what she represented in her underage sexuality. Even if she did not follow their ideals of abstinence, she did more for the right’s charge then they could have ever hoped. Her influence was the enemy.

Her saying that she trusts the president is a terrible moment. It’s not just because of the fact that she supports the man, it’s because she helped formed a culture she stood against, only to claim the high moral ground.

***

For the (not news) media, Spears marks the end of a too short era. In a lone single where she dances in a fetishistic outfit, she opened the floodgates to crappy music that people didn’t have to care about. We now were obsessed with attractiveness of the singers, and not the songs. While many waited for more mature songs, we kept being fed Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC and Aguilera because too many people (and not just young people) kept listening and qualifying these acts as fun instead of bad.

They were beautiful and had sordid personal lives. E! network and VH1 should send checks to these people every month because they don’t have to pay for actual programs any more.

***

And yet, I come back to Fahrenheit 9/11. The most talked about scene was the capture of Bush waiting seven minutes after he knows that the country is under attack.

I never sided with Moore with this. I mean, it seems like the people around Bush should have gone out and made the choice to move him. Yet I’d like to give credit to any leader of the country who decides to stay with children instead of ultimately scaring them with knowledge they couldn’t possibly comprehend, such as was 9/11.

I always thought that Bush made a safe move, and careless at is was, it was not a bad decision.

Until last week, when he and his fathers cronies, I’m sorry administration, fucked up New Orleans so bad.

The city is done.

Not just done.

It’s fucking done.

It’s apocalyptic. And he waited four days, arguably more.

Four days to act.

Seven Minutes.

And yet, he attacks without proof.

***

I never thought Gore was a good candidate. At least until this week, when I remembered how boring and long his plans seemed when I heard them in 2000. He was deemed as too much of an over thinker.

And I think back to those days in 99 when everyone seemed to be moving to the hard truth. That nothing comes easy and everything is difficult.

But we came to an easy juncture. Think about media, or let it pass for easy answers.

Radiohead or Britney Spears on the radio.

Shrek or Memento.

A Beautiful Mind or In the Bedroom (unreal problems vs. real life trauma)

And maybe the truth is that Americans want it easy and digestible.

That Iraq and Al-Queda were working together not because of hard evidence, but of a semblance of similar hate. We all wanted blood for what happened on the second Tuesday of September of 2001. The Afghanistan response was not what we wanted because no security was really given. Much was done, but little could be known, especially when we had no solid result. Our attackers have done little since. Yet, at least 30,000 are dead in Iraq.

Which mind you is more than both of the major calamities on the homeland, Katrina and 9/11.

***

What was happening in 99 a nation about to undergo a new change.

Pressed with no easy questions, we were forced to come up with difficult answers.

The paths were there for new success as well as the ability to earn it the old way.

We were in this unsure state for about 14 months.

Until November of 2000. Faced with two of the most unappealing candidates of all time, even America couldn’t make a decent choice. One had not revealed his true roots for a new world order of Neo-Conservancy. The Other was a dull man who had spent 8 years behind the most charismatic president since Kennedy. Both looked rather slight.

Nobody liked these candidates.

And the progressive idea was to vote third party. If Gore had won, it would have been the start for a new change for America, where the others were not just antitheses of the system.

That Nader cost Gore the election might have been the ultimate irony. Not only did his involvement help usher in a terrible presidency, making the world worse off then he ever could have imagined. If Gore won, his reaction to 9/11 would have likely been bad. But we wouldn’t be in Iraq, and we would have a 44th President in all likelihood.

And the worst thing was that it wasn’t really Nader that was the real factor. It was Florida. Bush stole the election, and Florida was where he was going to do it in October 2000, and where he did it in November of that year.

The Daily Show’s America has a great caption beneath a picture of Bush’s inauguration. It is of the now late Rehnquist holding the bible that Bush swore upon (containing the whole “Thall Shall not kill” commandment). The caption is “Judge Rehnquist had the lucky ability to vote twice in the 2000 election. Guess which vote counted more?”

We were almost there. And yet somehow, progress was nullified by mistakes. People voting for the candidate they didn’t mean to. A recount riddled with bad data.

And in the end moment, it was 5 vs. 4 with nine people deciding the outcome of the next four years.

Instead of the actual state where the vote was off. Or the 2 million people who voted for the other guy more than the winner due to TKO.

***

I remember when I woke up that morning, I heard someone in my corridor shout, it begins. I heard little bits about planes being hijacked.

My response was one of awe more than terror. It was that someone had done something immensely improbable.

I thought little of it.

When I came to my first class at 9am Pacific time, I saw the TV screens in the hall on CNN showing the footage of the towers dying.

I didn’t believe it.

When class began, the teacher asked if anyone wanted to be there at the time.

Everyone wanted to go home. NO ONE wanted to stay.

And everyone got in front of their TV screen for the rest of the day, and for the next 8 weeks.

I remember two things after that class during that day.

My roommate had bought a picture of the New York skyline only days before. It was a night shot, in black and white, and focused on the towers. My roommates and me looked between the picture and the TV screen. And kept looking at both in disbelief.

The other was going to the University bookstore. I bought Thirteen Days, the film about the Cuban Missile crisis and the Presidents response. I wanted to know there was reason to have good faith in the Oval Office. I wanted proof that America could get through this.

***

I remember feeling a weird sentiment about that day; one of wishing that more had happened. At the time, 9/11 felt like the worst sucker punch ever delivered. I wanted to know that more had happened. I still feel that 9/11 as is was a lucky outcome. It should have been worse. And part of me wants it to have been worse; not in terms of loss of life, but in terms of attack, if only because the idea of maybe we would have grasped the full effect of what was going on instead of hoping for a solution.

9/11 was supposed to bring America to its knees; it only just made us pissed off. And now, on tangential reaction, Iraq is in shambles. I don’t wish that it was more terrible than it was; I just think that maybe, the effects of a bigger attack would have made us as Americans more alert. We were now a country paralyzed by the mere pretense of danger; instead of a country that is able to identify what real danger is.

The actual events of 9/11 made us scared of the dark instead of real danger; we are more scared of the likelihood instead of the reality. We plan for the ultimate instead of the realistic.

We attack a country to save a nation, yet do not protect a city from destruction. Bush is to blame for the reaction to Katrina. His VP, his friend in FEMA, and his vacation mindset solidify his stance. Yet he is helped by a nation that has been trained to wait for the worst instead of the very bad. A nation of people that wear a bulletproof vest so they aren’t killed by a shot; but pays no attention to punches that could knock us out. We fight against nuclear attack, yet we do not arm our soldiers properly.

Waiting for the worst-case scenario only leaves one all the more open to everything but that outcome.

It’s the easy way out, one that doesn’t make provisions for every other, and far more likely, probability.

Instead of looking for the difficult answer of making every safety, the man focused on Missile Defense over terrorist attacks. He chose to build bridges in Alaska that went to nowhere instead of fixing levees in Louisiana. Attacking Iraq instead of fixing Saudi Arabia’s governance.

Yet it’s not just the figurehead of the country that is to blame.

It is a nation that rallies against the wrong causes. Making huge battles over little things, from Janet’s Nipple and abortion (two things that do not have any bearing over everyday life). Side stepping dangerous problems like corporate corruption, immigrant invasion, and the immigration of American companies and jobs to cheaper third world companies.

We shop at Wal Mart and not mom and pop stores.

We watch Desperate Housewives (with minor problems and easy lives) instead of the history channel (real issues and unclear solutions)

We attacked Iraq instead of trying to fix US policy in the Middle East.

We watch reality shows where people self-destruct for amusement and fame instead of true escapist fare or actual satire.

We await the unimaginable response of Kim Jong-Il instead of trying to help the people under his reign.

We follow a former teen harlot fail miserably with her marriage, and then flip the channel to the tale of a couple that were nobodies until they made a show about their 1st year of marriage.

The saving grace of Americans is that we do care. Our response in helping those hurt by Katrina is the proof. Everyone is trying in one way or another to help.

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And we are doing so with a way that I can only call American. We know when to mobilize, especially when we know what is really at stake.

We all watched two Sunday’s ago where we saw that horrible graphic of an unimaginable storm was headed at New Orleans. We all knew it was coming. We heard of the people moving into the superdome for shelter.

And yet, (and I know I am saying that a lot) it took four days for anything to start happening. FOUR DAYS!!!

I am trying my best not to be revisionist. The world could have been much worse off if everything I thought wonderful in 99 was to continue.

I am merely suggesting a connection between a nation that is now geared for the immediate in entertainment and politics and our reactions.

In 99 I saw a potential for a country to move to a far wiser and preventive nation, where we anticipated the worse and tried to fix it instead of… well where we are now.

When the nation is trained to watch color coordinated charts, to hear rhetoric instead of answers, to support troops blindly instead of asking why they are there; Katrina is the result of a problematic leader and the new republic when it comes to the USA’s state of mind.

This is the aftermath of the easier choice.