EPL, Lagniappe

For many members of an entire generation, the only time they felt significant was during the protests of the 1960s and early 1970s. These Baby Boomers have felt empty with their lives ever since, and have tried to rekindle that feeling (there’s that word again) by participating in protest movements such as environmentalism or animal rights or whatever the cause of the week is.

Unfortunately, these Boomers often sought to avoid real-world involvement by becoming journalists, college professors or show business performers. Now they have a new cause with the war on terrorism, and they are using their positions to protest again. Journalists “do what they feel is right” instead of simply reporting the news. (While I have no problem with someone using his or her skills or position to argue a point, label it as “commentary,” not as “news.” Google Dan Rather and Memogate.) College professors degrade and fail students who disagree with them politically. Musicians and actors – who have no other qualifications other than name-recognition – are trotted out to speak authoritatively on topics they know little or nothing about. (Google Meryl Streep and alar.) This creates enormous pressure on those who deal with them to go along, simply to survive.

To evoke the same feelings of significance they had as teenagers, these Liberal argue bitterly about something that they’re on the wrong side of history of. If the effects on the American public were not so broad and powerful, it would be pitiful, sort of like Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, who wistfully wishes he could go back to 1982 and win the big game.