Power, by Dennis O’Neil
For a while now, I’ve been thinking that maybe Jonathan Lethem is the best writer of his generation. What prevents me from just coming out with it… Dammit, Lethem is the king! – is that I haven’t read many other writers of Lethem’s (and my son’s) generation. Maybe the Elvis Presley of prosemeisters is lurking out there someplace, with a birthday that puts him somewhere between 40 and 50, and I just haven’t heard of him. So let me be content with stating the obvious, that Lethem does his job well.
He writes novels and essays and, lately, comic books. But what I want to call your attention to and, incidentally, dub this week’s Recommended Reading, is his op-ed piece in last Sunday’s New York Times. It discusses the latest Batman movie and relates the film to what’s happening in our tortured nation. It’s a pretty gloomy bit of superb writing. But how could it not be gloomy? I said it was about what’s happening to the good old U. S. of A., didn’t I? Where could cheer come from? Maybe Johnny Mac’s flacks?
Yeah, the market imploded and some of it received a bailout from the Feds and who will eventually foot the bill? Ol’ tax payin’ you and me, that’s who. But that’s not what’s eating my lunch. I mean… economics! Finance! Who understands that stuff? Certainly not me. (I used to think that those boring old guys in suits, whose job it is to understand that stuff, did, in fact, understand it. Guess not, though.) But what bothers me for the next five minutes, or until I see another newspaper or watch CNN some more, is that according to one poll, 54 percent of the pollees think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president.
This gives me sadness, and a profound feeling of alienation, because nothing in Ms. Palin’s record, nor anything I’m aware she’s said since being anointed Johnny Mac’s running mate, indicates that she is even qualified for the governance jobs she’s already had, much less the biggest of the big leagues, and I wonder what they’re seeing that I’m not, my fellow Americans. Or do they want a leader who apparently believes the First Amendment has no more importance than the slip of paper in a fortune cookie? That denies the validity of evolution? That thinks the current military debacle is a mission from God… ? No point in continuing the catalogue… If my fellows know of these things and they don’t care about them, then the system is broken. If they don’t know… well. how could they not?
A lot of us where pretty mad during the Viet Nam war, but optimism was possible. We thought, If only we can get past the current ignorance, sanity and mankind’s capacity for good will prevail. We got past it, all right, and now we’re in a world where the venal and corrupt hardly even bother to pretend that they want anything more than more… primarily, more money and more power because that’s what they’re talking about when they talk about “a permanent Republican majority”: power. And we put those guys in office twice, and there’s a possibility that we’ll next put into office a crew who are just as venal and may be, Lord help us, even less competent.
It would not be appropriate to end this dour column on any kind of sunny note, but at least let me class it up with a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”
RECOMMENDED READING: “Art of Darkness,” Jonathan Lethem, New York Times, September 21, 2008.
Dennis O’Neil is an award-winning editor and writer of Batman, The Question, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and The Shadow– among others – as well as many novels, stories and articles. The Question: Epitaph For A Hero, reprinting the third six issues of his classic series with artists Denys Cowan and Rick Magyar, will be on sale in September, and his novelization of the movie The Dark Knight is on sale right now. He’ll be taking another shot at the ol’ Bat in an upcoming story-arc, too.
You are right. Lethem's a good writer. "Meanwhile, pigs break into the lipstick store, and we go hollering down the street after them, relieving ourselves of another hour or day or week of clear thought."
It's akin to former Vice President Gore in the 2000 Debates. I keep sighing, and looking towards my fellow man in hopes he will meet my gaze… both of us silently agreeing that what stands before us is bafoonery.
See, for me, the most attractive thing originally about Obama was not the change mantra, but instead his appeal to the purple: the idea that the reds and the blues need to come together and figure this stuff out, including the Wall Street mess, health care, etc. etc. But we get his analysis that the latest financial panics are because McCain was for de-regulation, instead of precisely which regulations should be re-instated or which new regulations should be imposed in the first 100 days of an Obama administration. And then his supporters get with the hysterical rhetoric such as Palin "apparently believes the First Amendment has no more importance than the slip of paper in a fortune cookie" (hyperbole, much?) Don't get me wrong– I'm equally appalled at the substance of McCain's campaign to date.Man, I was hoping this would be the first election we could finally get past re-fighting the Vietnam War and the decades-long grudges some folks have been holding. But it looks to not be the case.
I wonder what the sample was on that poll.I was recently chatting with some acquaintances and the talk suddenly shifted to the election. I forgot for a moment which crowd I was with and made the mistake of mentioning that I was going to vote for Obama. After the outburst of racist, Limbaughvian bullshit they had all accepted as gospel without question, it came out that they thought Palin was a great choice because "she's hot" and "she hunts and she cleans her own kills!"Proving that, at least for that bunch, McCain's choice had had exactly the desired effect.I really hope there aren't enough like-minded voters to swing this election that way.