As the clock inevitably ticks away the hours until yet another new year rolls in, I thought it would be fitting to deliver unto the masses a thought-provoking and delightfully nonconformist account of my picks for the 10 best films of 2002.
But because such an effort would surely step on the erudite toes of my friends in Cardinal Arts--and because I have admittedly not yet seen 10 decent films this year. Anyone looking for a bit of sheer cinematic brilliance need look no further than that unabashed work of self-deprecation and parody that was \Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.""
I offer instead my own humble wish list for the coming year, which will, of course, be laced with unsubtle commentary on America's current political and social plight. I mean, situation.
Wish No. 1: That idealism goes mainstream. The problem with dissenters of my generation is that they tend to isolate themselves in their own dissent. Many of them, quite understandably, retreat to the safe haven of a pleasant vegan co-op and launch demonstrations every so often. Much to their credit, it is precisely from these grassroots organizations that some of the most hopeful, logical and necessary messages come these days.
But in this age of Amazon.com, Target, Borders and The Gap superconglomerates, I fear that those tunes sung at the community level are more often than not drowned out by better-funded and further-reaching voices; in the end, mass-market appeal means everything. What we need, therefore, are people capable of subverting ""business as usual"" in Washington by insinuating themselves into it. What we need is a president and a Congress that will dismantle American political orthodoxy from within by being mainstream enough to get elected but unconventional enough to stimulate change. We need to reject the idea that politics quenches idealism like water on a weak fire.
In short, I wish that an army of young and indignant Gap shoppers would be willing to join their co-op brethren on the long road of politics, and stand up for what Paul Wellstone called ""the little fellers--not the Rockefellers."" Meaningful change could really happen.
Wish No. 2: That Congress impeach a president for screwing the American public. A few weeks ago, the Bush administration announced its decision to scrap the ""New Source Review,"" which has been a mainstay of Environmental Protection Agency industrial air pollution control for the past 25 years. The policy, which required factories to install pollution control equipment when they modernize, was a key check on business's power to sully the environmental commons. It also irritated a number of major contributors to the Republican Party.
Unless it is replaced by some more effective policy--and the likelihood of that happening under the current administration is vanishingly small--killing New Source Review will not just hurt Americans. Bad air has a way of ignoring national boundaries.
Wish No. 3: That American dollars end up looking good in color. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced recently that the dollar will be going full-color in 2003 to prevent counterfeiting. Even though the products of the bureau's last attempt at reformatting the dollar--the large denominations you now find in your wallet--were initially jeered as looking like ""Monopoly money"" by many, the bureau seems remarkably confident this time around.
Then again, it might actually behoove them to produce as ugly a dollar as possible. Consumers, dismayed by their new aesthetically destitute currency, would end up spending money more freely in order to avoid having to look at it in their wallets, and President Bush will have generated the fiscal stimulus that our economy so desperately needs.
Wish No. 4: That environmentalism becomes fashionable again. It was so en vogue back in the '90s to sincerely care--or, for that matter, disingenuously care--about the environment. Earth Day's call to arms resounded in elementary schools across the country. Recycling was going to solve everything.
Now that recycling hasn't solved everything--or perhaps because we've convinced ourselves that it has--we've more or less given up the fight, and comfortably adopted the SUV as our team mascot. ""The environment"" has been abstracted into a mystical and inscrutable thing which exists somewhere in Brazil.
We should really work on that next year.
Wish No. 5: Technology needs to stop looking so edible. There is a disturbing trend in Silicon Valley to develop products which look like comestibles. The new Macintosh i-book, for instance, looks like a strikingly large, coconut-flavored lollipop. As my friend Alcee Jumonville recently observed, eating iBooks is going to become the pica of the digital age. Mark our words. It could happen.
