American Humor – Dead

Rumors of the death of American humor were confirmed when this year's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was awarded to Steve Martin. Even 20+ years ago, when he could actually make you laugh, his humor was based on juxtaposing silly statements with his conservative appearance and demeanor, resembling an ingratiating shoe salesman. Oh yeah, with an arrow apparently through his head. Since then, his movies have been forgettable, if you try hard enough, when they weren't insultingly bad. Next stop on the slide the bottom: an award to Jim Carey? Sure, why not, swap mindless mania for silly somnambulism.

Twain is honored for his pithy, clever, insightful, and timeless comments on human nature. Such humorists are rare. Will Rodgers was another. But it's easy to criticize. If one were obliged to make an award, who would be a better choice? Woody Allen would have to be on any short list, though his personal life now complicates our appreciation of his humor. Maybe Jerry Seinfeld, though the requisite folksy he ain't. Political humor? Hmm, let's think 2 nanoseconds... Jon Stewart. Or pick one of the redneck humor guys – Jeff Foxworthy, for example, who are bringing appreciation to a new audience. Naw, we'll have to wait until their humor is moribund.

In interviews, Martin says he doesn't want to be labeled right or left, liberal or conservative. A great humorist elevates above partisan bickering, allowing both sides to laugh at their own foibles (see above: Stewart, Jon). I suspect Martin's real fear is insulting potential customers – his movies are marginal enough financial propositions now. No, it's better to keep them guessing: just look conservative and say wild and crazy (liberal?) things.

Martin seems like a nice guy and it's not his fault that some misguided institution felt obliged to celebrate itself by making this award. What's he supposed to do, say “no thanks”? But let's not fool ourselves, he's no Twain.

Inventive Genes

Magazines like Wired or Time celebrate and hype the inventive individual: the brilliant scientist alone in their lab, the sole inventor tinkering in their garage, or intrepid solo explorer climbing out of their craft. They certainly make nice glossy pictures, looking thoughtful, posed against a backdrop of colored liquids or blinking screens. We want to admire our modern equivalents of Prometheus, da Vinci, or Archimedes.

But it is largely romantic bunk. Most progress is accretion: hundreds or thousands of small advances make bigger things possible. Darwin needed then-new geological information and theories of fecundity on which to base his observations and insights. Watson and Crick, of DNA fame, based their insight on solid information from structural and biochemical studies. Brilliant scientists, certainly, but the adulation heaped on the individuals inevitably reduces the appreciation for the process and the contributions of others.

Just as there is no designer for the honeycomb or architect for the ant hill, save the Original, exploration is in the human DNA. Creation is a community effort, brought forth by the midwife chosen by timing, coincidence, and luck. On a related note, the single individual credited with the idea or advance is often not the first to have made the observation. Instead, it's as though the community waits for the right representative, the right salesperson perhaps, before the idea is accepted.

W's Winning the (Wrong) War!

Reagan said of the war on poverty, "poverty won". More accurately, his administration withdrew from the field, unilaterally disarmed, and surrendered unconditionally. The Bush administration has returned to the battle -- on the other side.

The only war this administration is capable and really interested in winning is the undeclared class war. The super rich have easily won every battle -- inheritance and income taxes, bankruptcy laws, trade policies -- while the merely rich and everyone else have lost. Brilliantly, the administration has shifted the costs of this war to the middle class. They will pay for their losses for generations, through increased national debt, tax cuts for the super rich, jobs lost to people with fewer benefits and less labor protection, cuts in education (to pay for testing), and extraordinarily expensive no-bid contracts given to cronies' companies. The permanent war on terror ensures steady profits for these companies.

The bankruptcy act is this administration's neutron bomb -- hurting people but protecting property. In a surgical strike on the consumer, Senate leader Bill Frist showed his skill in destroying their protections while protecting their collateral. The Republicans understand and abhor this form of "collateral damage". Sure, the bankruptcy laws needed reform, but this was designed to hurt the most vulnerable almost gratuitously. One example: victims of Katrina who lost nearly everything but their debts will have to pay a consumer credit agency to counsel them on living within their means. Special legislation may protect these refugees but not the many more families suffering, individually, equally catastrophic disasters.

I argued previously that this administration was incompetent -- having lost the Iraq war through stupidity. This alternative explanation is more consistent and comprehensive -- and entirely compatible with stupidity. This is a war the super rich are waging on the rest of us. Wake up, America! You have nothing to lose but your Cheneys.

Heart of Dimness

Stupidity and arrogance are responsible for the American failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraq war can be attributed directly to the blood lust of the administration's cowardly war profiteers. However, the most damaging miscalculations were the unintentional and inevitable consequences of their scorched-earth approach to selling the war to an (initially) skeptical public. This administration consistently ignored, ridiculed, attacked, and fired (when possible) the experts -- Brent Scowcroft (Sr. Bush's National Security Advisor), Richard Clark (bipartisan counterterrorism expert),Eric Shinseki (US Army General who called for more troops), "empty" Hans Blix (UN WMD searcher), etc.. The administration's own disciples have been rewarded for following directions and quietly presiding over an evolving disaster. The administration cynically believes that awarding (and debasing) the Medal of Freedom to Brenner, Franks, and Tenet can obscure their roles in the miserable failures.

Similarly, the advertising campaign (better known as the election) vilified and ridiculed Bush's opponents. This was supposed to be the better business administration, directed by a chief executive who, though weak on detail and prone to malaprop, had a heart of gold and a vision born of 9/11. Instead, what we've got is the big business administration -- bloated budgets, deep deficits -- with a leader who embodies the worst of CEO detachment. Bush is seemingly content with incompetence and could not communicate a vision even if his teleprompter displayed text handed down on holy scrolls.

After 5 years of relentless and rapacious self interest, enormous immorality, and financial incompetence, even the occasionally blundering Democratic pandering to special interests looks pretty attractive.