Monday, September 27, 2004

Election Hysteria: A Prelude

One week after 9-11 in 2001 I wrote a quickie zeen called WAR HYSTERIA! which depicted the panic of the nation. (It received good reviews and sold well.)

I'd like now to write an ELECTION HYSTERIA!, except with the event a month away, its shelf life would be brief.

The election campaign is a spectacle of mendacity and insanity. Orwell's "1984" portrayed a "Two Minute Hate" with watchers of video screens pushed emotionally beyond all reason, into hysteria-- which is what we see today on both sides. The face of a politician appears on a screen and the audience gesticulates angrily, as if a bell rings.

Someone once defined something as "the ability to keep your head while others are losing theirs." Right now most folks are failing the test.

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