spoil sport

Upon the release of the latest JibJab, I shall be the spoil sport. Am I alone in finding JibJab utterly un-funny? I've watched three now--the Jab-tacular this land is your land, the get out and vote, and this latest "four more years in wash-ing-tun." Not only are they not cracking my smile, I think I actively don't like them, and what they're all about.

The latest JibJab is a warm fuzzy. In fact, they all are as far as I've seen; ending with two political foes arm in arm united by their shared life in politics. It is, though, that very dropping of the arms that irks me. And it is not because I desire some prolonged antipathy. Rather, the moral of each of these cartoons is that our heated disputes that drive us apart are merely games of politics. You like X and I like Y, but once the game's over, only sore losers and weirdos go on about those differences. Politics are entertainment just as a Duke Carolina game.

This is also the moral of late night monologues, shows like the defunct crossfire, and, increasingly, mass-media news.

What Jib Jab and mass media do not do is attempt any serious attempt to learn/instruct us in policy. Sure, that's not JibJab's job; but, JibJab is resoundingly popular because of this trend. Absent is any sense that real policy differences matter. Also absent, importantly, is any sense that the sides should have any vulnerability. I maintain, this is just like sports. In the end, it doesn't matter, it's just a game. At the same time, only a fool would try to convince me to like Coach K.

Lest we forget, politics are not entertainment. Policies lead us to war, they determine the fate of families without shelter, the protection of elders without a nest egg, the kind of food we eat, the stuff we watch, and the business we engage in, ad infinitum. Increasingly, though, and despite this wonderfully high turnout in November, we just don't care. Increasingly, Bush and Kerry are no different than K and Williams.

And this is destroying our national dialogue. We are too often aligned to our respective sides without any particularly good reason. And the media, in their laziness and subsequent reliance on merely playing two sides of an argument, feeds the habit. Where, I wonder, is the search for truth?

(I do not suggest we end our two party system. Usually, as it happens, we Democrats are only mostly right.)

But politics today reminds me of the way secular people supposedly compliment religion. "I'm all for it," I hear endlessly, "because it is a great comforting tool." Bet the concentration camp ghosts and old Martin Luther are thrilled to hear that one.

Fortunately, politics, usually, concerns only our physical lives. Still, it is a noble struggle for what is right. I think alot of us kindof get that. What we have lost is the sense of duty to really struggle with that question. Instead, we each have our Limbaughs to entertain us and poke fun at the other side. (sadly, having developed this cheerleader analogy, that last sentence brought a disturbing image to mind.)

To turn political thinking into entertainment is, ultimately, to turn us away from civic duty. Watch your Jib Jab, shrug your shoulders at the red or blue colors, and avoid any real thought into policy. It hurts, and takes up too much of your time. And besides, American Idol's on.