A Late Bridge Metaphor

Retired mascots always annoyed me. Every time there are new Olympic Games here or there, advertisers bring to life a new and cutesy little mascot to embody the Olympic flame. And when the medals are won and people pack up and head home, these characters are forgotten and slink off to the file cabinets and cartoon graveyards. Election cycles are no different. Let me ask you the crux of this article: Where are the bridge metaphors of 2000?

When Bush and the Jolly Green Giant Al Gore squared off in the 2000 elections, they prattled on about the “Bridge to the 21st Century,” about making sure that the bridge was wide enough for everyone to cross, and not leaving anyone behind. As an economics major, I felt each bridge statement was a pandering bromide meant to elicit emotion with its use of absolutes. “Nobody” left behind and benefit will be “for everyone.” In a campaign promise, good things are generally ushered in with infinite supply and bad things are banished. And sadly, people set their expectations too high for the role of government. I would actually like to see a politician who said “I will only be able to achieve 6 out of 10 national priorities; the remaining four are up to you.” That would be a relief I doubt I will ever glimpse outside Eden.

But the popular culture was not immune either. Christian ministers wailed about the Antichrist and Y2K. Music videos celebrated the millennial changeover. Here are three music videos and a preachy doomsday-sayer.

Some may drag on, but the point is the same. Look at what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvNjtjLSobM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4X8mMQw9xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NyUE9lQyQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts0U3KV7pB4

Startling how much it permeated our culture? I actually saw Billy Joel perform that song live in Atlanta. But I digress.

Unlike the Olympic games of the Greeks, politics does not leave the same glory on the wreathed heads of its victors, and it is truly baffling how short our political memories are, no? I mean, we took the leap from the lion’s head into a new eon of human history with confusion, horror, and a subsequent anger that has now ebbed. Not exactly on our terms, one might say. Truth is, folks, that there is no sturdy bridge, and the best laid plans of mice and men eventually died with 3,000 New Yorkers. 19 people, the hijackers, were the only people that we would not call innocent on that day. But of the guilty, a 20th casualty unmentioned was an arbitrary campaign promise that swaddled us in a false security. 20 hijackers died that day, and one was an illusion. The 20th century, its plagues, its wars, its pettiness… we thought that we could leave all those behind us and exit the stage with the penicillin, the automobile, the Internet, and striped toothpaste. None of the baggage. The last century yanked us back a few steps, uttered “not so fast,” and pointed to a bridge whose landing would drop us off in the sandy nexus of world history, where the challenges of humanity have resided since the dawn of time. The ghost of the 20th century outstretched its bony finger gravely back to deserts and to duty, telling us that we must still hold fast to our rendezvous with destiny. No solstice, New Year, or ball-drop can change that. Let us never forget that fateful day, 9/11.

Lastly, let us question the belief in arbitrary timetables based on our calendars, and act by what actually is. “Change,” the buzzword du jour, is just as fragile when touted by a messiah who promises to tear down “walls.” Yet, his vision may not be as vulnerable to catastrophe; unlike the election 2000 contenders, this suave scion has no road map to realize whatever he is shooting for, save a another chronological promise for America. >>