FW: proof of age - I know its off topic but...

Joseph Carson samizdata at EARTHLINK.NET
Tue Feb 8 10:04:39 UTC 2000


Nancy Elliott wrote (on Fri, Feb 4, 2000, 11:49 PM):  The Challenger explosion
and Lennon assassination are the historical moments that work for me in the way
that the JFK assassination freezes events in the memories of older people, but
some younger people who I asked about this (30-somethings now) said that the
unforgettable historical event for them was the first day of the Gulf War. -
Nancy Elliott - Southern Oregon University

Nancy, thank you for bringing the start of the Gulf War up! -- That was a news
milestone that cut across the conciousness of the entire public in a way that
very few events of the last decade or so have even approximated. -- However,
and this may just be a result of proximity, I can think of two little words
that bring an immediate knee jerk reaction from everyone under the age of
thirty-five or so (especially Blacks) -- Rodney King! -- or by the same token,
(pun unintended) lest we forget, O. J. Simpson!  For 1950s retreads who
remember the '70s well enough (it's harder all the time for me, sad to relate,)
the images of Nixon flashing the "victory/peace" sign at the portal of Air
Force One, the helicopter hovering above the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, and the
scowling visage of Ayatollah Khomeni still summon powerful re-collective
emotional surges in the hearts of Baby Boomers all over the country, if I'm not
mistaken.  This is a fascinating digression, BTW, yet it is relevant to our
discussion of dialectical archtypes ... a quick "fer instance" on tonight's TV
re-run rotation was the scene where Homer and Bart Simpson pull their
18-wheeler into the "Gassy Knoll" truck stop, and a cameo by that nefarious
trio of paranoiacs who provide mission critical support for Mulder's "black bag
operations," who use "The Lone Gunman" for their cyber-zine's URL and
collective code name in the X-Files ... both of which demonstrate the writers'
presumption of our more or less automatic recognition of the event their sly
references are based upon (namely, JFK's assassination.)  His brother's death
has become the stuff of legend as well, although to a far lesser degree, being
third on the match of the JFK-MLK-RFK tragic death trinity.   The Moon Landing,
the Wedding and Death of Di, the list goes on ... Regards, Joseph Carson



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