The Matter of Authority

We have entered an era in which it is impossible to point to the person who epitomizes America. We have worked our way into a notion of equality that puts everything sideways - that someone who follows their passion into any excellence whatsoever is the best. If I am the best at BMX dirtbike sumersaults, that makes me as awesome as the best diplomat in the UN. I will get as much HD airtime and millions in sponsorships as they do, if not more. Even the President of the US - hey they're hip for 4 or 8 years, then they are as dead as MySpace. We are losing the concept of greatness in people, and instead are investing them in concepts. Therefore the master of science is just doing his passion and that's no better than the master of creationism. Everybody's just doing their thing, dude. It makes us all equal, yo. Who are you to judge, man? 

This disappearance of excellence and superiority from our social universe of judgment is the same thing that makes us perversely judge those who *do* believe in something beyond 'American equality'. And these are the extremists who threaten. The problem is that it doesn't matter what the philosophy is or the values inherent. What is despised is the temerity to say it's *better* than equal. This is the result of our Culture Wars. This is why it doesn't matter *who* the 'One Percent' are or *what* they do, but that they exist at all and are determined in their vectors. 

This becomes a problem in the way it is manifest in politics which ultimately become petty. If you can't go to war against China, or Iran, no matter what the reason because war is just too *extreme*, then you turn your politics into a sort of chronic, circular whining. You care enough always to be an activist, but never enough for an actual solution. Politics becomes the realm of desire and placation rather than that of accomplishment. That's the politics we have in America. Which is exactly why it picks up on the utterly meaningless 'battle' between science and creationism, and why someone like Bill Nye gets to represent.