Word: meaninglessness
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...second American civil war, fighting bitterly in their own living rooms with people they loved nonetheless. If he was too unreconstructed to admire, he was too real to dismiss: if you could not see yourself, or at least someone you loved, in Archie Bunker, his performance would have been meaningless, a feel-good tonic for a few progressive troops...
...would make them more accountable. Legislators would see their jobs not as careers but as brief opportunities to make tough decisions and get things done. Opponents feared lobbyists would gain even more influence. None of the above happened. Lobbyists struggled as their long-term relationships with veteran pols became meaningless. Veteran staff members in the state capitals have had their power enhanced by guiding the rookies. In Maine, the number of bills has almost doubled in recent years, as rookies try to make a mark. But the number of laws passed has shrunk...
...teary family stories and the umpteenth capital-punishment pro-and-cons. Or switch off Katie, put a CD on the car stereo instead of the news. And either way, mutter afterward about how the parade of talking heads trivialized a moment of national gravity, made it into another meaningless parade, another Survivor finale - how this most intimate and public of moments was stripped of its chilling meaning. Yes, yes. And isn't that exactly what we will have wanted...
...some of the ideas of "2024." Rall is smart and intuitive in a vicious sort of way. His running gag of business minutiae as the new entertainment feels dead on. Likewise it's funny when Winston reacts to Channel 101 being "the worst thing in the world," with that meaningless, fully-corpratized hipster catchphrase, "That's cool." But the book lacks the central values of human decency which made it matter that Winston Smith of "1984" came to scrawl "2+2=5" into the dust of his cafe table...
...this distinction between a social and a work-oriented student center as been until now a meaningless one--there simply has not been enough space for either...