Love in an age of cynicism

In the early nineties the biggest show on TV was Northern Exposure, and in the late nineties it was Seinfeld. It crosses my mind that something drastic changed in the Western world over the course of the decade, and these programs are connected to it.

Northern Exposure, as I hope you recall, followed the adventures of a cynical Jewish New York doctor forced to practice in the wilds of Alaska. Five seasons later he'd been utterly transformed; his shrill, stressed exterior had been toughened by the rigours and delights of the natural world, and his condemnation of everything too different had been tempered into a sublime peace with the world.

Seinfeld, as you know backwards, followed the adventures of four cynical Jewish New York nobodies who hovered in their comfort zones for season after hilarious season. Their chronic characteristics were an inability to change (emphasised by George's success when he actually manages to 'do the opposite'), and their endless antipathy toward anyone or anything different (man hands, cinnamon bubka, etc).

It's weird to romanticise the early nineties, but it stacks up. We had a Labor government here in Australia, and America would soon elect a Democrat President. The Cold War had ended, and even the pretend war in Kuwait seemed like a Bush-family folly, a throw-back to the USA of the fifties, rather than a sign of things to come. Corazon Aquino was still in charge in the Phillippines, Nelson Mandela had just been freed, the Berlin Wall had just been destroyed, and Smells Like Teen Spirit sounded like a soul-scream subduing the superficiality of the eighties. And there was Northern Exposure.

It had a huge influence on the Femme and I. We left the city and moved to the bush on the strength of its vision, and even when the reality faltered, the vision lost none of its allure. The show's model of how people can live together, heightened by its exploration of how people can change, still rings true as we work through the DVD box-sets today.

But the world today … WTF has happened? I love both shows equally, but thinking about them now, it just looks like Seinfeld undid everything that Northern Exposure wove into the world. The characteristics that Seinfeld mocked – the judgmental, cruel, weak and vindictive natures of its heroes – have become our social norm. We don't try to improve. We don't like people who are happy or optimistic. We get suspicious, we vote them off the island. Harshness, condescension, the killer blow - fine.

There was a writers' directive in the production of Seinfeld that no characters could ever hug each other. Northern Exposure didn't have an episode without a hug. This absense of affection in Seinfeld, perfect for the show, is an out-of-control meme in the outside world. And no-one reads subtext, so no-one processes the dichotomy. It's dog-eat-dog because we're all hungry dogs - well, aren't we?

I remember thinking after 11 Sept that maybe compassion would overwhelm fear in the long run. No, of course not. I remember thinking during Sex & The City that maybe delight could eventually overwhelm comfort. But everything's darker than that.

The damage is in the next generation now. The closest thing to a hippy-chick at my work votes Liberal because she can't separate the social agendas of the Left and Right. There is simply the yoga and meditiation of her immediate world, and the important economical realities of the wider world. Nothing connects, and the wider world has no other feasible options. Red states of mind.

I mentioned a link between these shows and the world at large, hoping it would become apparent as I wrote. Depends what you think of art, though, doesn't it? Does art inspire the zeitgeist, or does it distill the qualities already in the air? I'm not blaming Seinfeld with the destruction of love, of course … or maybe I am. But if Seinfeld did that, it was because we wanted it to happen. Someone had to prepare the way for Big Brother.

I watched the part one of the BBC's new series on Casanova last night, and was captivated to see people passionately and irrationally in love. It shouldn't be such an anathema.

Trouble

Can't believe what I had to do to change my picture here. Madness.

With friends like these ...

I don't want to talk politics ... I really don't.

All the negatives I could list about the Howard regime (and his sycophantic, economy-worshipping masses) are boring and you've heard smarter people than me say them already. Hating the Liberal Party is easy and ordinary, its evil excesses self-evident and simply awful.

So there'd be nothing at all to say about politics, if not for the fact that the ALP is just as rooted.

Now, I don't want the ALP to be rooted. It pains me that I live in a (fundamentally) two-horse town of a democracy, where one horse is lame and the other is insane. But every time I try to be optimistic (ie. "Fat Kim isn't quite so bad, is he?" or "That Julia Gilliard is way-sexy"), they do something to FUCK ME UP.

Actually, the more I think about it, the 'something' is just one thing which manifests in a heap of different ways. It's this: the ALP hates the Greens.

What? you ask. The ALP hates the Greens? How can that be? They're both lefty parties, IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. I was similarly shocked when the facts became clear ...

How did Family First win their Senate seat in Victoria? The ALP directed their preferences to Family First ahead of the Greens. AHEAD OF THE GREENS!

Yep, abortion is back on the table (the dusty table in the shed, not a sterile operating table) because the Victorian ALP got scared that some trees somewhere might need to be saved.

Yep, family values are a topic for consumption (in a rammed-down-your-throat way) because the Victorian ALP was scared that the occasional animal might need to be spared its torturous existence.

Thanks for that, ALP. And thanks for this from The Age -

Sen. Bob Brown regarding the deportation of Scott Parkin:

"Now what country are we in? Surely the Inquisition is behind us, surely the Salem witchcraft trials are some centuries ago ... but no, in the year 2005 this peaceful man advocating peace in our peace-loving democracy is picked up in a police state operation, had his visa removed ... and was deported without any due reason being given at all."

The ALP's response:

Labor justice spokesman Joe Ludwig said the opposition would not support the motion (ie. an Inquiry into the deportation) because security sensitive information should not be aired in public. Senator Ludwig said Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, who received a secret briefing on the Parkin issue, had been satisfied with the briefing.

THANK YOU, ALP.

Hope you enjoyed your secret briefing. And your seat at the table. And your thirty pieces.

Doing the rounds at the moment ...

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the President his daily briefing.

He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits silently, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

Song of the Month!

I was looking at an old mix-tape this morning (old = Oct 1999, mix-tape = CD-R) and thought to myself:

"Bloody hell, that's SIX YEARS ago!"

Most of the songs seemed like recent interests/obsessions, meaning that I have absolutely no idea what I've been into when. Chronology interests me. Thus I am suffering.

Therefore ... Song of the Month. At the end of each month I'll name the song that most captivated me over the preceding 30-odd days. That way I'll have a little time capsule of my tastes and influences, and you'll be bored witless by something other than my whinging and whining.

To begin, having a vague idea of how this year unfolded, I present my all-guessed Year-To-Date Songs of the Month:

January - Four to the Floor, Starsailor
Tight, catchy song, and the CD-single had a great epic mix and a snazzy dance mix

February - What You Waiting For, Gwen Stefani
Love the song, the video, the sentiment, the whole shebang

March - Laura (aka Shimoon, aka Simone), Scissor Sisters
Funny

April - Interstate 5, The Wedding Present
Epic, lush and glorious

May - Baby C'mon, Stephen Malkmus
Rockin' and sublime

June - Teenage Winter, Saint Etienne
The epic penultimate track that saves the whole album

July - Seconds, Human League
An old, old song ... released many years before you were even born, but captivating my soul all this time

August - Staralfur, Sigur Rós
This is when I finally heard it, bought it and started worshipping it

And finally, September's Song of the Month is ...

Harajuku Girls, Gwen Stefani
Goddam love it. Bought the album as a fun/party album, but this track is right under my skin.

There, wasn't that fun?