Common Sense

I’m concerned about the Right Wing in this country. Many say that they’ve had their day. Reagan, Breakfast in America or whatever it was, Newt, Cheney, and, The King of Pain, W. However, Cheney has been on all the shows, Newt has been mentioned as the leader of the Republicans, and they even have an entire TV network – Fox – which has risen to new heights of drama, flights of fancy, and inspired improvisation, not to mention sheer entertainment value.

They lost the election. Their membership has been decimated by exposure, death, irrelevance, and well-delivered humor. And, their positions have been seen to have a tenuous connection to reality. All this conforms to what seems reasonable, natural, and about time.

That’s all well and good. A relief. It inspires a belief that change for the better is possible and that all the bumper sticker damage from the recent election was worth it. We can now actually get closer to those tantalizing hopes and goals of our founding fathers.

But what worries me is Amazon.com – the world’s largest bookstore. They cater to everyone and they do it online. By extension, they serve the technologically savvy.

The Amazon bestseller list, today, features Glenn Beck’s book, Common Sense, at the top of, not only the regular bestseller list, but also the Kindle bestseller list.

Yes, that’s the same Glenn Beck who said, ‘I hope Obama fails.’ “We’re not on LSD anymore, we need to make sense.” “If you’re an ugly woman, you’re probably a progressive.” And, recently, “The most used phrase in my administration if I were to be President would be, ‘What the Hell you mean we’re out of missiles?’”

Stephen Colbert has shown us that Glenn Beck is not only an idiot, on the order of Rush Limbaugh, but also that he is channeling messages from the planet, Zorkon. That’s good enough for me.

I knew that America’s educational system was in trouble. I had heard the whispering about the decline of our prominence in world affairs. I had seen the news about the state of our national literacy and readership. But, even taking Harry Potter into account, this really scares me.

Right now, I am on page 203 of a (terrific) book, written for young adults, like myself, called, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and have the latest copy of Mad Magazine by the side of the bed, but these, at least, deal with important issues in a way that, invites serious discussion, ethical participation, and hope for the future.

I admire Mr. Beck’s sales figures, but it is more than disheartening to imagine what this may represent. As much as I like science fiction, I don’t want to go there.