Wish you were here.

I realize that it may just be a little late to weigh in on the changes that have swept our world since September 11. On the other hand, everyone else seems to feel totally free to do so.

I was reading this article the other day about the advertising industry which made me feel pretty sick to my stomach. I'm not going to excerpt it or anything, though I considered it. The gist of it is easy enough to summarize.

Apparently, advertising is different now. Humour is now considered inappropriate.

Humour is now considered inappropriate.

HUMOUR is now considered INAPPROPRIATE.

A generation of hyper-detached, utterly self absorbed class clowns suddenly finds itself without any means of expression.

Look, I don't mean to say that our generation is incapable of deep emotional expression. I couldn't possibly mean it. What I do mean to say is that it doesn't at all tend to be our first choice.

Even our heartpourtings tend to the ironic. We are too media savvy to feel we can speak our hearts. We are so sensitive to the signs of cloying TV-Movie-of-the-Week histrionics that we live in terror of seeming so totally manipulative and banal.

We'd rather sound disinterested than naive, hostile than sappy, detached that vulnerable.

And now humour is inappropriate.

Fuck.

I will not have it.

A line must be drawn here. This far, and no further.

If we can't mock a picture of a Vietnamese peasant girl on fire, the terrorists win.

If we can't enjoy our fantasies of killing everyone at our high school reunion, the terrorists win.

As a culture, we fought too long and too hard to be this callous.

I will not give it up, and anyone who doesn't like it is a fucking traitor.

Oh yeah, and a dupe