'Are You Hot?' Is It Nuclear? Jerry Springer seems less radical every day; Maury Povich presides over the DNA testing of infants whose father may be this guy or that.(escapist entertainment is dominating on television, as America buys duct tape and nervously contemplates war)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 24-FEB-03

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2003 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com

Byline: Anna Quindlen

The morning after the Michael Jackson interview aired in the United States, the Feds raised the terror-alert level to high. The connection is apparent. Only people living in a panic caldron set to simmer could sit through two hours of the faded pop star's insisting on the normalcy of his own weird existence behind a surgically altered mask more stylized and impenetrable than those he makes his children wear in public.

What a long strange trip it's been, these past 18 months. After America's sense of security was blown up in its two most important cities, its people became their best selves, or tried to be. Worshipers who had fallen away returned to churches. Comfort foods were back in vogue, potpies and macaroni and cheese. Flag sales tripled at Wal-Mart. Everywhere people vowed...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.