04/02/2004: 
Stuff That Doesn't Suck
Accountability: The First Movement of the '00's?
Hostess is scrambling to recover lost revenue due to lost Twinkies and Wonder Bread sales. Mc Donald's is phasing out super- sizing. Cigarette companies are on the run and their customers can't smoke anywhere. Outraged prudes are demanding that the FCC enforce broadcast decency laws on oversized media conglomerates. An SUV has been introduced that gets 40 MPG. Baseball teams are hiring stat geeks and phasing out the baseballl lifers in efforts to turn around struggling teams.
What do all these things have in common? Well, whether you agree with what these groups want to accomplish, they are all trying to make corporations more accountable for their actions. Is accountability the new hotness? The '90s were seen by many as a period of widespread apathy, where noone cared about larger social issues or protesting. Not coincidentally, many of these excesses had their genesis in the 1990s when noone was looking. So now, we have a whole bunch of outraged people who are voting not with their votes, but voting with their wallets, and not buying products that they think are harmful in some way. In response to the wishes of their consumer base, many of these corporations are offering new products with less carbs, more MPGs, and less indecency. Are these instances of people getting what they want through organized grassroots resistance, or are they being distracted from issues that have a lot more importance? Why are people protesting the right of individuals to engage in behavior or use products that are known to cause harm but pleasure as well? I'm sure that the people in power are more than happy to watch these asshats protest and demand changes that will have no effect on anything but personal freedom while the government continues nasty doings under the cover of darkness. The Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant trials and the issues described above appear to get more play on the news than news itself. So has America entered the "bread and circuses" period of decline or is there still hope?
