GM and Jon Stewart
I just got off the phone with a guy who works in public affairs for General Motors, asking me if I’d say publicly on the radio and TV that GM’s buyback deal for GM workers (GM will give a certain lump sum of money to any worker who voluntarily quits) is a good deal for workers, and promising a sum of money for me if I did so. I told him I’d say nice things about the deal if I thought the deal was good and I’d condemn it if I thought the deal was bad, and I wouldn’t take a dime. Frankly, I was offended that GM or anyone would think my opinion was for sale. It’s bad enough the Administration pays Armstrong Williams and other columnists to support White House policy. Now, apparently corporate America is paying pundits to shill for them. Is everything for sale, even integrity? Super-capitalism works remarkably well when it comes to efficient markets – creating low prices, economic growth, and innovation. But it wreaks havoc when it buys public opinion or when it corrupts our democracy with lobbyists and campaign contributions. No wonder the public is so cynical about the media and about government. Radical conservatives would like nothing better than the public to become utterly cynical about all our democratic institutions. George Bush cynically uses the intelligece apparatus of the US to attack his war critics, like Nixon, and what’s the result? His polls drop a bit, and the public grows even more cynical about government.
I worry a lot these days about cynicism. Skepticism is fine, but cynicism is a corrosive excuse for doing nothing. Most people under 30 get their news from the Daily Show. I’ve been on the show twice. Last time I was on, I asked the producer just before I went on stage what Stewart and I were going to talk about. She said she didn’t know. I reminded her it was a live telecast in front of a live audience and millions of TV viewers and it would be nice to at least have a minute to think about what I might say. She said too bad. I went out on the set, waved at the audience, sat down, and had a great time. Stewart is funny, cool, quick, and smart. He’s also cynical, and much of his humor comes from cynicism.
To be idealistic today is to expose yourself to the charge of being naive and silly. Yet if you aren’t idealistic when you’re under 30, when will you ever be?