Everything Is On the Line

Imagine a cultural studies or media studies seminar class maybe 50 years from now.  They’re covering the way mass culture responded to anxieties over terrorism.  The students (with some gently goading from the prof) discuss at length the media hyperventilating over the Anthrax scare.  Later they please themselves with their own insight as they talk about the glut of superhero movies, and America’s desire for a clear enemy and a clear goal.  And with that special brand of condescension only an undergrad can muster, they’ll mock the escapism of “reality” television.

Then they will get to this and there will only be… wha?