Living in the Twilight Zone
At first, it seemed oddly ironic that the cable cabal would run a Twilight Zone marathon on the Fourth of July, but the more one thinks about it, the more appropriate it actually was.
After all, this country is lifted right out of one of the most nightmarish episodes of that classic show.
But then again, no TZ episode was ever half as bizarre as what this country has been experiencing.
Nowadays, everything about this country feels strange.
You get a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach every time you pump gas and try to stop on an even amount, but it sails right on by, because, at an incredible $4.
00+ a gallon, the dials fly past your target at lightning speed.
You know that something is terribly wrong when you have to take out a second subprime mortgage on your home just for a down payment on that partial tank of gas.
Who ever imagined that a gallon of gas could cost more than a gallon of water? You know that something is just not right when you spend your entire paycheck on groceries, only to discover, much to your chagrin, that what used to buy enough to fill your whole trunk, can now fit in your glove box, with room to spare.
The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Towers, totally beyond belief, was a classic case of surreality plucked from a bad dream, then played over and over again, like a never-ending nightmare.
But, it could not have really happened, because the pre-9/11 movies that we see nearly every day still have those iconic landmarks gracing the New York City skyline.
Who could have believed that we would still be embroiled in a second Vietnam, six years later, especially after the first one nearly tore this country apart, and we vowed, never again? No one thought that anything could be more surreal than the extended 2000 chadfest, but then, we were proved wrong by the strange twists and turns of an interminable campaign, the contest coming down to a woman and a black man, neither one of which the political pundits said would ever happen in our lifetime, both occurring in the same primary race.
Indeed, everything about this country has become unsettlingly off-kilter.
So, perhaps it is not ironic at all that they ran a Twilight Zone marathon on our national birthday.
The only thing ironic about it is that there was no need to even watch it at all, because we are already living it in real life.
After all, this country is lifted right out of one of the most nightmarish episodes of that classic show.
But then again, no TZ episode was ever half as bizarre as what this country has been experiencing.
Nowadays, everything about this country feels strange.
You get a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach every time you pump gas and try to stop on an even amount, but it sails right on by, because, at an incredible $4.
00+ a gallon, the dials fly past your target at lightning speed.
You know that something is terribly wrong when you have to take out a second subprime mortgage on your home just for a down payment on that partial tank of gas.
Who ever imagined that a gallon of gas could cost more than a gallon of water? You know that something is just not right when you spend your entire paycheck on groceries, only to discover, much to your chagrin, that what used to buy enough to fill your whole trunk, can now fit in your glove box, with room to spare.
The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Towers, totally beyond belief, was a classic case of surreality plucked from a bad dream, then played over and over again, like a never-ending nightmare.
But, it could not have really happened, because the pre-9/11 movies that we see nearly every day still have those iconic landmarks gracing the New York City skyline.
Who could have believed that we would still be embroiled in a second Vietnam, six years later, especially after the first one nearly tore this country apart, and we vowed, never again? No one thought that anything could be more surreal than the extended 2000 chadfest, but then, we were proved wrong by the strange twists and turns of an interminable campaign, the contest coming down to a woman and a black man, neither one of which the political pundits said would ever happen in our lifetime, both occurring in the same primary race.
Indeed, everything about this country has become unsettlingly off-kilter.
So, perhaps it is not ironic at all that they ran a Twilight Zone marathon on our national birthday.
The only thing ironic about it is that there was no need to even watch it at all, because we are already living it in real life.