The Stealth Generation Meets The Super Bowl

The World Thru the Super Bowl lens

Silly me!

I thought all Americans had somehow disappeared into some invisible black hole judging by the lack of reaction to the president's State of the Union speech. Nobody seemed to react very much. Was it the mood of the country? Something else we couldn’t define? Were we just too choked up?

Who can say?

Maybe it’s just that it comes at a bad time. You know what I mean. Right after the holidays. And the big let down—especially after all the bills started rolling in.
In fact, one psychiatrist suggested that this may be the worst week of the year!
People are depressed. They don’t feel like hearing about more promises that we know will not be fulfilled. And it’s an hour and a half of self promotion that most people according to the polls don’t believe anyway…



In fact, it seems that in the past five years, overall, we have morphed into the Stealth Generation. We have gone from the Me Generation to the X generation to the something else generation to the Stealth Generation. I’m not quite sure what it all means except that it appears to be a seismic shift in thinking where many are trying to combine the "me" benefits with the Stealth sense of avoiding responsibility at all costs….

Furthermore, we are in a time when the dangers of volunteering for anything are plain to see. You don't volunteer for the Guard. You don't volunteer to help hurricane victims. And if you volunteer on the job, the boss not only thinks you are nuts, he's likely to lose trust in your judgment. In effect, we have learned that it is best no matter where you are to have people think you are someplace else.
It’s like turning that law of physics on its head so that you can really be in two places at one time and preferably not where you are when the boss comes into the office and finds you listening to your Apple downloads with your feet up on your homework file. In short, it is far better to be he who cons as opposed to he who is the victim of the con…so sayeth Confuscius. Okay, he didn’t quite say that but we’re sure he would have said it if he had been exposed to modern man…


In short, the new mantra of this new millennium is watch your fanny and keep a low profile. Let the other guy do it! Learning this proved actually that everything was pretty much normal. We had not all fallen down the rabbit nest. And what proved that to me was what began the other morning.

I'll tell you how it happened. I was visiting the supermarket and the conversation turned to the Super Bowl. Ah, for that, the population was awakening. The low profile after the holidays was being replaced by the enthusiasm for the football game to end all football games; the excuse for eating all of the junk foods we all love and just hanging out.

Have no fear, friends, the population of America is back.

And we are glued to our TV's while our wives our preparing all of our favorite things.
The world has not ended. There will be half-time, great beer commercials and the supermarkets of America are feeling buoyant again after one of the best shopping days ever!

It has nothing to do with war; it has nothing to do with the economy; global warming doesn't even get close; but it is all about kicking a little piece of pigskin across a few parallel lines while tens of thousands roar to the moon. For now, the Hell with the enemy; the Hell with everything bad; America is back if only through this evening!...

We will worry in silence about all of the other stuff starting tomorrow. We promise!

Les Aaron