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Popular Culture Review
the technology of reality, just as access to a camcorder and a computer can make
anyone the next on-line star, and a nationwide search for an American Idol can
make anyone the next sensation. But I am not sure that we should be
unquestioning fans of democracy. As a concept, it is today but a justification for
war. And as a political term, it has absolutely no meaning beyond its use as an
interjection. The best synonym for “democracy” is thus most likely “hurray!”—
it is, I fear, a word used merely to indicate the United States’ approval of
something.
It was 1976.1 was nine, soon to turn ten, in the fifth grade. And the country
had bicentennial fever. My small public school took every opportunity it could
that year to celebrate democracy and freedom. Even the title of the December
holiday pageant was “A Red, White, and Blue Christmas.” With all of the
parents gathered in the transformed gymnasium, we sang carols and acted out
bizarre sketches involving gingerbread men, Santa Claus, and George
Washington. Mrs. Quayle, our music teacher, played the piano, and the finale of
the holiday evening came when a young girl appeared at center stage to sing
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” followed by a boy who sang “I’m
Dreaming of a White Christmas,” followed by me, doing my best Elvis
impersonation, singing “I’ll Have a Blue Christmas Without You.” I sang the
song without irony—they hadn’t invented irony yet—but I sang it with a heavy
heart because I was, from what had happened in the spring of the previous
school year, utterly disillusioned with the notion of democracy.
In May 1976 the teachers at Elmwood Elementary School decided that an
appropriate way to celebrate our collective national greatness was to have each
grade participate in a “democratic exercise” that would be filmed by the local
television station as a week-long mini-documentary. They hadn’t invented the
idea of reality television back then, either, but that, in effect, is what it was. Two
students would be chosen to represent two sides of an important issue (because
every issue has two and exactly two sides to it). One would take the pro and the
other would take the con, and they would research their respective issues,
present their findings to the gathered student body on Friday, everyone would
take one week to think about it all and discuss it, then we would reconvene and
all vote on the following Friday to see democracy in action. Each night on the
local television news, they would show an edited version of what had happened
the day before at school: our nation’s democracy being enacted by our nation’s
future.
Our issue was “Should we change our national anthem?” And I was
assigned the pro position.
I admit that I have always had a fondness for both Canadians and “O,
Canada,” but at nine years old it had never much occurred to me to have a
referendum to get rid of our own “Star Spangled Banner.” Still, I took the