As a nation, we are currently living in a shadow
world where suspension of disbelief is the only ticket
in. In this world, Muslim terrorists attacked the United
States in 2001, leading to a justified "war on terror"
and invasion of two sovereign nations to prevent their
attacking us with weapons of mass destruction. Leading
us in this fight is the brave and noble George W. Bush,
winner of two elections and possessor of a mandate to
right wrongs and bring safety to the American people, in
spite of the best efforts of liberal scum to thwart him.
There's a concept called "suspension of disbelief."
It describes a willing hold in the use of one's logical
faculties so that one may enjoy a work of fiction. It's
suspension of disbelief that allows us to watch Mary
Poppins or Superman or Harry Potter fly about onscreen,
without walking out of the theatre. Suspension of
disbelief allows us to accept the idea that the
Terminator has come from the future, that Marty McFly
has gone to the past, that Captain Kirk can beam down to
a planet, or that the Robinsons would allow Doctor
Smith, who they know tried to murder them, to baby-sit
their son. In our effort to get our money's worth of
entertainment, we are even willing to suspend disbelief
long enough to accept that Madonna can sing, or David
Schwimmer can act.
Suspension of disbelief is a flimsy state at best.
That's why it's so annoying to sit in a movie next to
someone who keeps whispering, "Look, you can see the
wires!" or "Wow, the CGI effects are incredible!" or
"That's not really Jake Gyllenhaal; it's a body double."
Such comments are jolting, because they take us out of
the world of the story--the
world we paid to be in--and
into the world of the theatre, where we are merely
staring at shadows projected on a screen.
"But the alleged attackers were Saudis, not
Afghanis or Iraqis! Besides, what about the evidence
that Dick Cheney planned the whole thing back in the
1990s when he was with PNAC, and the fact that NORAD
mysteriously ignored all four hijackings until it was
too late?"
"Hush! I'm trying to watch the show!"
"Look! You can see the way Democratic voters in
Florida and Ohio were denied the vote, and the Diebold
paperless voting machines generated enough spurious
Republican votes to steal the election!"
"Will you be quiet?"
"Good grief, Bush himself was AWOL instead of in Viet
Nam. He's never had to face battle, and now has sent
over 2500 men to their deaths, most of them since he claimed 'Mission Accomplished'--and now there's more terrorists than ever!"
"Shut up, already! This is the important 'State of the Union' scene."
There is a lot of puzzlement on the part of liberals
and other anti-war folks as to why, how, the
Busheviks can still support this man who occupies the
White House by coup, who lies so compulsively that even
his names for bills deceive. (The "Clean Air" Act allows corporations to dirty the air; the "No Child Left Behind" legislation takes money that could be used for teachers and sends it instead to publishers who supported the Bush campaign.)
I believe it is because the Busheviks have suspended
disbelief so they won't feel cheated. They've spent a
lifetime supporting conservative causes and they believe
they've finally gotten a conservative into the White House.
Now, no matter what he does, they have to play along. So
they call war hero Murtha a coward for criticizing the
war; demonize the Veterans for Peace for daring to plant
crosses honoring the American dead on some California
beaches; and make fun of Specialist Casey Sheehan's
mother for publicly mourning his death in Iraq, and the
deaths of every other mother's son in a war waged only
to bring profit to a few corporate pals of the Bush
administration.
"But Bush isn't a conservative! He's an
alcoholic, cocaine-addicted, pet goat reading,
war-mongering slacker who's spent more government money
than the most liberal President ever to occupy
the White House!"
"SHUT UP! I am trying to watch the show. One more
fact out of you, and I am going to jam this tub of
popcorn up your ass. I swear it."