The Truth Is Out of Style

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of (1) the collapse of European Communism, (2) the unscientific scare over the chemical Alar (which will be commemorated today on ACSH’s website if all goes as planned), and (3) the pro-skepticism rap anthem “The Truth Is Out of Style” by MC 900 Ft. Jesus (better known as Dallas DJ Mark Griffin but for rap purposes using a name inspired by ludicrous televangelist Oral Roberts’ claim that a 900-foot Jesus appeared to him and commanded him to build a hospital and to raise $8 million or God would “call him home,” apparently a bad thing).

I was reminded of the third of these events by Jen Dziura’s account of seeing a thirty-six-foot audio-animatronic Jesus at a Bible-themed park on her recent trip to Argentina (which sounds a little like dropping acid during the final ceremony of Burning Man, mentioned in yesterday’s entry).  The MC 900 Ft. Jesus song came out a couple years after the Oral Roberts incident — and after what was arguably the peak of New Age mysticism in American culture, the so-called Harmonic Convergence of 1987 (which happened to fall on the tenth anniversary of Elvis’s death — for those who believe Elvis is dead).

If all three of the twentieth anniversaries listed above were being celebrated fully — and the proper lessons drawn from them — our culture would be in pretty good shape: market-oriented/pro-freedom…pro-science/pro-industry…and non-religious/non-superstitious.  Let’s hope the econ focus of last night’s Lolita discussion did just a little bit to push things in the right direction.