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I certainly don't have an Aniston fixation - I never watched "Friends" and while I have a general sympathy for any person betrayed by his/her spouse, that's about it. I see the value of having the occasional "fluff piece" in Salon, so I'm not that worked up about this article on those grounds, either. What I do find most interesting, however, is what the article says about the cultural preoccupations of Americans. After 9-11, many Americans were asking "why do they hate us?" At the time, this may have been a reasonable question (in some ways); Al Qaeda had been operating under the radar of even many well-informed people. Today, after tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in Iraq by American weaponry, when the victims of Hurricane Katrina are being evicted from their hotel rooms, when the US government is finding new ways to cut welfare, sanction torture and violate civil rights - the story of the year is Jennifer Aniston? The most disturbing thing is that this may be a correct assessment of the situation, at least for most Americans. When the next international or domestic social catastrophe occurs, how many Americans will be caught by surprise?
