Some of you may be familiar with Disco Demolition Night. There is a remote chance one of you old timers might have been there. On the night of July 12th, 1979, I was only four years old…and no where near Chicago. So clearly I had nothing to do with it. As much as I would love to take credit for anything with the word “demolition” in the title, I’m actually referencing back to this event in US music and baseball history as an example of how extremism equals bad. This is another one of my fictional campaign slogans for my fictional run for local politics: Extremism = Bad (and not in a Michael Jackson 1980’s way, but in a Michael Jackson 2000’s way).
For those of you not familiar with the infamous event that forecast the death of disco music, Disco Demolition Night was a Major League Baseball promotional event gone bad. Who would have thought that blowing up a massive pile of disco records in the middle of the outfield at Comiskey Park could have possibly gone wrong? Anywho, by the end of it all, the bases had been stolen, a fire had been lit, the field was destroyed, and 39 people were arrested.
Looking back, most people see this event as a vivid example of people trending toward ANY radical grassroots alternative to the political and cultural status quo of the day. In other words, the shared hatred of disco music was reason enough for thousands of people to converge on Comiskey Park in order to riot (ie. smoke pot, throw records, and trash stuff).
Any of this sound relevant to our contemporary times?
Thus, I’m launching my “Radical Moderate” movement to advance the purposes of extreme moderatism. That’s right. The only kind of extremism I can get behind is moderate. Moderate to the extreme.
When did all this radicalism start becoming such a thing? From George Washington to FDR to Eisenhower, America has always valued its moderates. Right? (I mean Left? No, no, I mean Middle.) How about James Monroe and the Missouri Compromise? Anyone? Bueller?
One of the questions I like to pose to people who aren’t yet familiar with the bedevilment of knowing me goes something like this: “Which would you prefer, a local government consisting entirely of one party (your choice) or one evenly split?” Over the last few years, the answer has been almost universally that an extremely lopsided government would be best (as long as it consisted of the correct extreme, and not those mother scratchers). I can’t know the answer for sure (at least until my younger son finishes his time machine), but I suspect that previous to the sixties most would have answered that an even split would be best.
During dinner the other night, my younger son complained that the beef and green bean stir fry didn’t have enough beef in it. The wife explained that she had used a pound of ground beef. My son’s quick math skills deduced that he had been given approximately a quarter pound of beef in his serving (no leftovers with this bunch). I asked him how much beef was in a McDonald’s Quarter pounder (assuming that the patty is mostly beef food of some sort). Again, he quickly deduced the correct answer and served it complete on an eye roll. Not to be defeated, he protested that the meal would be even better with half a pound of beef. The wife countered with, “Why not eat nothing but beef?”
At this point, my younger son grew suspicious of the line of questioning. He knew he was about to be trapped, so he clammed up. Moments later (after a food pyramid lecture), I of course quoted Jesse Grass from the Simpsons, “I’m a level five vegan. I don’t eat anything that casts a shadow.” After unanimous agreement that none of us could ever go vegan, I asked my sons the relevant question, “So which is better? Extremism or Moderation?” Now that’s radical.
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