On January 22, 2013, in a post I wrote about imaginary friends, I wrote about the Manti Te’o catfishing scandal, which was, at the time, one of the biggest stories in the news.
It was the first public example of catfishing. For a while, we weren’t sure if Manti Te’o was the victim or the perpetrator of the hoax.
In the same post, I also mentioned the moment three months earlier when Clint Eastwood spoke to an imaginary President Obama in an empty chair on prime-time television in order to “debate” him at the Republican Convention.
For days afterward, media outlets reported and mocked the bizarre stunt.
In that same month, we also experienced “binders full of women,” Felix Baumgartner jump from space (witnessed by millions and covered by every media outlet), and the Kate Middleton topless-photo scandal.
All stories that dominated the media for days and weeks.
As I read this post from 13 years ago, I wondered how much of it anyone would remember today.
I remember each of these moments well, but perhaps it’s because I am oriented towards sports and politics, and I was actually writing about them at the time, which tends to cement ideas in the mind.
But does the average American, consumed back then with Manti Te’o’s imaginary girlfriend, Eastwood’s empty chair, and Kate Middleton’s blurry breasts, remember any of these moments at all?
Last spring, I was talking about my upcoming novel, which deals, in part, with the Challenger disaster. When I asked my students if they knew about the Space Shuttle Challenger, most did not.
Many adults whom I queried also had no memory of the incident.
I recently told some friends about this. One of them was appalled by the lack of memory about something as important as the Challenger disaster, so I asked:
“Do you remember the three NASA astronauts who died on the launch pad back in 1967?”
She did not.
Charlie knew, of course. So, too, did Clara. But they’ve been reading about things like this since they were little. Pile up enough nonfiction around your children, and they are bound to learn a lot.
I also remembered that Gus Grissom was one of the men who died that day, though I couldn’t recall the names of the other two who perished.
Ed White and Roger Chaffee. They deserve to be remembered, too.
The lesson here:
The world moves on, and for those not engaging in the news, interested in history, and continually reading, much of it is quickly forgotten. The biggest news stories on the planet because fo0rgotten faster than you could ever imagine.
Even for those fully engaged with the world and the stories of our day, it’s easy for today’s sensation to be forgotten tomorrow. The enormity of today often becomes the minutia of tomorrow.
The world moves on. Much is forgotten.
I’m still not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. I’m still grappling with how I feel about this.
But that Eastwood stunt at the Republican convention?
Definitely a bad thing.
