George Epstein: Eve of Destruction

More than 60 years ago, Barry McGuire sang some timely lyrics. His gritty voice rang out about bodies floating in the Jordan River, senators not passing legislation, marches failing to bring change, nuclear war looming, and generally declaring that humanity is on the "Eve of Destruction." It was also history’s only song rhyming disintegratin’ and coagulatin’. The spooky factor is that the issues America and the world faced decades ago seem to be the same ones we face today. 

The TV show West Wing is 25 years old but President Bartlet (yes, a single T at the end) could be in the White House today. But Bartlet acted differently from the current White House occupant. A computer chip company run by a campaign donor of the president gets in financial trouble. Bartlet initially refuses to bail them out because the CEO was a big campaign donor and the “optics would be bad!" Can you imagine, faced with the same issue today, the company CEO would have to kowtow completely to the president as Intel and other chip makers have done in the past few months.