There's another issue at play here, and I responded to it in a previous column. And that is that younger readers just can't stand having someone not like the films that appeal to their age group. It's not enough that they loved, say, The Blair Witch Project or Sleepy Hollow-they can't understand how anyone could possibly criticize them. This is an era of personal validation for everybody, but especially kids, who grow up thinking that their point of view is the most important. Dissent or debate is considered uncool.
Tolerance is in, except when it comes to anyone who dares to dis the system as a whole.
And today the system is much more akin to a vast machine that runs on blind consumption and churns out profits while burying its waste products in landfills, jails and psychiatrists' offices. It's a machine that makes your CDs, movies, computers, cell phones, running shoes and granola bars. The World Is Not Enough to thrill and titillate you in between trips to the mall and the sports club. The world is not enough for those who live and die by the new worldwide consumerist mega-machine. They want your heart and soul-and they're getting them.