We dance the Macarena, grit our teeth at a purple dinosaur named Barney and fight to find Tickle Me Elmo, Beanie Babies, Teletubbies, Power Rangers, Pokemon cards and Furby in the stores. We drink smoothies, turn thumbs down on Crystal Pepsi and blame everything bad on either El Nino or Marilyn Manson. We pierce virtually every body part except our eyes, wear toe rings and WWJD bracelets, dress down on Fridays, shave our heads and buy Rogaine to make hair grow. And we can now watch DVDs in our BVDs. Maybe the fake violence takes our minds off the real.
School shootings are no longer front page news by the decade's end.
Working mothers are everywhere now. Ken Burns' 11-hour documentary on the Civil War on PBS makes history cool. By the time we find out, we no longer care. Washington Mayor Marion Barry is arrested on charges of smoking crack cocaine. Former President Reagan is ordered to give taped testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal.