Is it "Malaise" Time Yet?
Georgia cancelled school for two days last week, ostensibly to "save energy," and Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal Constitution (and one of my favorite columnists) doesn't think it's a very good idea:
To conserve energy, President Bush asked Americans to cancel travel that isn't really necessary or important.
In Georgia, that meant canceling school for two days.
Because really, who needs school anyway? We may bounce around the bottom in SAT scores, and almost half of our kids may leave school without a diploma, but hey, what's really important is saving enough gas to run our SUVs, right?
When Georgia's own Jimmy Carter started talking about the need for Americans to turn off lights and make other sacrifices for conservation in the late 70s, reporters started talking in weary tones about "malaise" gripping the land.
A quick google news search shows that liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias is the only person using the term "malaise" to describe the grim political period -- marked by political scandals, biblical floods, never-ending war, etc. -- we're in now.
What will it take to bring back the word "malaise?"
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Chris Kromm
Chris Kromm is executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies and publisher of the Institute's online magazine, Facing South.