Please turn to chapter six, the Fashions of the Nineties.

I came to a startling and depressing realization this morning while shaving my face. No joke. I was shaving, letting my mind wander, and I had an epiphany, almost causing me to drop my razor into the sink.
I am a fan of learning, and history; therefore I enjoy learning about history. Looking back at how American culture has evolved, you can see that the most important people that we remember are the ones who caused change, for better or worse. We all know who Christopher Columbus was (at least the fanciful, heroified version of him) and President Lincoln, despite being dust for many years. We don't know much about the famous actors (with the exception of John Wilkes Booth) and fashion trends are often only curious side-notes, with few exceptions. We only talk about beaver top-hats in history because of the impact they had on the fur trade and the exploration of what is now North America.
Now, our teaching of our own history in this country is by far inferior and poorly executed, attempting to drill countless boring dates and names into our tender, ADD-ridden kids. No one asks question, no one teaches WHY things happened, just when an where, oh, and America is great and does nothing wrong, but that's a subject for another post.
This isn't my life-altering thought, though. I have this belief that popular culture is not important in the long run, believe it or not. Things as disposable as American Idol contestants and fashion styles that change tri-monthly should not be focused on with so much scrutiny. Our local Fox affiliate runs a segment at least weekly on Idol, in prime-time. This is how important this stuff is to our sheeply consumers. And thinking this, I know that it wont matter in a year, much less twenty or fifty.
But then I realized, what if I'm wrong? What if, in fifty years time, this is the stuff they are teaching our grandchildren? That instead of a chapter on the presidency of George W. Bush, there's a chapter on the various marriages of early 21st century celebrities? Brad and Angelina instead of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. The Iraq War could merely be a backdrop for the return of large brimmed sunglasses and the popularity of low-rider jeans. Escalade's instead of the skyrocketing then plummeting fuel prices and the horrendous amounts of money made off of it by oil companies.
Could our future generations learn about Hilary's pantsuits instead of her real potential for the presidency? It thought it so possible that it has been bothering me the rest of the day. Just to think that history textbooks could soon be filled with pictures of Jennifer Lopez's green dress and Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction runs a shudder up my spine. Charts of population increases and ethnicity could be replaced by pie charts of who thought Cruise and Cruz made a good couple or Mac vs. PC distribution.
I have abruptly lost my hope in the future, and I'm not sure when it will return. We may be heading for a time when cancer is a thing of the past and we have space cruises and underground freeways, but all our posterity might be forced to memorize the winners of all twenty seasons of American Idol instead of the presidents. Sigh.