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"FacebookPinterest\n\nThough the rally borrowed some of its conventions from Beck's fear-ins (the awarding of medals, the warnings against bears), as an event it was much more like what Beck does every day than what he does every six months or so: It was a television show. It was a performance. It was media.\n\nI talked to some of the people involved in the event before the proceedings began and they weren't just aware of the rally as a \"show,\" they seemed to prefer that it be judged that way. They were impatient with the pundit hand-wringing over whether or not the event was partisan; they were much much more concerned that the audience was entertained. Would the bits work? Would the guests be appropriately surprising? Would Jon hit his high notes?\n\nHaving been lucky enough to actually see most of the show from a fairly unobstructed view point and\u2014even more unusually, I gather\u2014hear it, I think I can answer those questions: Mostly, mostly and not at all. And, to the larger point of the event's success as a theatrical performance? I'd give it a B, maybe a B+, though definitely an A for effort.\n\nSome of the bits didn't work, not all of the guests seemed appropriate\u2014Kid Rock's duet with Sheryl Crow stands out. All he can do is care? REALLY? Maybe you could, I don't know, perform at a rally or something\u2014and I'm pretty sure we'll never hear Stewart sing a satirical folk song ever again. I'm not sure we really heard him sing Saturday. And, in general, the show seemed to be a satire in search of a subject, a formal ercise in search of a point.\n\nBut that doesn't mean it wasn't a success. It was a success in the very category the writers and producers had the least control over: as a shared experience among the 200,000-plus people gathered there.\n\nI'm a rally and protest veteran, as a participant and journalist: pro-choice, anti-war, against the World Bank, for Obama, pro-Palin, anti-pants. I've experienced really sublime moments at rallies, too\u2014the sense of power that comes from being in the same space with like-minded folks, the sense of togetherness that comes from feeling like you're moving towards the same shared goal.\n\nAnd I'm not sure if it was because or in spite of the Fear/Sanity rally's utter diffuseness\u2014the lack of a coherent goal, the basic confusion over what should happen next\u2014but the overwhelming emotional flavor of the experience was simple community. \"We don't have any specific thing we're trying to accomplish,\" seemed to be the sentiment, \"but I'm really glad we're all here.\" That this emotion felt so powerful is probably because\u2014as the motivations for the rally indicate\u2014it is so rare.\n\nThere's a lot of other words and images I could point at to describe, or try to describe, that sense of contented togetherness. The playfulness of the signs. The range of ages and backgrounds. The kindness with which people treated each other. The cheer!\n\nOne moment sticks out, though, as both an emotional highpoint and an implicit critique: When Cat Stevens (\"Joe,\" as Colbert called him) began the first measures of \"Peace Train\"\u2014that hoary nugget, that wretched cliche, that staple of mawkish movie soundtracks\u2014there was a kind of intake of breath in the crowd. A hopefulness that was suddenly crystallized. I felt chills and tears.\n\nAnd then the bit happened, with a contest between the trains of \"peace\" and \"crazy,\" and the moment ended... but it wasn't, I don't think, lost. What happened on stage wasn't anything we in the crowd could have control over, but we could choose what to remember.\n\nWhat will happen because of that moment? What will change? Most likely nothing. Even less likely, a little. But it's amazing to think that moments like that can happen at all, and valuable to remember that it did."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/rally-to-restore-fear-of-the-media>