Used to be, a circus traveled in a huge caravan, filling the road with a score of gigantic wagons, each carrying some breathtaking must-see attraction guaranteed to wow the folks in Ames and Gaithersburg and Muncie, the sides of each van garishly painted with the name of the traveling menagerie and a depiction of what heart-stopping thrills lay in store for those lucky enough to buy their way into the coveted enclave under the big top.
Trained animals were a staple of the old-school traveling circus - they would be released by their handlers into the largest of the three rings under the big top, growling or trumpeting or otherwise demonstrating their defiant and savage natures. The audience, convinced of the animals' ferocity and raw power, would gasp in fear at the threat faced by the brave man in the jodhpurs and boots at the center of the ring, his only weapon in the face of such overwhelming odds a whip and a chair.
Within seconds, though, the man in the center somehow always managed to bring the fearsome beasts under control with the whip and the chair, and in the end the supposedly savage beasts were revealed for what they truly were: well-trained somewhat intelligent mammals who really would settle for being well-fed and taken care of by the folks who brought them there.
Then, in the mid-1980s, a creative troupe of performers out of Quebec launched the idea for a circus that didn't involve animals at all, but was rather a showcase for incredible human talent, wit and ingenuity. Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) premiered in the town of Gaspé before moving on to larger cities across Quebec.
The troupe struggled for the next three years, earning critical acclaim but not quite hitting the big time. Finally, in a last-ditch effort to find a large enough audience, in 1987 Cirque du Soleil accepted an invitation to perform at the second annual Los Angeles Arts Festival. The troupe had only enough money to get themselves and their gear to L.A.; had the show bombed, they would have had to somehow find a way to get back home.
The gamble paid off: the L.A. run was a huge success, and Cirque du Soleil's groundbreaking approach was on its way to becoming the standard by which all other circuses would be judged for the next quarter-century.
But all of that was Before Sarah.
And now Sarah has declared, Enough with the French-Canadian socialism that is infecting the big top! Evolution (even of circuses) is a hoax! Intelligent, witty, creative humans from all over the world are no match for good old-fashioned lumbering elephants! We need more supposedly fierce animals slavishly responding to someone dressed in jodhpurs and boots carrying a whip! We need supposedly man-eating tigers doing exactly my bidding, hoping for a pat on the head and the chance for a treat! In other words, Sarah, the whip-wielder, has brought the circus, well, full circle:
[T]here are few things more sweet to Palin and her fervent supporters cheering their TV sets this week than the image of a hungry know-it-all "lamestream media" caravan of 15 or more vehicles traipsing along behind her red-white-and-blue bus enroute to they-know-not-where to do they-know-not-what . . .
The media on campaigns is [sic] accustomed to being courted, even catered to with assigned airplane seats, meals, transportation to events, seats waiting, transcripts, the upcoming advance schedule, self-serving secrets confided.
But now they want/need Palin more than vice versa. They know the ratings when she's on. And they know bosses love ratings. So, they follow along in the exhaust.
Sarah loves the emissions - and all you lamestreamers can get on your knees and suck diesel.