Does Rick Warren remind anyone else of Jaba the Hut? ?

The "middling" talents do seem to rule the roost nowadays don't they?...Why is the most popular shows on television filled up with people who a few years ago couldn't get commercial work shilling diet coke and doritos? Why is the "hot concert ticket" featuring adolescent white children of upper-middle cl advantage? Why is our commitment to the troops overseas based on leaving them alone as much as possible instead of the hardships our grandparents and great-grandparents had to endure during World War II - a war that was only half as long as the one we've got now - like rationing and a workforce committed to the war-time effort? Why is tepid-ness and bity the defining things in the American intellectual landscape?