I t's odd, isn't it, how time takes the edge off the edgy, making the outrageous respectable and turning yesterday's enfant terrible into today's eminence grise. Socialists are not the only ones who've had trouble putting permanent revolution into practice.
In the 1960s, the Beatles shocked middle-aged parents with their long hair and lapel-free suits. In 2005, organizers of the U.S. Super Bowl shocked kids in a different way by inviting former Beatle Paul McCartney, now 62, to star in the halftime show that Janet Jackson made so notorious last year. Anything less cutting-edge or controversial than the droopy-faced, knighted, billionaire rocker would be hard to imagine -- precisely the organizers' goal, although it might have been a bittersweet feeling for Sir Paul.
Still, an old Beatles lyric from 1968 foresaw the moment: "You say you want a revolution. . . You can count me out./ Don't you know it's gonna be all right?"