When I began writing this blog I had little idea where it
would lead me. I imagined that it would
be some sort of personal journal where I could express my thoughts, opinions,
but not exactly detail my everyday life (who would care anyhow?) yet capture a
sense of my personal history (more for family and friends and for my own
recollection). As it turns out, a large
part of my writing migrated to politics and the economy and to plays and novels. Those I recently edited, organized, tried to
make some sense of, and published in both printed and eBook form.
We are all in survival mode now. This has all sorts of practical ramifications
and seems to rob us of other activities.
For instance, my reading of fiction, for which there should be more time
during this pandemic, is actually more difficult as existential dread supplants
my patience for fiction. No, instead,
after getting through the New York Times,
The New Yorker, and even our local Palm Beach Post, that precious
commodity, time, has been consumed. And
although we are unable to go to theatre, or even out to eat, streaming the arts
has taken that chunk of time, such as described in a previous entry on Emmet
Cohen’s jazz stream, what PBS has to offer, and discovering the treasure chest
of BBC PROMS.
A friend of mine once flattered me by comparing my
writing to Samuel Pepys’ diary. I make
no such farfetched claim as Pepys wrote daily and at a time where a record of
daily life in London (1660-1669) was unique.
Everyone writes today and I would imagine the output from everything
written in one day would fill the entire Library of Congress plus. No, mine is merely the thinking of an
“everyman.” Pepys also did not have to
deal with privacy concerns as we now have to in the age of the Internet. I wonder what he would think of today’s
communication and how that would have curtailed the intimacy of his writing.
Pepys was witness to some of the major events of his
time, such as the Great Fire of London of 1666 and, ironically, the Great
Plague of 1665 (about which he commented “But, Lord!, how sad a sight it is to see the streets
empty of people”). I now stand witness
to our own Great Plague, its effects only to be understood when it is a thing
of the past, and I have been witness to the “Great Fire” of fundamental changes
to our society and politics during the first two decades of the 21st
century.
A while ago I had decided that I was mostly finished with
writing about politics and economics as they seem to have entered the Twilight
Zone of understanding. I still feel that
way, but at a certain point my blood boils and this is my only outlet, besides
the endless emailing back and forth to friends, admittedly, ones who mostly
agree with me, and thus, I am part of the problem. Never in my recollection has this country
become so blatantly divisive, as if the Civil War was never concluded.
Long ago I quoted the late preeminent science fiction
writer Isaac Asimov who said in Newsweek (21 January 1980): “There is a cult of
ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of
anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our
political and cultural life; nurtured by the false notion that democracy means
that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
That is the heart of our existential crisis: anti-intellectualism, anti-science, an acceptance
of the transmutability of truth. The
traditional Republican Party, the one I grew up knowing, just no longer
exists. The intellectual conservatives
that would be best represented by George Will (and would have included William
Buckley if he were alive), have been usurped by Trumpians, born out of the “Tea
Party” who have tapped into the vein of nationalism and anti-intellectualism
which runs deep in this country.
That was the knock on Adlai Stevenson in his 1952 and
1956 bid for the Presidency when he ran against Ike: he was TOO smart. No, this country likes some traits of the
common man, or at least the appearance of such.
Hey, Obama plays basketball well. Our current President can identify an elephant,
count backwards from 100 in increments of 7, and remember five words consecutively. Based on such criteria, most people could be
President as well.
He’s challenged Biden to a “Test Slam.” How about taking a test for Antisocial
Personality Disorder instead? This would
establish his sociopathic tendencies. His
blatant manipulative propagandist rhetoric, either on Twitter or delivered
during so-called press conferences are manifestations of those. Gustave Le Bon's classic The Crowd; A Study of the Popular Mind identified the essence of
Trump’s so called “stable genius” way back in 1895: "The power of words is
bound up with the images they evoke, and is quite independent of their real
significance. Words whose sense is the most ill-defined are sometimes those
that possess the most influence. Yet it is certain that a truly magical power
is attached to those short syllables as [if] they contained the solution to all
problems. They synthesize the most diverse unconscious aspirations and the hope
of their realization. Reason and arguments are incapable of combating certain
words and formulas. They are uttered with solemnity...and as soon as they have
been pronounced an expression of respect is visible on every countenance, and
all heads bowed. By many they are considered as natural forces, as supernatural
powers. They evoke grandiose and vague images in men's minds, but this very
vagueness that wraps them in obscurity augments their mysterious power."
He can turn a rational decision such as cancelling the
Republican National Convention in Jacksonville next month into one of his
propaganda messages, “only I can save you,” framing it in the context of his
going against “expert advice” that it would be safe to hold the convention, this,
of course, after exposing untold thousands to deaths due to his turning the wearing
of face masks into a political statement.
Among his more serious mass manipulative propaganda are
his recent “I approve this message” media, one showing an elderly woman watching
a TV “news report” about defunding the
police, in stark black and white photography, when suddenly she hears her front
door being rattled by a shadowy figure, forcing himself into her home with a
crowbar. She dials 911 and it rings and
rings with no answer. Suddenly the phone
is shown lying on floor with a message along the lines that this is Joe Biden’s
future for America. Manipulative
Advertising 101, you don’t sell the product, you sell the emotion. He and his team are masters at scare tactics
which are deplorable.
So is his culpability in fomenting unrest with the use or
threatened use of Federal troops in States, and exposing more people to this
pandemic than is and was necessary, his ignorance of history and distain for
scientific knowledge, his instability, his racist tendencies, his totalitarian
use of the Judicial branch, commuting Roger Stone’s sentence but sending
Michael Cohen back to prison because he is writing a book. These remain unchecked, mired in obfuscation. It is tragic that he and his enablers can
claim that flying the Confederate flag is a form of “free speech” while
attempting to suppress Cohen’s book, indeed an issue of free speech. Does he know the difference, or does he not
care?
His attempting to reopen schools while the pandemic rages
in southern and western states is yet more tinder to be thrown into the flames
of this pandemic. Congress has adjourned
without a package to protect the unemployed from being evicted from their
apartments and or homes.
He would like to blame China. Maybe they are culpable for the virus’
origins, but that is one issue while dealing with its consequences both by
China and then the rest of the world is another. Why does such a large number of his followers fail
to recognize the differences between how other countries have at least learned
to live with this virus with lesser risk and our out of control lack of
response?
It is because we have a full-blown culture war, not a new
one, but intensified by his rhetoric and failures. To what extent should individual rights
transcend the need to follow measures to protect the greater good of society? This is the essence of why other countries
have had relative success after the initial battle.
I can always dip into my blog for examples and one that
comes to mind was when we were “fighting” with ourselves over the use of
scanning equipment at airports that reveal outlines of one’s body. The analogy to the “constitutional right” to
not wear a mask is not far-fetched, although the mask issue is more deadly, and
science so clearly has demonstrated the benefits of wearing one during this
pandemic. The irony is those most
opposed to wearing a mask most favor a fast reopening of businesses, not recognizing
that mask wearing will facilitate the latter.
From ten years ago I quote my entry “Get Over Your Junk.” Some things never change.
Monday, November
22, 2010
Get Over Your Junk
Get over it
already! Having an implanted medical device for almost twenty years and having
flown frequently both domestically and internationally during that period, I've
had more pat downs than Tiger Woods has had lap dances. Furthermore, having
endured the indignity of backless hospital gowns and medical procedures on a
number of occasions, my being naked on a faceless image of a body scan sure
beats being blown to smithereens at 30,000 feet.
Amazing, this
"outcry" against thorough airport screenings is exactly the kind of
disruption terrorists want and the American public is buying right into it.
Instead of just going through this in an orderly way to expedite the process,
we conjure up images of our constitutional rights being violated. It will take
only one tragic incident in the air to silence these critics, something they are
inviting by their protests.
Do I think these
rigid guidelines are the answer to combating terrorism in the skies? No, but
they are part of a solution, and an easy one if everyone simply cooperates. Ten
seconds in a body scanner is not too much to ask. Your "junk" is not
so sacred. Stay home and never go to a hospital if you think it is.
