Down the Trump Rabbit Hole - 17 November 2020

[Sent 17 November 2020 to my wife and our three daughters]

Greetings. During the five years since Trump announced on 16 June 2015 his candidacy, has there been a single day when it has not been apropos to recall the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 folktale The Emperor’s New Clothes? The vanity . . . the excess . . . the fawning . . . the revenge . . . the deceit . . . the pretense . . . the ineptitude . . . the fraud . . . the intimidation . . . the terror . . . – so utterly embarrassing and dangerous.

Even those who have never read the parable claim familiarity with The Emperor’s New Clothes. To experience afresh the story’s full force and meaning, I have read and reflected on the story several times over the past five years. I suggest you do so again if you have not recalled the story recently. As we come to the end of the Trump administration (but not the end of ‘Trumpism’), I am focusing on the ending to The Emperor’s New Clothes (inserted below, translated by Jean Hersholt) -- 

The Emperor undressed, and the swindlers pretended to put his new clothes on him, one garment after another. They took him around the waist and seemed to be fastening something -- that was his train -- as the Emperor turned round and round before the looking glass.

 "How well Your Majesty's new clothes look. Aren't they becoming!" He heard on all sides, "That pattern, so perfect! Those colors, so suitable! It is a magnificent outfit." 

Then the minister of public processions announced: "Your Majesty's canopy is waiting outside."

 "Well, I'm supposed to be ready," the Emperor said, and turned again for one last look in the mirror. "It is a remarkable fit, isn't it?" He seemed to regard his costume with the greatest interest. 

The noblemen who were to carry his train stooped low and reached for the floor as if they were picking up his mantle. Then they pretended to lift and hold it high. They didn't dare admit they had nothing to hold. 

So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, "Oh, how fine are the Emperor's new clothes! Don't they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!" Nobody would confess that he couldn't see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success. 

"But he hasn't got anything on," a little child said. 

"Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?" said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, "He hasn't anything on. A child says he hasn't anything on." 

"But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, "This procession has got to go on." So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn't there at all. 

 

Hans Christian Andersen leaves the reader/hearer to wonder/imagine what lies beyond this delusional procession. And so are we two weeks into Trump’s delusional procession.

Not ‘the whole town’ but still millions today are hoarse from repeating over and over the little child’s self-evident truth – “But he hasn’t got anything on”. No matter. Trump – perhaps with the Emperor’s shiver -- continues to ‘walk more proudly than ever’ and his shameless enablers continue to ‘hold high the train'. We will reach 20 January 2020. But what further damage and harm will be done between now and then?

 Doug/Dad

Down the Trump Rabbit Hole - 9 November 2020

[Sent 9 November 2020 to my wife and our three daughters]

Good morning. And I use the salutation ‘good’ with added nuance/intensity, given the Biden/Harris victory announced over the weekend. Mom and I became emotional watching their speeches Saturday night. The rapid expressions of congratulations from international leaders suggest an encouraging readiness to move past their bruising/disillusioning experience with the US during the Trump years. The failure for other than already marginalized/exiled Republican Party representatives to do so is disappointing but not surprising.

We are certainly sharing in the widespread celebration (and relief!) evident across the country. Sadly but necessarily, we must also candidly assess the implications associated with 70+ million (47+%) voting for Trump even after a four-year avalanche of indecency, crudity, dishonesty, ignorance, recklessness, degradation, brutality, injustice. And we must not overlook the evidence that elections -- federal, state, and local -- below the presidential elections widely moved to the right (some -- such as Iowa according to a friend who lives there -- lurching very far to the right). My sense is that most among the 70+ million (47+%) Trump voters hardly ever (or never) consult public broadcasting news outlets, major network (i.e., ABC, NBC, CBS) news outlets, major city newspapers, international new outlets, or even late-night TV comedian commentaries.

The metaphor that penetrates most deeply into the present for me is to view the Biden/Harris election as someone grabbing the emergency break in an out-of-control car. The point -- the US voting population had sufficient alarm and courage to come to a screeching/abrupt halt, but it is yet to be determined if there will be an enduring change of direction. I am cautiously hopeful that the Senate links/relationships both Biden and Harris have will result in some degree of ‘across the aisle’ collaborations on the surging pandemic, on severe economic inequities, on deeply embedded/systemic injustices, on shattered international alliances, and on environmental protection/repair strategies.

I am reminded of an ancient proverb I came across many years ago – “Be careful not to keep your nose from the grindstone for very long . . . it will begin to heal!” So let’s virtually raise a glass together joyfully toasting the Biden/Harris victory and then return to the places in our lives where we can make a tangible/perceptible difference for peace and justice.

Doug/Dad

Down the Trump Rabbit Hole - 2 November 2020

[sent 2 November 2020 to my wife and our daughters]

Good morning. On the eve of Election Day 2020, I plan to devote my usual twenty or so minutes at the piano today playing pieces from Charlie Chaplin films. As you probably know, Chaplin contributed to and collaborated on much of the music that accompanied his films. I find so refreshing what has been described as the ‘Chaplinesque’ distinction of these compositions – e.g., the beauty, the mystery, the charm, the attention, the elegance, the gravity, the timing. Last week I finished Peter Ackroyd’s Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life (2014). The association of Charlie Chaplin’s life experiences, personality, and international celebrity with Charles Dickens’ life experiences, personality, and international celebrity is convincing.

Re the closing scene in the 1936 Modern Times (the last of Chaplin’s silent films), Ackroyd explains that Chaplin “reverts to silence, as the Tramp and the gamine make their way upon the long and winding road towards the rising sun. The final words are ‘Buck up, never say die! We’ll get along’. It was also the last appearance of the ‘little fellow’. That is perhaps why in Modern Times Chaplin repeated so many familiar scenes from his previous films. It was a way of saying farewell. In this last walk into the distance, it is clear that Charlie will never have a home and will always be a wanderer. He had once been violent and lascivious; he then became gentler and more ingenious; at a slightly later date he grew into the figure of humankind; at the end he is a romantic, filled with pathos. In whatever incarnation, he was somewhere outside the world and a stranger.”

After Hitler invaded Austria in 1938, Chaplin began working on a film script in which he would play the part of a comic dictator. The biting and controversial political satire would be his first film with dialogue. The Great Dictator premiered in 1940. Chaplin plays both a Jewish barber living in a ghetto and the dictator of the fictional Tomainia. The film – which capitalizes on the appearance similarities between Chaplin and Hitler -- ends with the barber being mistaken for the dictator as the barber attempts to escape wearing a soldier’s uniform. He is ceremonially escorted to a platform where he is to speak to the army that has brutally invaded Osterlich, to a massive gathering of the conquered, and by radio to the world. All expect a bellicose and warmongering speech.

Instead, he delivers an initially somber but increasingly impassioned call to peace and a stunning example of a self effacing leader. Here is the ‘final speech’ (in full) --

[final speech in The Great Dictator]

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible -- Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness -- not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world, there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men -- cries out for universal brotherhood -- for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world -- millions of despairing men, women, and little children -- victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say -- do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed -- the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers, don’t give yourselves to brutes -- men who despise you -- enslave you -- who regiment your lives -- tell you what to do -- what to think and what to feel! Who drill you -- diet you -- treat you like cattle -- use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men -- machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate -- the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke, it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” -- not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power -- the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then -- in the name of democracy -- let us use that power -- let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world -- a decent world that will give men a chance to work -- that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world -- to do away with national barriers -- to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Here are links to (1) the final speech and (2) the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HdOHrc3OQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHZ46sQkzqU

If you update the wording into today’s social context the stirring vision in the final speech, I think you will be encouraged and perhaps even inspired. I am, each time I return.

Doug/Dad