Category Archives: Culture

Monkey Say; Monkey Don’t

Culture, Politics

Oratory is a power tool.  Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address assured a war-torn nation America was an ideal that could survive a civil war.  When Americans could have easily abandoned democracy and capitalism in the face of a global economic depression, Franklin Roosevelt urged them not to let their fears undermine the principles on which our country was founded.  John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan both used the backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate to promote the future freedom of all those isolated by an “iron curtain,” so appropriately named by Winston Churchill during a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

However, oratory only rings true if those who speak the words also live them.  Under Lincoln’s leadership, America did survive the Civil War.  Roosevelt charted the path back from economic devastation.  Kennedy and Reagan made sure the “iron curtain” was only a temporary prop on the international stage.  It is the actions that follow the words that define the speaker’s character as much as well as the issues of the day.

Case in point, Donald Trump’s commencement address Saturday at West Point.  From his opening acknowledgements to his closing message, Trump revealed his true nature.  Consider the following.

  • He first thanked Academy Superintendent Stephen Glenn.  “I got to know him backstage with his beautiful family,”  Everything in Trump’s world is a transaction.  A quick, off-stage introduction supersedes the effort needed to forge a real relationship.  I hope the Glenns do not hold their breath waiting for an invitation to a weekend at Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster.
  • How does he view the 250 year legacy of those responsible for our present-day military might?  “I know because I rebuilt that army and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term.” When will Florida and Texas school books include the sentence, “Historians are dumbstruck the U.S. military could defeat the British, vanquish the Confederate forces, and turn the tide of World War II on D-Day without Donald Trump’s leadership.”
  • How does he applaud the 26 cadets who won the “Star Wreath,” the Academy’s highest academic honor?  “I wanna bring them right to the Oval Office. I don’t wanna have them go too far away from me.” Shouldn’t the best an brightest be in the field as role models for the troops?  No.   Trump offers them a higher purpose, being extras for a photo op as he signs an executive order authorizing some unconstitutional use of the military to carry out his domestic agenda.
  • He denounces the use of the military by his predecessors through endless wars and nation building.  “Why are we wasting our time, money, and souls,” says the man who authorized a $45 million parade including 6,600 active military personnel on his birthday.  Or using the military to take Greenland by force.  Or to help relocate Palestinians so Gaza can become the next Riviera on the Mediterranean.
  • He congratulates two female cadets for successfully completing diver’s school and minutes later congratulates himself for “…liberating our troops from divisive and demeaning political trainings.”  Would these cadets have earned that honor without DEI policies which gave them the chance to pursue that achievement?

But of course, he saved the best for less, once again proving that everything he thinks and says is either projection or confession.

  • He shared a story how real estate developer Bill Levitt lost his business momentum when he focused on other things. “A lot of trophy wives doesn’t (sic) work out, but it made him happy for a little while at least. But he found a new wife. He sold his little boat and he got a big yacht.”  So says the man you filed for bankruptcy six times while collecting not one, but two trophy wives.  And puts his name or image on everything within his reach.
  • But this is my favorite. “We need Patriots with guts, and vision, and backbone who take personal risks to ensure that America wins every single time.” So says the man who considers anyone who disagrees with him to be an enemy, fires them and signs executive orders directing the Justice Department to investigate them.

During their October 2016 presidential debate, Hillary Clinton called Trump “Putin’s puppet.”  But that metaphor seems inadequate just four months into Trump’s second term.  Instead, he reminds me more of the monkey who collects coins (or crypto tokens) while the hurdy gurdy man entertains a street crowd.  And I am not sure Putin is the puppet master.  If only we knew exactly who was cranking the hurdy gurdy machine and holding the monkey’s leash.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Selective DEI

Culture, Politics

If you think “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) is a thing of the past, you would be sorely mistaken.  The only thing that changes is the target audience and the perceived threats.  Nothing makes this point more clearly than the following headline in the latest edition of the on-line University of Virginia newsletter “UVAToday.”  UVA Shares Report From External Review of Nov. 13 Shooting.  The report was in response to the shooting deaths of three UVA football players and wounding of two others on a bus that had just returned from a field trip to Washington, D.C.

The report contains several recommendations designed to ameliorate the possibility of similar future incidents, many of which were implemented prior to the report’s weekend release.  They include:

  • Expanded Threat Assessment Team Resources to include two full-time, licensed psychologists to serve as the associate and assistant directors of the Office of Threat Assessment; two response specialists; Housing & Residence Life representation; and a Victim Advocate/Threat Assessment Team liaison from the University Police Department.
  • Established an Office of Threat Assessment to more effectively lead the Violence Prevention Committee and execute the case-management recommendations of the Threat Assessment Team.
  • Enhanced Threat Assessment Team operating procedures and training opportunities, including the immediate investigation by the University Police Division if a firearm is reported to be on Grounds or in the possession of an individual who lives on Grounds.
  • Increased training and staff awareness on entering a dorm room to inspect for health and safety-related concerns.
  • Approved a permanent Emergency Operations Center to allow the University to activate the center without delay in response to emergency events.
  • Reorganized Student Affairs support resources – now known as the Care and Support Services, and Policy, Accountability and Critical Events units – to better discuss, review, triage and respond to student concerns and any necessary disciplinary actions.

Additional psychologists.  Response specialists. Victim advocates. Enhanced assessment.  Training and staff awareness.  Immediate response.  Care and support services to deal with student concerns.  Sound familiar?  These are some of the exact same services that used to be provided by university DEI programs for minority students which are now being shut down due to threats of extortion by the Trump administration.  I know.  You might argue that UVA’s enhanced efforts are focused on the threats to student safety resulting from physical violence.  Need I remind you of the lessons we learned from soldiers returning from Vietnam or first responders on 9/11.  All scars are not visible.

Or how about the new DEI program at Columbia University.  At the same time DEI efforts in support of minority students are being dismantled, the Columbia website touts efforts to address antisemitism.  Under the heading “Columbia Resources,” the university lists academic programs such as the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, the Columbia Task Force on Antisemitism, General Mental Health Support, Reporting Bias and Student Life Programming.

Do not get me wrong.  Gun violence and antisemitism are serious problems that deserve our attention.  But why are DEI-type activities okay when it involves threats to certain populations and not for others?  Is it the Don Ohlmeyer doctrine?  “The answer to all your questions is MONEY!”  Would Columbia University still have DEI programs for Black, Hispanic and Arab students if their parents were the major donors for whom buildings and schools are named?

Did some DEI programs have excesses that blurred the lines between support and overreach?  Probably.  However, the current situation strikes me as worse than the Elon Musk “DC Chainsaw Massacre.”  Instead of simply eliminating  USAID, it is akin to replacing it with USAIW, (U.S. Agency for the Independently Wealthy).  Oh, wait!  Isn’t that exactly what the combination of DOGE and the Trump cuts are going to do?

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Write

Culture

As some followers of this blog are aware, I co-host a monthly series titled “Cinema and Conversation” at our local book store (Story and Song).  The host each month screens a favorite film, then facilitates a discussion around the central theme and how the director, actors, et.al. present that message.  I have only one hard and fast rule when it comes to each month’s selection.  NO BLOCKBUSTERS.  The metric I use is all-time domestic box office.  I have never chosen a movie that is ranked in the top 2,000 (the threshold domestic box office being $47.4 million.)

How does this affect the selection?  Since the inaugural event in June 2018, not a single movie among my past choices has been dependent on action sequences (especially car chases) or special effects, with the possible exception of Andrew Niccol’s “S1m0ne” in which a supposed CGI generated actress is portrayed by the real Rachel Roberts.  What they do have in common is exceptional screenplays (many of which have won or been nominated for Academy Awards) and outstanding performances by actors who breathe life into the screenwriters’ words.  Concerning the latter, I find I subconsciously pick films which star individuals who do not qualify as cinematic idols, but time and time again deliver memorable performances in secondary roles.  For example, the cast on multiple occasions has included Joan Allen, Patricia Clarkson and William H. Macy.

Prior to last November’s election, the central themes of my selections revolved around a social or political issue,  They included:

  • Bend It Like Beckham (cultural biases)
  • The Front (blacklisting and censorship)
  • Eye in the Sky (the ethics of drone warfare)
  • Flash of Genius (protection of intellectual property)
  • Man of the Year (electoral integrity)
  • Defending Your Life (personal reflection)
  • Good Night, and Good Luck (the role of a free press)

After the election, cognizant of my audience’s exhaustion about all things political, I decided to opt for films that address my personal bias about the filmmaking industry.  Why do so many new releases depend on action or CGI instead of the screenplay?  The answer, of course, lies in the conflict between cinema as a art form and filmmaking as commercial enterprise.

I discovered the best way to explore this dichotomy was through three movies about the process by which movie studios evaluate and cull potential projects, and how once picked, they evolve from original concept to production to final edit.  The first film in this trilogy was Robert Altman’s 1992 production of the “The Player” starring Tim Robbins in his first leading role.  Some critics call “The Player” Altman’s middle finger to Hollywood following his exile after disastrous big-budget, box-office flop, “Popeye.”  In one interview, Altman says he wishes he had been more vicious.  “I think we were too nice to Hollywood in the film.”

The central theme is Hollywood’s reliance on seven formula elements on which success are dependent.  In the following sequence, producer Griffin Mill (Robbins) explains this process to his latest girlfriend June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi) and why Mill rejected her previous boyfriend’s script.

Griffin: It lacked certain elements that we need to market a film successfully. 
June: What elements? 
Griffin: Suspense, laughter, violence. Hope, heart, nudity, sex. Happy endings. Mainly happy endings. 
June: What about reality?
Griffin:  You’re not from Iceland, are you?

To prove Mill correct, all you have to do is look at the domestic box office numbers for the 10 films nominated this year for the best picture Oscar.  As of March 1, only two exceed $100 million in ticket sales:  “Wicked” ($472.9 million) and “Dune: Part Two” ($432.5 million).  Neither received nominations for best screenplay, original or adapted.  Not unexpectedly, “Dune: Part Two” took home the Oscars for best sound and best achievement in visual effect while “Wicked” won in two categories: achievement in production design and achievement in costume design.  In contrast, the two front runners for best picture both won screenplay Oscars:  “Anora” (original screenplay) and “Conclave” (adapted screenplay).  Yet, their March 1 box office totals were $15.7 million and $32.2 million, respectively.

While “The Player” focuses on efforts of screenwriters to pitch their concepts to studio executives, the second film in the trilogy, Spike Jonze’s 2002 film “Adaptation” takes a different tack.  In this narrative, the studio hires a screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) to develop a screenplay based on a unique book “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) for which the studio has already purchased the rights.  In the end, the film demonstrates the difference between a movie “based on” a source work and one “inspired by” the original material.  “Based on” requires the script be largely true to the source.  “Inspired by” suggests only that the story draw on the narrative, characters and/or settings from the original material.  “Adaptation” explores how this line gets blurred when balancing the competing goals of art versus commercial success.

Due to Story and Song’s licensing agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), we cannot share the name of a film or the actors in promotions for “Cinema and Conversation.”  At this time, all I can say about the third film in this trilogy is that it demonstrates how the process of bringing a story to your local theater or streaming television can go completely off the tracks.  If you live in NE Florida, I hope you will join me next Wednesday (March 19, 2025) at 5:00 pm at Story and Song for the final episode of this trip through Moviemaking Wonderland.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Missing the Key Point

Culture

This morning, the Huffington Post reprinted a post on X from a USDA worker in Kentucky who was fired on Valentine’s Day.  In case you missed it here are a couple of excerpts.

Donald J. Trump. Hello Sir. I am one of the probationary employees terminated by the Doge at 9:00pm last night; February 14. I voted for you, Sir, three times, and I still support you.  My termination letter said I was being let go for performance reasons. I know that’s not true; I am an excellent employee. 

I’m the only [redacted] in the State of Kentucky and my work here is valued and honorable. Each time I voted for you, it was because I knew you’d make things right and you’d fix the wrongs. I’m counting on you now to make this right too.  I’m pleading with you to reinstate my employment and give me my job back.  Please, Mr. President.  Thank you.

As of this morning, there were more than 2.5 million replies on X. As expected, responses from the non-MAGA community were laced with schadenfreude.

Do these people think they are going to get an exception because they are Trumpers? The leopard is not going to put your face back on.

More surprising were the responses from MAGA loyalists.  As HuffPost reported, “In response to the post, little sympathy was found from MAGA-supporting commenters.”  They provided the following as an example.

This is business ppl. You don’t sacrifice a country with bankruptcy to let ppl keep a job. They are very employable. Does it suck. Yes but it is a necessary evil.

What the HuffPost writer missed was the extent to which Trump supporters on both sides of this discourse are now captives of MAGA-THINK.  Let’s begin with the laid-off Kentucky USDA employee.  In the above excerpts from his original post he uses the word “I” or “my” a dozen times.  Not once does he suggest there might be other USDA staff whose work is also “valued and honorable” or were terminated for cause despite being “an excellent employee.”  Nor does he defend USDA.  Does he not realize his “valued and honorable” work derives from the agency’s congressionally mandated mission?  His main message?  “Help me.  To hell with everyone else.” 

He also makes it perfectly clear he believes in identify politics though I’d bet the farm he cheered when Trump signed an executive order shutting down all federally fundrf DEI programs.  It may not be race or gender, but claiming you should be privileged solely because you are a full-fledged member of MAGA-World smacks of the worse kind of favoritism.  Being part of this preferred class does not depend on some accident of birth or inherent trait.  Anyone can join.  All you have to do is make a Faustian deal and hand over your moral soul to King Donald.

The same holds true for those who suggested laid-off employees need to realize their termination was “a necessary evil” of Trump’s divine plan to make America great again.  Will they feel the same way when they lose their Medicaid benefits or they have thousands of dollars in daycare expenses because their young children no longer go to Head Start classes?  Or when they finally realize Elon Musk will get a multi-million dollar tax break while the cost of everyday goods and services rise as a result of Trump’s tariffs?  Are they going to rush to Truth Social and post, “I voted for you three times.  I still support you.  But please, I thought you were only going to punish the non-faithful.”

My message to both these segments of  the MAGA universe.  “Does it suck?  Yes, but it’s the unnecessary evil you made possible.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

“This Is America”

Culture

Since January 20, a lot of us have spent a great deal of psychic energy trying to cope with the daily fire hose of lies and nonsense which we all knew would accompany the second coming of Donald J. Trump.  Perhaps the best piece of advice in an effort to remain sane in the face of madness involves a renewed focus on local community.  On Amelia Island there are many ways to reposition one’s perspective on national events.  A small, but close-knit circle of kindred spirits.  Volunteer and charitable efforts directed toward those who already are or will be likely victims of the Trump administration’s rejection of the social contract between a nation of great wealth and those in need.  Despite the abnormally cold temperatures, a twice weekly round of golf at the municipal course where you are greeted by name and with a smile by staff who know your schedule so well they automatically schedule the following week’s tee times without asking.  But most of all, enjoying the natural assets of one of the most unique bio-environments in America, one that includes an ocean seashore, salt marsh and maritime forest.

However, these “sanctuaries” are not immune to the cultish behavior of the MAGA universe.  As you walk from the eighth green to the ninth tee on the South Course at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club, you are greeted by a four by eight foot banner plastered across a homeowner’s fence reminding you Trump is going to make America great again.  But the final straw came on Friday when I biked the nature preserve near our home to see if any of the resident alligators were taking advantage of the warmer weather to make a rare winter appearance.  No gators, but several bird species and a host of turtles enjoying the afternoon sun when I observed a man accompanying his unleashed German Shepherd. 

When I asked him if he had seen the sign at the head of the trail which informed visitors that all dogs needed to be leashed.  His reply?  “This is America.  There are no rules.”  My first instinct was to challenge his premise.  “Oh, there are rules, you simply choose not to follow them.”  But I caught myself; he was correct.  In today’s America, you can desecrate the nation’s Capitol and be pardoned.  You can assault law enforcement officers with no consequences.  You can try to overthrow the government and get off scot free.   Why then would anyone think they have to leash their dog.  Or come to a complete stop at a stop sign.  Or share the road with cyclists.  

As I tried to teach my creativity students, insight does not come from observation alone.  It requires reflection, time for the brain to process what it senses.  In the past two days, I realized the Trump cult is not a monolith.  He and his sycophants have built a coalition of support, not by presenting a single vision of America, but by letting more than enough segments of society believe the administration shares their respective view of our country.  The individual I encountered on Egans Creek Greenway, an apparent libertarian, is thrilled that the United States has embraced anarchy.  The wealthy hope Trump ushers in a Russian-styled oligarchy.  Christian nationalists pray for a theocracy.  Insecure males are thrilled to join the chorus that proudly sings, “It’s a man’s world.”  Racists, homophobes and xenophobes need only believe Trump is focused on their desire for a more white, straight or Eurocentric America.

That’s a mighty big tent, especially when only 63.9 percent of voting age Americans cast a ballot.  Whether intended or not, they will interpret Trump’s words and actions as affirmation by each of these groups that he is with them.  And nothing Democrats or liberals can say will change their mind.  This is not about politics.  It is about culture.  And the cultural question that needs the most attention is simple.  Your vote IS the difference.  The message for the next four years is straight forward. 

  • You did not lose your health care because Trump is president.  You lost it because you did NOT vote. 
  • If you are now paying for child care for your three to five year old because Head Start was terminated, it is not because Trump is president.  It is because you did NOT vote.
  • When consumer goods cost more, it is not because of Trump tariffs.  It is because you did NOT vote.

Upon his election as the new chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin got it wrong.  “The fight is for our values. The fight is for working people. The fight right now is against Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought this country.”  The real fight is to remind non-voters, any grievance with Trump, oligarchs, incompetent cabinet secretaries and agency heads can only be corrected if they register and cast a ballot.  Again, that requires a change in culture, not politics.  I am sorry to have to inform you if you believe in democracy.  Without broader participation in the political process, “that is NOT today’s America.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP