Check Out This Video: “Ten Human Emotions You Didn’t Know Had Names”
George Takei poses for a portrait at The Collective and Gibson Lounge Powered by CEG, during the Sundance Film Festival, on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)
When celebrated actor and humanitarian George Takai shared this wonderful video (below) on Facebook, he wrote that, in his opinion, the main problem in the U.S. right now is that we have too much “anecdoche,” #8 in the sequence, i.e., too many conversations in which everyone’s talking and no one’s listening. Could be. When it comes to compassion and astute social observation, it’s never a good idea to take sides against George Takai.
However, if I were asked, I would say that it’s that we have to little “sonder,” #1 in the sequence, which is the realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as our own.
Now, one could say that this is an integral aspect of the human condition, but certainly our particular society has greatly exacerbated it with the values it places on hedonism, consumerism, and the me-first attitude that is so ingrained in American life as we experience it today. We’re all taught to be the stars of our own show, surrounded by a few supporting actors, about 7.4 billion extras, and a planet full of scenery.
Think of how Donald Trump would have fared in U.S. politics had it existed as recently as 20 years ago. At the turn of the 21st Century, anyone who wished to be taken seriously as a candidate for literally any elected position had to meet one important qualification: being recognized as a decent person. Somehow, however, that has suddenly ceased to matter. (Yes, one could argue that we elected Richard Nixon and he certainly was a terrible person, but there’s an important distinction to be made here: the people who voted for him didn’t know that when they cast their ballots.)
The platform on which Trump ran and won was a loud, blatant combination of misogyny, xenophobia, abuse of human rights, lack of respect for the truth, and above all, racism. A few decades ago, someone boasting about serial sexual assault and proudly revealing other aspects of his abysmal lack of character couldn’t have gotten elected to the town council of some redneck town in Mississippi or Alabama. Now he’s the leader of the free world.
I’m going to try an experiment, and I hope you’ll join me in a similar one of your own. I’m going out to a play in a few minutes. As I walk from my car to the theater, I’m going to project a thought onto everyone I see: “Hi! You’re just as important in this world as I am. Did you know that?” Then I’m going to gauge how I feel by the time I take my seat.
It’s worth a shot.
Craig,
I hate to break into your odd juxtaposition of abuse and California Dreamin’, but I think it’s important when attacking and condemning your enemies to be accurate, fair and not simply repeat what others have said.
1) If you bother to listen to what the President actually said during a private, (and illegally recorded conversation), you would discover he never proposed or admitted to assaulting anyone ! Nor has any credible ‘victim’ come forward.
( you also seem to have no problem with the morality of illegal recordings)
In fact, the President was commenting on behaviour within an existing ‘celebrity culture’ which he found amazing and obviously later eschewed in favour of marital monogamy.
In my teenage years I played in a short lived and mildly popular rock group. The sexual mores of that era and culture would make the President’s observations tame by comparison !
The majority of Americans understood what he meant, and rejected the sanctimonious, politically correct, hypocritical posturing by his opponents.
The Women in the President’s life clearly don’t agree with your appraisal.
2) There is no evidence the President has ever said or committed any act of overt racism. Your interpretation is simply that, a biased interpretation. The President claims his opposition to illegal migration is not based on racism, but the demographics that exist. It’s not racist that illegal migrants are generally of certain ethnic groupings, that’s simply an accident of demographics.
3) “Misogyny” ? ?! ( definition, hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women, or prejudice against women).
You must be joking ! Donald Trump has always been surrounded in his businesses by female executives in positions of real authority. Not one, in over 30 years, has ever complained about him as an employer.
4)”abuse of human rights”. Again, where is your evidence ? Enforcing the law is not an “abuse of human rights”. If the law is wrong, blame the legislature and the politicians (including Democrats) who passed or failed to revoke the law).
5) “xenophobia”. Again, simply your opinion. President Trump is not xenophobic. He just finds himself President at a time when America is forced to deal with the reality of the 21st century and adapt to circumstances of a very different economic dynamic.
The US wasn’t “xenophobic’ when it fought the WW2, just defending it’s interests.
The US has been locked in an economic and trade war for the last 40 years and is losing ! The President has the difficult task of making Americans wake up from their long cherished illusion and face reality.
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It’s true he’s an unusual President. It’s also true he possess a great many flaws, but he’s not all bad. To his credit, his agenda is always highly publicized and overt.
American mainstream media has sensationalized and hounded the President to an unprecedented degree.
Yet, so far it hasn’t hurt the President but as reduced the credibility of mainstream media with the American people to the point where people have simply turned off.
This is unfortunate, since the President has made some foolish and even bad, mistakes. Regrettably, effective criticism of these mistakes has been lost in a cacophony of sensationalized rantings.
For the past 50 years an all powerful media has terrorized politicians. The era of spin doctors, meticulously scripted and politically correct elected officials who cravenly obeyed the dictates of opinion pollsters, media and lobbyists, ended when Donald Trump realized he could by-pass once all powerful “opinion makers” and reach ordinary Americans through social media.
He also realized most people loathed and distrusted the media. He understood that when media commentators (like yourself) portrayed him with horns and a tail, it didn’t hurt his popularity with his constituency .
He knows over the next three years he will have many opportunities to display the fact that although he has human faults, there’s no horns or tail !
By being who he is, he’s forgiven many of those flaw and faults.
In contrast, the excesses of his opponents and the media lose them credibility.
The Democrat State Senator who called for the President’s assassination, has not been dis-endorsed by the Democratic party.
The School Librarian who used public money to reject and sneer at the First Lady’s book donation, was not sacked, yet a restaurant who supported the President, was attacked by “liberal ” activists and forced to close after death threats and physical violence against staff members.
The unfairness of these event’s hurt the President’s image in the short term, but will destroy his opponents credibility in the long term.