My editors have been asking me to write about this since the new year, and i have been unable to, watching the movie was like reading our comments section, so much noise. Nobody is willing to make any kind of sacrifice or change, and have you seen that new Silverado electric pickup? It will save the world. Thanks for this.
Very good, thanks. Echoes my thoughts, here in a bit shorter form...
My one-word mental takeaway after watching was "masturbatory."
This requires assuming (I think this is largely correct) that only sympathetic audiences will watch it, and at least the more superficial among them will just feel good and self-satisfied about "getting the [obvious, bottom-level] joke."
But the top-level meta is glitzy, glamorous, media-savvy types delivering a product that satirizes glitzy, glamorous, media-savvy types, all of them believing that they're actually gonna "make a difference" rather than just doing more of the same.
Interesting that per your first para, the creators might not have been intending that meta-meta-self-meta, that they were actually blind to it? Seems kind of amazing to me, but not unbelievable...
So, multiply masturbatory (self-masturbatory? 😉), both for the creators and the (target) audience.
This leaves me feeling 1. Self-congratulatory for getting all that, 2. Sickened by both A. That (self-)performative yuckiness, and B. My own self-congratulatoriness in perceiving that.
Is selflessness really what's lacking? One of my touchstones is this quote from George Washington:
"A small knowledge of human nature will convince us, that, with far the greatest part of mankind, interest is the governing principle; and that, almost, every man is more or less, under its influence. Motives of public virtue may for a time, or in particular instances, actuate men to the observance of a conduct purely disinterested; but they are not of themselves sufficient to produce persevering conformity to the refined dictates and obligations of social duty. Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good. It is vain to exclaim against the depravity of human nature on this account; the fact is so, the experience of every age and nation has proved it and we must in a great measure, change the constitution of man, before we can make it otherwise. No institution, not built on the presumptive truth of these maxims can succeed."
From a Canadian perspective, it seems to me that the huge challenge facing the US is the weakness of its political parties. The Republican Party was unable to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the nominee in 2016, and has now surrendered to him. The Democratic Party, after failing to stop Trump from winning in 2016, was able to defeat him in 2020, but its popularity with the electorate is weak - there's intense quarrels within the party. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/joe-biden-agenda.html
The American political system spends a lot of its time in gridlock, leading to paralysis, drift, and frustration. And that frustration is what demagogues like Trump draw their power from.
My guess is that for American democracy to recover, two things need to happen: (1) the Democratic Party needs to figure out how to reconnect with the electorate, and (2) the Republican Party needs to escape from Trump's grasp.
My editors have been asking me to write about this since the new year, and i have been unable to, watching the movie was like reading our comments section, so much noise. Nobody is willing to make any kind of sacrifice or change, and have you seen that new Silverado electric pickup? It will save the world. Thanks for this.
Very good, thanks. Echoes my thoughts, here in a bit shorter form...
My one-word mental takeaway after watching was "masturbatory."
This requires assuming (I think this is largely correct) that only sympathetic audiences will watch it, and at least the more superficial among them will just feel good and self-satisfied about "getting the [obvious, bottom-level] joke."
But the top-level meta is glitzy, glamorous, media-savvy types delivering a product that satirizes glitzy, glamorous, media-savvy types, all of them believing that they're actually gonna "make a difference" rather than just doing more of the same.
Interesting that per your first para, the creators might not have been intending that meta-meta-self-meta, that they were actually blind to it? Seems kind of amazing to me, but not unbelievable...
So, multiply masturbatory (self-masturbatory? 😉), both for the creators and the (target) audience.
This leaves me feeling 1. Self-congratulatory for getting all that, 2. Sickened by both A. That (self-)performative yuckiness, and B. My own self-congratulatoriness in perceiving that.
All told, I kinda wish I hadn't watched it.
Is selflessness really what's lacking? One of my touchstones is this quote from George Washington:
"A small knowledge of human nature will convince us, that, with far the greatest part of mankind, interest is the governing principle; and that, almost, every man is more or less, under its influence. Motives of public virtue may for a time, or in particular instances, actuate men to the observance of a conduct purely disinterested; but they are not of themselves sufficient to produce persevering conformity to the refined dictates and obligations of social duty. Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good. It is vain to exclaim against the depravity of human nature on this account; the fact is so, the experience of every age and nation has proved it and we must in a great measure, change the constitution of man, before we can make it otherwise. No institution, not built on the presumptive truth of these maxims can succeed."
From a Canadian perspective, it seems to me that the huge challenge facing the US is the weakness of its political parties. The Republican Party was unable to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the nominee in 2016, and has now surrendered to him. The Democratic Party, after failing to stop Trump from winning in 2016, was able to defeat him in 2020, but its popularity with the electorate is weak - there's intense quarrels within the party. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/joe-biden-agenda.html
The American political system spends a lot of its time in gridlock, leading to paralysis, drift, and frustration. And that frustration is what demagogues like Trump draw their power from.
My guess is that for American democracy to recover, two things need to happen: (1) the Democratic Party needs to figure out how to reconnect with the electorate, and (2) the Republican Party needs to escape from Trump's grasp.