We were watching A Beautiful Mind the other night, and it was interesting to read afterward that the only way John Nash was able to overcome his schizophrenia, at least in part, was by consciously choosing not to follow politics anymore, and focus on more rational intellectual pursuits. It was the height of the Cold War era and it seems he needed something to occupy his highly active mind, inventing all sorts of characters in which to battle his Cold War demons. That's not so easy to do in this day and age, with all the irrational chatter on the airwaves. You would have to eliminate television and social media all together. It is virtually impossible to escape otherwise.
The worst part is watching rational persons trying to answer irrational questions. This was true of Kamala Harris submitting herself to Charlmagne tha God, only to be accused afterward of trying to shut down Charlamagne. The Biden-Harris administration has found itself coming under fire from all sides, as inflation peaks in the US, and it struggles to get its Build Back Better budget through the Senate. This led Charlamagne to pose the question, which Joe is President, Biden or Manchin? Kamala's staff wanted her to end the interview right then and there, but Kamala wasn't going to let this poser get away with such a rhetorical question. However, it's impossible to win in these situations, and you usually end up looking worse than the idiot posing the stupid question.
There doesn't seem anyway to tame the beast that social media has become. I've learned to avoid most rhetorical questions that pop up on my facebook news feed, but still bite from time to time. The worst part is that as soon as I comment on one of these clickbait posts, they start sprouting up throughout my feed. It's like underwear ads, having clicked on some sultry Wolf & Badger ads. No way to get rid of them afterward.
However, these influencers aren't content with their prominence on social media, they want to gain the television spotlight as well, and sadly networks like MSNBC gladly oblige. Chris Hayes' interview with the January 6 organizers went completely off the rails. He had given them the audience they craved and they were going to take full advantage of it. The best policy would have been to ignore them. Let the House January 6 investigation committee sort through all this bullshit. But, Chris couldn't resist the exposure such an interview would bring.
This was John Nash's downfall. He believed he could come up with a magic equation that somehow channeled all our energies on more useful pursuits. The only problem is that there were just too many variables, and he got lost in them, inventing characters to try to lead him out of the rabbit hole he had created for himself. The film made it all seem very real the first half, taking us into Nash's "beautiful mind," only to discover in the second half it had all been lifted from the pages of magazines he clipped out and pinned to the wall, as if trying to solve the world's greatest mystery.
I'm convinced much of what we see and read on social media, and in turn in television and periodicals, is there purely to distract us from the real crimes taking place. We still keep seeing a lot of Trump, which is sure to turn most persons' stomachs, when the real culprits go about fleecing the world with no one the wiser for it. Trump has always been a distraction. He didn't initiate anything on his own, nor was he smart enough to take advantage of the opportunities offered to him. Instead, others benefited greatly by having him serve as a patsy. Only now does it seem Trump is aware how much Mitch McConnell, Bibi Netanyahu and many others took advantage of him, and is vowing to enact his revenge.
Too late, as the January 6 insurrectionists angrily pointed out. The opportunity was there that day to wreak havoc of Washington. Instead, Trump lost his nerve, and the assault ended in a pile of ignominy and defeat, making them all look bad. A veritable Bay of Pigs, Part Deux. Fortunately, most of the persons were not very smart, and now seem to be turning their fingers on each other. It would be nice if more incriminating evidence comes forward to put some of the real instigators of the insurrection behind bars, or at least out of office. But, sadly, that probably won't be the case.
There is no algorithm that unlocks all the mysteries behind these actions. There are just instigators who play on human emotions, turning them to their advantage. It's only when we take more responsibility for our own actions that we learn to overcome them. This is probably what John Nash learned in battling his paranoid schizophrenia, as it allowed him to tap down all those demons, if not completely get rid of them. We can't let ourselves fall prey to our petty emotions.
Comments
Post a Comment