folly to assume the demands of his ego will be satisfied
Trump is a vain and petty man, and it is easy to impute psychological motives to his actions. But it is folly to assume the demands of his ego will be satisfied by symbolic victories. Revulsion and desire are two sides of the same coin, and it is clear that Trump covets the kind of unaccountable power Maduro enjoyed — to enrich his family and cronies, to intimidate political opponents, to muzzle the press, to flood the streets of his country with armed men who do his bidding. Trump has managed to do a measure of all of these things. No doubt he intends to do more.
I am reminded of the bully in the movie, A Christmas Story.
The movie, A Christmas Story was based on the book, But In god we trust all others pay cash by Jean Shepherd.
It is interesting to point out that the evil bully, Scut Farkus is not the bully in the book.
Grover Dill is.
Of Grover Dill, Jean Shephard writes, “Dill was a Running Nose type of Bully. His nose was always running, even when it wasn’t. He was a yelling, wiry, malevolent, sneevily snively Bully who had quelled all insurgents for miles around. I did not know one kid ‘who was not afraid of Dill, mainly because Dill was truly aggressive. This kind of aggression later in life is often called “Talent” or “Drive,” but to the great formless herd of kids it just meant a lot of running, getting belted, and continually feeling ashamed.“
Farkus shows up in Jean Shephard’s second book of growing up in Indiana memories titled, “Wanda Hickies Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters.”
Again and again, something a supporter of the current feller in the Oval Office said.
“He fights my battles for me.”
Dill or Farkus, the movie, Ralphie says, “In our world, you were either a bully, a toady or one of the nameless rabble of victims.”
I was part of the nameless rabble of victims.
Difficult for me to imagine being a Grover Dill or Scut Farkus fan.
I mean, really?
I support the Scut Farkus and the Grover Dill people of this world.
A rorschach test according to Wikipedia is: “The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly.”
This is the classic ink blot and what do you see?
The headline refers to a video of an altercation between an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and a woman in a mini van.
The headline pre-supposes that when watching the video, a person’s perceptions and reactions can be analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning.
It might even be employed to detect a person’s underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly.
Usually a Rorschach test uses an image of an inkblot and some folks see one thing and other folks see other things.
For example, this is Card IV of the 10 card test, sometimes subjectively called the “Father Card” (without empirical verification), is noted for its imposing image and thematic emphasis on authority, strength, and male figures.
For today, the Rorschach test uses this image.
Some folks on viewing this photo see Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers afraid for their lives in a situation where the decision of last resort has become the first response. An officer, seeing his life pass before his eyes as certain death approaches in the form of a weaponized car, makes the only decision left and in the split second of time to make a life or death decision, chooses death and fires his weapon into the driver of the car, some three feet away.
Other folks on viewing this photo see an overaction of deadly force made with malice aforethought and little regard for life or consequences of action. An action that caused the death of a human being with premeditation and with intent to effect the death of the person.*
I put it to you that this isn’t a Rorschach test at all.
A Rorschach test, to me, involves someone being open to look at the image and interpret on its merits.
This photo, a moment in time is nothing but a mirror and folks see exactly what they bring to the mirror and see what they want to see.
How did we get here?
I walked toward the water, as if pulled to it.
The ocean stops me in a way few things do.
Wording taking from the State of Minnesota Statute 609.185 (Murder in the First Degree).
if not enjoying a volume, put it down and move on to the next
Don’t force it: If you’re not enjoying a volume, put it down and move on to the next. “I am a huge advocate for not finishing a book,” says Menzies. “If you don’t like a book, no one’s judging you. You’re not failing.”
Ms. Aggler is quoting a Morgan Menzies, who is a literary curator and social media influencer.
I am not sure exactly what a literary curator and social media influencer is or does but there you are.
Ms. Aggler closes withMake it fun Finally, make sure you’re having a good time.
And again quotes literary curator and social media influencer Menzies who says, “Reading is something that should bring you joy. There’s a lot you can gain from it.”
Make it fun?
Far be it from me to differ or question a literary curator and social media influencer, but how does one MAKE something FUN for someone else.
I recall a passage in the biography of Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr., where the author states:
The men who came to the Holmes house to tea, to dinner — Emerson, Dr. James Freeman Clarke, Mr. Lowell, Mr. Appleton — never read a book because it was the thing to do. They read with passionate interest and with passionate interest discussed what they had read.
Passionate interest.
I put it to you that if you are passionately interested in something, reading about it, be it fishing, football or how coffee was brought to the US Army on France in World War 2 (and a history of the US ARMY Coffee Service in WW2 is fascinating), will be FUN.
I started reading right off.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t passionately interested in EVERYTHING and I wanted to read everything.
My parents bought the 1st and 2nd grade readers (real Dick and Jane books) when I was in kindergarten.
When I got to 1st grade, I asked the teacher, what else you got?
I remember in 8th grade I had to take a reading comprehension test and got called into the hall to be asked if I cheated as I scored higher on the test than mathematically anyone should have been able to score.
I will say that early on I also learned to start a book and say NOPE.
Sometimes it’s the opening language.
Sometimes the story doesn’t make it to the land of suspension of disbelief.
Sometimes it’s factual. I recently picked up a new book on the Nuremburg Trials after WW2 ( a book maybe prompted by the recent film) and on page two the author pointed out that the United States would be represented by Chief Justice Robert Jackson.
Well folks, it was Associate Justice Robert Jackson in Nuremburg and Chief Justice Harlon Fiske Stone stayed happily in Washington during the trial and that was as far as I got into the book.
So it was with some wonder when back in sixth grade I got my report card from Grand Rapids Crestview Elementary school.
The report cards at that time had three rows for marks.
Above expectation was row one.
Satisfactory was row two.
Unsatisfactory was row three.
We just used the short hand of saying did we get row 1 or row 2 or the dreaded row 3.
My Mom came home from Parent / Teacher conferences and handed me my card from Mr. Vanderwheel.
Behavior and all that was pretty much row three but the classroom work, English, Social Studies and Math were all Row 1 and Row 2.
At the bottom was one heading that was circled in red.
Reading.
I got a third row.
Mom let me look at at for a bit.
Then she said, “Mr. Vanderwheel says you spend most of the day with you nose in a book.”
I held out the card with my face one big question mark,
“But,” she said, “You have yet to turn in any book reports.”
Book reports?
We had to turn in two book reports a marking period.
One pagers with title, author, short synopsis and what you learned.
Well, what did that I have to do with reading I wanted to know.
It wasn’t my first time my lack of devotion to just-do-the-work and my outlook on education came into conflict.
All a book report, a REQUIRED Book report, did was rob my reading of all passion and made it work and took all the fun out it.
By this time I had read Tom Sawyer and when Tom whitewashes the fence and Mr. Twain wrote, ” … he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do,” I knew exactly what Mr. Twain was saying.
If the point was reading, what more did Mr. Vanderwheel want?
I mean, boy howdy.
From then on, once a month, I would grab the first book I found in the library, get a piece of paper and as fast I could, write the title, author, a paragraph about what the book looked like it might be about and what I liked about it.
Meet George Washington by Joan Heilbroner – this book was about George Washington and the many things he learned while growing up in Virginia and building his home at Mount Vernon that helped him as he fought in the Revolutionary war and was the 1st President. My favorite part was when he took his army in boats across the river to attack the Hessians at Trenton and Princeton. It is a good book and we should all read it.
I got 1st rows in reading.
There was something to be learned from this and I learned a lot in school but often the lessons I learned weren’t in any lesson planner.
Having now laid all the historical facts before the Person Sitting in Darkness, we should bring him to again, and explain them to him. We should say to him:
“They look doubtful, but in reality they are not.
There have been lies; yes, but they were told in a good cause.
We have been treacherous; but that was only in order that real good might come out of apparent evil.
True, we have crushed a deceived and confiding people; we have turned against the weak and the friendless who trusted us; we have stamped out a just and intelligent and well-ordered republic; we have stabbed an ally in the back and slapped the face of a guest; we have bought a Shadow from an enemy that hadn’t it to sell; we have robbed a trusting friend of his land and his liberty; we have invited our clean young men to shoulder a discredited musket and do bandit’s work under a flag which bandits have been accustomed to fear, not to follow; we have debauched America’s honor and blackened her face before the world; but each detail was for the best.
We know this.
The Head of every State and Sovereignty in Christendom and ninety percent. of every legislative body in Christendom, including our Congress and our fifty State Legislatures, are members not only of the church, but also of the Blessings-of-Civilization Trust. This world-girdling accumulation of trained morals, high principles, and justice, cannot do an unright thing, an unfair thing, an ungenerous thing, an unclean thing. It knows what it is about. Give yourself no uneasiness; it is all right.
Now then, that will convince the Person. You will see. It will restore the Business. Also, it will elect the Master of the Game to the vacant place in the Trinity of our national gods; and there on their high thrones the Three will sit, age after age, in the people’s sight, each bearing the Emblem of his service: Washington, the Sword of the Liberator; Lincoln, the Slave’s Broken Chains; the Master, the Chains Repaired.
According to Wikipedia, “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” is an essay by American author Mark Twain published in the North American Review in February 1901. It is a satire exposing imperialism as revealed in the Boxer Rebellion and its aftermath, the Boer War, and the Philippine–American War, expressing Twain’s anti-imperialist views.
I had kinda sorta made a New Year’s resolution to keep my posts in the world of words and avoid political commentary.
So the resolution lasted 6 days into the New Year.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, well, there it is.
I keep coming back to something Barack Obama said during the 2024 election.
President Obama referred to the birth certificate claims that were made about him and Mr. Obama said, “Remember when we thought this was crazy as he could get?”
As President George W. Bush said back in 2017, “That’s some weird shit.“
There on their high thrones the Three will sit, age after age, in the people’s sight, each bearing the Emblem of his service:
much emotional content occurs before we are nineteen, twenty
Probably everyone feels this on their first true flight from whatever nest, but it is no less real for being so universally shared!
We all have mothers and fathers, and what sweet anguish, sometimes terror, there is in those names.
If you give it much thought, the skeleton of life is stupendously ordinary.
So much of the emotional content of our lives seems to occur before we are nineteen or twenty, doesn’t it?
After that, especially by our age, we seem like stone walls, mortared together by scar tissue.
The whole point is not to be.
From all my reading done in construction camps throughout the world, the main point or challenge is to stay as conscious as possible, absurd as that seems.
Sundog: a novel : the story of an American foreman, Robert Corvus Strang, as told to Jim Harrison by Jim Harrison (Washington Square Press: New York, 1989).
No Haiku For You 