A few weeks ago flipping through tv channels I re-watched Warren Beatty in the 1989 movie Bulworth which is both amusing and depressing. The movie is still relevant, 17 years later, as movie critic Roger Ebert suggests; “What it comes down to is a politician who can no longer bring himself to recite the words, ‘America is standing on the doorstep of a new millennium.’ Over and over and over again he has repeated the same mindless platitudes, the same meaningless baloney, the same hot air. Now he sits in his office, playing one of his stupid TV commercials on an endless loop. He has not eaten or slept in three days. He is sick to the soul of the American political process.” One can hear President Obama in his State of Union outline the USA’s positive stance and then next listen to  Republicans paint a picture of doom & gloom – where is reality?

Beatty wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the movie and these clips describe our reality so well so, let’s rap a while.

Bulworth (1/5) Movie CLIP – South Central Speech

Bulworth (2/5) Movie CLIP – Bulworth Raps

Bulworth (3/5) Movie CLIP – No More Black Leaders

Bulworth (4/5) Movie CLIP – The Cop’s Apology

Bulworth (5/5) Movie CLIP – Little Brothers

Yesterday, Thursday 1.14.16, I went to the Turf Grill across from the NDSU campus for a beer, good for the heart, and to pick up the latest copy of The High Plans Reader to read Ed Raymond’s The Gadfly column written by my former Fargo Central High School English teacher. Ed’s article, Perfect Political Fit, was a perfect fit in presenting a beginning psychoanalytical analysis of the Trump phenomenon, which was later this evening aired on the Fox Channel’s coverage of the Republican debate. Ed’s essay uses Elia Kazan’s  movie Face in the Crowd, with Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Walter Matthau to tell the story of the drifter Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes (Griffith) who is discovered by the producer (Neal) of a small-market radio program in rural northeast Arkansas. Rhodes rises to fame and influence on national television which turn into delusion of grandeur. The identification of Donald Trump with Larry Rhodes is sticking. Here, take a look.

A Face in the Crowd

Free Man In The Morning

Dark Night of the Soul

Ed concludes his essay asking, “What Is This Epidemic Of Affluenza Sweeping The Country?” and answers the question by stating “Research by social scientists has determined that the affluent generally lack empathy, disrespect norms and laws, and are more likely to cheat. Dr. Aaron James, a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard, has covered the disease of affluenza rather well in his serious 2012 book “Assholes: A Theory”: ‘The asshole (1) allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically; (2) does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and (3) is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people.” That pretty well sums up Trump and his fellow billionaires who have been the highest bidders for The Best Congress Money Can Buy. Trump, like Lonesome Rhodes, is trying to sell “chicken fertilizer” to the stupid idiots “as caviar” and are tossing the voters many dead fish. The rich will probably end up supporting their fellow billionaire The Donald to cement a victory. What will the White House look like with that huge neon sign “Trump” on the roof? Obama recently renamed Mt. McKinley to Mt. Denali. I wonder what the Alaskans would think of Mt. Trump…….

Many are now pondering the phenomenon of Trumpism – like Sherlock Holmes I am on the trail of this crime and sense the emergence of the emphatic civilization. The invisible-hand of Adam Smith’s self-interest needs to be modified with the invisible-hand of the emphatic-civilization.

Emphatic Civilization