August 20, 2024

The Modern Prometheus

Why We Will Always Have Paris...

Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Last week the wealthiest person1 in the world who ostensibly is a neo-nazi spoke at length with the leading candidate for the President of the United States who is a fascist. This was promoted and reported on, as an interview. According to CNN, Trump made at least 20 false claims in his conversation with Elon Musk. Obviously there was no push-back or challenge from Elon, not after he swiftly turned what was arguably the one and only remaining source of unbiased journalism into a cesspool of neo-nazi and pro-fascist disinformation and propaganda. I did not watch the “interview” or read the transcript, but somehow I am fairly confident that CNN’s estimate of 20 is significantly lower than the reality. Judging strictly by the headlines, yes, calling climate change a hoax is an absolutely false claim but the follow-up stating the sea level rise will create more beachfront property is not only false (and disturbingly craven) but also outright impossible within the known laws of nature - so not only is this is lie that’s not being called out or challenged, it is also an incredibly low-bar test for the level of intellectual discourse between those two individuals.

Unsurprisingly, another example that caught my eye from the headlines was Trump praising Elon for firing employees who were striking for better working conditions and pay. Let this sink in. Self-proclaimed billionaire whose entire political career has been built on leveraging the anger of the working class (and race) is praising the richest person ever for illegally firing employees asking for fair conditions and treatment. Almost immediately “the UAW has filed federal labor charges against disgraced billionaires Donald Trump and Elon Musk for their illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes..” However, that’s a story for another day with an entirely different focus.

A few months ago I started to write an essay on disinformation begrudging Anne Applebaum for beating me to it. I felt that I had no choice but to write my thoughts on it but I never published my words. Looking back, it was a cop-out on my part. While I have went into almost complete social media and news media detox for a couple of months, things continued to deteriorate. At least three major news outlets have access to the leaked materials from Trump’s campaign, including JD Vance vetting report. All have refused to publish anything beyond the alleged hack of the campaign and a broad description of what materials have been leaked. The so-called fourth estate is just gonna hang on to the "hacked" materials while failing to cover the shitshow that was the Elon/Donald “interview” where he said he was gonna flee the country while under indictment to a non-extradition country2? Think back to 2016 and how the media reported on the Russian hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Each time I see an example of journalistic failure, which is essentially all of the bloody time nowadays, I am brought back to Alex Garland’s movie Civil War, on which I have written 3300 and 2700 words over two essays because of how perfectly it has encapsulated the failures of journalism in general and specific to the fact that the world is on the brink of a fascist takeover. A serious problem we share with 1930s Germany is the widespread denial and disbelief in the fragility of democracy. For a long time, I too wouldn’t let myself believe that our Beacon on the Hill could devolve into a sinister reanimation of “reich,” yet the warning signs have reached a critical mass long before we as a society decided to drown student protests with an onslaught of fascism.

Modern US politics is a guy standing next to his new Cybertruck pumping gas for $3.50 per gallon, while scrolling through Facebook or TruthSocial on his Pixel Fold9 sharing a meme: “Gas is $8 dollars a gallon! Thanks Joe Biden!” Think of these few recent examples:

• The police chief of a town that straddles a major highway in and out of Nashville completely lost to Q-Anon obsession and insanity, using federal databases to investigate political campaigns and private citizens. He is also restricted access to information. The city council completely supports this and is doing nothing to stop them because they are down the same rabbit hole3.

• CNN reporting Trump’s continued attacks on Harris’ rise stir fears he could question election outcome if he loses in November. I call bloody bullshit. We have practically endless examples of Trump, as well as his closest supporters and allies openly refusing to accept any outcome of the election where he is not the winner. We already know what Trump would do when he loses a close election in a fair way. That was Trump at the peak of his narcissistic self and perceived public adulation. The Trump we see today is not the same person, after months of multiple trials, which in his mind, are a hoax and a witch hunt, he wants blood and the rhetoric at his rallies very clearly speaks to that. His allies are more brazen and angry. Here’s Charlie Kirk: “I want to make sure we all make a commitment, that if this election doesn’t go our way, the next day we’d fight.” Kirk then compared this commitment to those who fought in the American Revolution.

• The ongoing attempt to “swiftboat” Tim Walz, specifically the way JD Vance’s attacks are reported: “What’s bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not.” For fuck’s sake, it’s your duty as a journalist to not only report the quote by provide context, facts and challenge the outright lies and disinformation. I will let those who have served fight this one out, but as a civilian looking at the respective military resumes of the two VP candidates and their respective portrayal of their service, the one with stolen valor is and always has been Private Pyle errr JD Vance, but then the entire image of who he is, is fake.

• The ridiculous questioning of Kamala Harris for not sitting down for an interview over a week since becoming the official nominee, “she has answered less than 5 total questions from the press.” Nevermind that the fascist she is running against has ostensibly not answered a single question from anyone in that period - outright lies, bullying, misinformation, mimmbing and spewing bullshit is not answering questions.

Between Fox, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros, E.W. Scripps, and Altice, one can hardly find a bastion of unbiased journalism or an owner/chairperson without deep ties to the GOP4. The social media landscape is even more slanted towards the pro-fascist rhetoric and perspectives.

Donald Trump has been a focal point of our political discourse for over a decade and the entire fourth estate is still in search of how to approach, interview and report on him or for many in search of a spine necessary to actually do their jobs rather than getting a paycheck for clicks and views. We are still reading articles about Trump’s laundry list of increasingly bizarre claims that contain zero mentions of the word “lie” or any mention or questions regarding mental acuity of the fascist candidate5.

The most stark example of this failure for me was the first few minutes of the interview Trump gave to the National Association of Black Journalists a few weeks ago. In the name of transparency, I will admit that I did not watch or read the transcript past the first seven minutes or so even if I truly think that this was arguably the best job I have seen a journalist do while interviewing The Donald. Rachel Scott started the interview with a fairly strong question, at least by the standards of the questions that Trump usually faces and yet, Ms. Scott managed to fail miserably in multiple ways, for the sake of space and time here’s a couple:

• Trump did not push “false claims about his rivals” he promoted an openly racist and bigoted disinformation campaign.

• Trump had dinner with a well known neo-nazi6 not just a white supremacist and as we learned since, he actually had dinner with another neo-nazi.

• Complete and utter inability to call a spade, well a spade. While Scott clearly alluded to Trump’s racism, she downplayed it by saying “used language like that” instead.

What followed was even worse. Instead of cutting off his microphone or interrupting him to fact check in real time, Trump was allowed to speak for over a minute and a half with over a dozen of outright lies in his “word salad.” To her credit, Ms. Scott tried to push back after Trump’s soliloquy but losing round after round after round to him within the next minute and a half. At 6:34 of the interview, Trump launched an openly racist and absolutely detached from reality fictional attack on Kamala Harris, not unlike his birther theories in the past. Yes, Rachel Scott tried to correct the record by stating over Trump that Kamala “has always identified as a Black woman… She went to a historically Black college.” At no point did Ms. Scott pushed back and say that Trump’s words are an outrageous racist lie and leave him only two options: storm off the stage or properly address being a racist and a liar in front of the cameras.

But this story is not about Trump.

This story is not about journalism.

This story is about myself.

A couple of days after the NABJ interview, my spouse and I were talking about current events and in a middle of a fairly laid-back conversation over a morning cup of joe I unloaded a fiery, intense, heartfelt, and a little bit too strong of a sermon on many failures of journalism, attempting to present much of the above in a more detailed fashion. When I ran out of breath, she asked me why I was yelling at her. I apologized and explained that it was not her that I was addressing with my fervor and passion, rather it’s more akin to me screaming into the proverbial void.

I could not explain it well to her or even myself then, but I believe I can now. Let’s take a step back and get back into our story properly.

It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that Casablanca, might very well be the greatest movie ever made. In the history of Hollywood, very few films are quite as effortlessly iconic and memorable. Casablanca is regularly listed as one of the best movies of all time, alongside Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and others; the movie’s main character, Rick Blaine, is one of the best protagonist ever brought to the big screen, along with an easy claim to at least half a dozen of most iconic lines that have been quoted again and again in the years since. Casablanca has the rare distinction of being considered one of the greatest romance stories of all time, as well as being one of the greatest war stories.  And drama.  And suspense.  And of course film noir.  Yeah, Casablanca is all of that, right, but, it is also a deeply moralistic movie. One that I have probably, no, likely seen well over a hundred of times; one that carries a lot of intellectual, emotional and moral weight for me.

Among many of those morning coffee conversations with my spouse, I’ve asked her once, which of the characters in the movie Casablanca I remind her the most.

She told me that I have always been Victor Laszlo to her and that is one of many reasons why she loves me. Jan Smudek, the real life Czech7 resistance hero who may have been the inspiration for the character of Laszlo, was an uncompromising idealistic patriot who fought Nazis, escaped multiple times and stayed for a while in Casablanca using the pseudonym Charles Legrand. Just like the real life Jan Smudek, Laszlo is portrayed as purest and most morally upright character in the resistance against the Nazis. Victor is what brings the focus into the big picture, determined to take a stand for the betterment of the world, positive that he is doing the right thing.

It is he who is, and has been. He is noble and genuine, kind and understanding, but Victor is the least complex main character in the film. For the most part, he has little internal conflict, and is thoroughly the archetypal Hero throughout the entire movie. In other words Victor is the moral compass that others in the movie and the audience should aspire to emulate.

The La Marseillaise scene captures Victor character perfectly. When faced with the embodiment of evil, in this case Major Strasser8, who is far from the usual Nazi caricatures of Hogan’s Heroes or perfectly performed parodies of The Great Dictator, leading a group of Nazis singing a patriotic German song, Victor does not hesitate, he does not consider options or alternatives, he feels the need to face and oppose evil. He asks, and then matter of factly demands the band to play perhaps the most famous hymn to liberty and resistance.

Victor is at his most pure, noble and uncompromising here, it is virtually impossible to watch this scene and not feel a tear start to build up in your eyes at least once.

The affinity and ability to compromise within the discourse of the movie are evidently left to the main protagonist, Rick. He is flawlessly portrayed by Humphrey Bogart as world-weary, cynical, sarcastic, suave, and cool as a pine forest on a hot summer day. He’s got a quick draw and an even quicker wit, he’s a chessmaster who wants no part of this war, and while exit visas are traded in his club, he never does any of the trading.  He seems to have no goal other than his own profit, repeatedly saying “I'm the only "cause" I'm interested in.” and “I stick my neck out for nobody!” Yet, his jaded cynicism, his sarcasm and drinking, his purported “neutrality” is a thinly veiled facade that comes crumbling not even with the mentions of Rick’s exploits fightings the Nazis in the past, or his helping a pair of poor Bulgarian kids escape, or his refusal of service to those he finds personally abhorrent, it is the most clear with the arrival of Victor and Ilsa:

Rick : I congratulate you.

Victor Laszlo : What for?

Rick : Your work.

Victor Laszlo : I try.

Rick : We *all* "try"; *You* succeed!

An astute reader, which I am sure you are, is wondering why am I writing about Rick, when my spouse sees Victor in me? Well, in a twist of irony, a couple of months prior I was asking my therapist to explain to me why do I desperately wish to be Rick and always end up being Victor, to which, being the best therapist I have worked with, she asked me to write about why I feel that way.

While I did try to work on the question, I did not write an actual essay, only jotting down an outline, doing some of the research that I used in this piece and really trying to understand my own thoughts, motivations, and intentions. I could see Rick’s true colors: a sentimental idealist who finally chooses to take a side, as he makes a sacrifice and takes a stand.  Regardless of the ambiguous reasons for which Rick can’t return back to the United States as well as his stated reasons for being in Casablanca, he simply decided to focus on the small picture: his own life. By the end of the movie, he is still an idealist, just one choosing to look at the big picture, the world at large rather than events in his personal bubble.  

The way Rick perceives the world demonstrates not only growth and development in his character but his ability to make free choices, to decide for himself what he wants to stand for, what he is willing to fight for, when he is going to do it and what it is he is willing to sacrifice for it. It is a stark contrast to Victor, who for all of his decency, his resilience, and his unshakable belief the power of good over evil, could not make any of such choices. For Victor, it was always an uncompromising duty9 to seek justice, to defend the innocent and support those in dire need of help - in my mind, Victor does not have a choice, he is destined to fight either to victory or the bitter end.

Victory Laszlo perfectly perfectly embodies Jean-Paul Sartre’s:

It is an incredibly heavy burden to carry when one’s entire being has been shaped and designed to encapsulate the most stereotypical quixotic tendencies, especially with the literal fate of humanity on the line. I told my therapist that I am too weak, too scared, too cynical and jaded to really be the “white knight” akin Victor and I wanted an escape that the idea of Rick conveniently presented, yet, here we are, my spouse’s words bringing the topic back and taunting my mind with the comparison by stroking my fragile ego and at the same time completely humbling it…

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I know that it was not meant as a taunt or an ego boost or a humbling experience. It was a deeply honest and incredibly intimate perspective that meant so much more than I thought it did when I heard it first. Going over the old outline and my research notes, it became clear to me, that I am really neither Victor nor Rick, but rather a tormented version of the Modern Prometheus, shaped and designed to equate my self-identity, my own self-realization with the moral compass of good vs. evil. To a large degree I am very lucky to have escaped or been able to shed most of the Soviet indoctrination that was forced into each and every single one of us who great up behind the Iron Curtain in the 70s and 80s. Comparing myself and my spouse to the rest of the GenXers raised under the collapse of the Soviet Union, indeed, we both are very resilient and lucky in this sense. Yet, in as much as I knew most of the propaganda was bullshit even at that time, I could never escape the weight of uncompromising duty to promote justice, to protect the innocent and to support those in desperate need of help, no matter the cost, no matter the means or the sacrifices.

One of the earliest memories I have from going to elementary school was my “protest” against the injustice of our homeroom teacher at the end of the 2nd grade. The entire class was promised that we would not receive any homework if we reached a specific goal or milestone by a certain date in May. However, once the date came, our teacher “changed” her mind and allowed only one student, the proverbial “teacher’s pet,” to not be required to complete homework for the remainder of the year. Yours truly, a full year and likely about a foot and a half shorter than anyone else in class, got up from the front row desk and fighting tears running down my face proclaimed that as a sign of protest over such a despicable and unfair injustice, I am breaking my ruler into six parts and ripping my book of poems intro four. I miserably failed at both, but that’s not the point. The point is that even the 6 year old was already conditioned to be the future Victor Laszlo.

Once you add almost complete isolation during the formative behavioral years due to health issues; brutal physical, mental and emotional hazing and bullying; anti-semitism; immigration; another round of isolation; an attempted sexual assault, and all of the other traume, is there any wonder that Victor’s uncompromising humanity and consciousness, merged with my version of Rick’s sentimental idealism buried deep beneath the facade of tired cynicism, producing another Frankenstein’s monster?

Over the years I have collected a few tattoos, each centred around a specific quote that has a deep emotional or intellectual meaning to me. Yet, the very first one that I ever wanted to get, the quote that has defined me as a teenager and then as a rebellious twenty-something remains un-inked on my skin:

Жарило солнце, перед глазами плавали красные пятна, дрожал воздух на дне карьера, и в этом дрожании казалось, будто Шар приплясывает на месте, как буй на волнах. Он прошёл мимо ковша, суеверно поднимая ноги повыше и следя, чтобы не наступить на чёрные кляксы, а потом, увязая в рыхлости, потащился наискосок через весь карьер к пляшущему и подмигивающему Шару. Он был покрыт потом, задыхался от жары, и в то же время морозный озноб пробирал его, он трясся крупной дрожью, как с похмелья, а на зубах скрипела пресная меловая пыль. И он уже больше не пытался думать. Он только твердил про себя с отчаянием, как молитву: «Я животное, ты же видишь, я животное. У меня нет слов, меня не научили словам, я не умею думать, эти гады не дали мне научиться думать. Но если ты на самом деле такой… всемогущий, всесильный, всепонимающий… разберись! Загляни в мою душу, я знаю, там есть всё, что тебе надо. Должно быть. Душу-то ведь я никогда и никому не продавал! Она моя, человеческая! Вытяни из меня сам, чего же я хочу, — ведь не может же быть, чтобы я хотел плохого!.. Будь оно всё проклято, ведь я ничего не могу придумать, кроме этих его слов: „СЧАСТЬЕ ДЛЯ ВСЕХ, ДАРОМ, И ПУСТЬ НИКТО НЕ УЙДЁТ ОБИЖЕННЫЙ!“10

Is it still not inked because I am not ready, not worthy or because I am a golem? I do not know, but I would not have it any other way. Not ever and especially not now when the world is on the precipice.

But we will “always have Paris…”