-- by Tom Phillips
When President Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale called his media attack machine the Death Star, Democrats mocked him for invoking the Evil Empire from Star Wars, and scolded him for joking about death while the world is in the grip of a Pandemic. But Parscale didn't apologize, and won't. "Laugh all you want," he tweeted. "We'll take the win."
It's the Democrats who are being naive here. They don't understand that evil and death are part of the president's appeal.
Our leader is least effective when he attempts to look empathetic, as in suggesting Clorox as a cure for Covid-19. He's at his best when he shows off his brazen lack of empathy, his disregard for life.
"Our country wasn't built to be shut down," he says, meaning -- go back to work, America, even if it costs 100,000 lives.
"I take no responsibility at all."
This is life on the Death Star, where the only virtue is power. This is what the Roman Catholic Church calls the "glamour of evil." It has legions of followers -- mostly people with no power, who feel a rush when they see it.
This is what Nietzsche predicted in 1890, when he wrote: "morality will gradually perish now; a great spectacle in a hundred acts over the next two centuries." We are somewhere in the latter portion of the spectacle, where the post-truth moment has become a post-goodness moment. Nietzsche located it "beyond good and evil." Lise Brown, a Jewish scholar who lectures on ethics at Pace University in New York, calls it "herd immunity to sin."
In this atmosphere, Joe Biden needs to up his game to defeat the Death Star. He can't win on a platform of "decency." That's just another term for goodness, and goodness has lost its currency. Badness is what wins.
To defeat the Death Star he needs to attack, and reveal its weakness. There's no need to depart from the truth, which is:
This man has no power at all, beyond the empty glamour of evil. He's a spoiled child, a coward who humiliates his minions (see picture) but can't face an independent challenge. He fires people by tweet because he's afraid to do it in person. He picks on people in wheelchairs. He's too weak to fight fair, too ashamed of himself to admit a mistake or take responsibility. He's a commander-in-chief who cries and runs away, even from a reporter just standing her ground.
He's a loser, Joe. Tell him so.
And may the Force be with you.
-- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips
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| Yes Sir, Boss: Parscale models campaign gear |
It's the Democrats who are being naive here. They don't understand that evil and death are part of the president's appeal.
Our leader is least effective when he attempts to look empathetic, as in suggesting Clorox as a cure for Covid-19. He's at his best when he shows off his brazen lack of empathy, his disregard for life.
"Our country wasn't built to be shut down," he says, meaning -- go back to work, America, even if it costs 100,000 lives.
"I take no responsibility at all."
This is life on the Death Star, where the only virtue is power. This is what the Roman Catholic Church calls the "glamour of evil." It has legions of followers -- mostly people with no power, who feel a rush when they see it.
This is what Nietzsche predicted in 1890, when he wrote: "morality will gradually perish now; a great spectacle in a hundred acts over the next two centuries." We are somewhere in the latter portion of the spectacle, where the post-truth moment has become a post-goodness moment. Nietzsche located it "beyond good and evil." Lise Brown, a Jewish scholar who lectures on ethics at Pace University in New York, calls it "herd immunity to sin."
In this atmosphere, Joe Biden needs to up his game to defeat the Death Star. He can't win on a platform of "decency." That's just another term for goodness, and goodness has lost its currency. Badness is what wins.
To defeat the Death Star he needs to attack, and reveal its weakness. There's no need to depart from the truth, which is:
This man has no power at all, beyond the empty glamour of evil. He's a spoiled child, a coward who humiliates his minions (see picture) but can't face an independent challenge. He fires people by tweet because he's afraid to do it in person. He picks on people in wheelchairs. He's too weak to fight fair, too ashamed of himself to admit a mistake or take responsibility. He's a commander-in-chief who cries and runs away, even from a reporter just standing her ground.
He's a loser, Joe. Tell him so.
And may the Force be with you.
-- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips
Brilliant! Yes, as chilling as it is, "the glamour of evil..." The question is, does Joe have the balls...
ReplyDeleteBravo!! So well said and I love the references. I read Nietzsche (that is a war of consonants right there) in college and though I was floundering academically at the time he did come across as larger than life and ensconced in scary concepts. Words so thick I couldn’t tell where his opinion was.
ReplyDeleteI think I finally see this « beyond good and evil » but hopefully Trump’s is a futile attempt to brand this clawless, vapid state of mind. Thank you for keeping your eye on the ball. Send it to Joe!!!
I did, thanks. ;]
DeleteI got a reply: He gets too many emails to read them or respond, so the best way I can contribute is by sending another 50 bucks. OK, Joe.
Delete