#functioned as an extension of himself and the life he was aspiring to achieve

[fellhellion]

not to be always talking about dana but one of the difficulties i find with trying to speak on her is the fact that a lot of the interesting dimensions you can read into her relate solely to depth that she offers miguel, as an extension of conflict for him.

like there is something really interesting to be read in the fact that as a couple they were most happy with one another in their mutual self centeredness (even if regret lingered at the edges re gabriel), that the distance between them isn't only exacerbated by miguel moonlighting as spiderman, but by the fact they're gradually becoming very different people with very different values and perspectives on the world, and their relationship begins to break and strain from that. but that still speaks more to dana's connection with miguel, moreso than herself.

there is something really interesting to be read in a person simultaneously swayed by promises of power and favour, but who also purports to shy away from active confrontation and her own accountability in those conflicts (and we SEE repeated evidence of this), and exploring how these two traits would come into conflict w one another. but these traits surface more from the writing moving dana around to whatever emotional position best offers conflict for miguel, than it does trying to paint a picture of a deeply flawed woman.

she never has to be a quote unquote "good" person to be an interesting character, but god. would it have been far more compelling to have just offered an cohesive insight into the way she operates and justifies her behaviour to herself.

[dweemeister]

Melody Time (1948)

Disengaged and disinterested, Walt Disney was adrift at his own studio in the late 1940s. The studio’s modestly-budgeted package animated features were designed to save it from financial ruin. Yet, they required artistic and storytelling compromises that Disney was loathe to make. In this period, Disney shuffled personnel around the various departments – whether due to personal conflicts or dissatisfaction with their artistic approach on a certain film. Melody Time’s segments are of varying quality and limited experimentation, reflecting the organizational tumult within the studio. No standout moment exists in Melody Time, even though it is more energetic and looser than the preceding Fun and Fancy Free (1947).

The modern Walt Disney Company has advertised Melody Time as a film, “in the grand tradition of Disney’s greatest musical classics, such as Fantasia.” Audacious comparison to make, but functionally inaccurate. Fantasia, as imagined by Walt Disney, Deems Taylor, Leopold Stokowski, and the studio’s animators, was crafted so that its animation would empower the music (in cinema, the reverse – where music serves the action on-screen – is almost always a filmmaker’s approach). The reverse of that relationships holds here. Melody Time contains these seven segments, or “mini-musicals”: “Once Upon a Wintertime”, “Bumble Boogie”, “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed”, “Little Toot”, “Trees”, “Blame It on the Samba”, and “Pecos Bill”. Some of these mini-musicals are more watchable and more artistically interesting than others – although that standard is relatively low in Melody Time.

“Once Upon a Wintertime” is based on an overused Disney narrative template that never ceases to be a bore. A young couple are out and about, flirting and flitting, all while the woodland animals scurrying back and forth mirror human courtship. The segment, however, is partially redeemed by Frances Langford singing the segment’s title song (composed by Bobby Worth and Ray Gilbert) and the unmistakable influence of Mary Blair (1950’s Cinderella, the “It’s a Small World” attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim) in its aesthetic. With any piece of animation involving Mary Blair, one can expect an eye-catching use of color and her modernist art style. “Once Upon a Wintertime” is like a holiday card brought to animated life. Unlike a picturesque and meaningful holiday card, though, it overstays its welcome. But the stereotypical treatment of the young women appearing in “Once Upon a Wintertime” is, to put it mildly, clichéd writing at best. Hackneyed, too, is the fact that the woodland animals come to the human’s rescue.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee is one of the most recognizable (and overplayed) pieces of Western classical music, even to those folks who go out of their way to announce their distaste for classical music. Given a jazz rendition by the Freddy Martin Orchestra, “Bumble Boogie” is a thankfully brief three-minute foray. Here, an insect (that does not seem anything like a bee) flies through a series of surreal images – mostly parts of musical instruments (piano keys in particular) – that it must avoid. The segment is visually entertaining to watch, even if it must have been the easiest to prepare, design, and animated for in all of Melody Time. If placed in either Fantasia or Fantasia 2000, it would easily be the weakest Fantasia segment ever produced.

Third in the film is a segment that feels most like a classic Disney production. “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” is Disney’s glorified and sanitized take on the eponymous American pioneer, nurseryman, conservationist, and missionary. Walt’s personal ideology and perspective on American history included the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny and the taming of the nation’s wilds as among humanity’s greatest achievements. These are notions that Walt – through his films, theme parks, television shows, and public and private remarks – never questioned. Narrated and with Johnny Appleseed voiced by Dennis Day, there is a sincerity to Johnny’s characterization not present anywhere else in the movie. Again, Mary Blair’s artwork – this time, her forested backgrounds – appears as if heaven-sent. The umbrella-like canopy of the apple trees and “untamed” forests are inviting, and attract one’s eyes upward – towards the apples, paradise.

The title song (sometimes referred to as “The Lord is Good to Me”) featured in the opening moments of “The Legend of Appleseed” is one of the earliest – and one of the few – mentions or depictions of religious faith in a Disney animated work. It reinforces the mythos that surrounds Johnny Appleseed (and, by extension, the belief that white men are divine heroes for civilizing the lands west of the original Thirteen Colonies) to the present day. I was not raised in any of the Abrahamic religions, but it difficult to deny the simple charm of the title song and this segment – even if it endorses a troublesome perspective on American history. “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” is the best segment of Melody Time – from its unassuming storytelling and wondrous animation. It is the only Melody Time segment that I could possibly envision as a decent feature-length animated film.

Based on a 1939 children’s picture book of the same name Hardie Gramatky, “Little Toot” is a chore to sit through. The segment shares similar narrative and aesthetic tissue with Saludos Amigos’ (1942) “Pedro”, which concerned an anthropomorphic mail airplane that thinks it could. Along the Hudson River in New York City, Little Toot is a tiny tugboat who aspires to be like his father Big Toot. Just as in “Pedro”, this is a case of an anthropomorphized vehicle child who attempts to assume adult responsibility in order to prove that they can perform tasks as well as the adults can. Given that Little Toot is a meddling prankster playing tugboat games, it is difficult to feel much sympathy when he finally faces the consequences of his actions – which probably includes calamitous infrastructural damage and human casualties. Of course, Little Toot is eventually redeemed through some heroic deeds. All of the tugboats will love him, as they belt out with glee that Little Toot will go down in history. The segment is grating, including the novelty title song sung by The Andrews Sisters. Aside from some fascinating water effects, there is not much that “Little Toot” offers in the way of animated interest. Otherwise, it is least interesting segment of the film.

The palate-cleanser is “Trees”, a four-minute segment based on Joyce Kilmer’s poem of the same name (music composed by Oscar Rasbach and performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians). Its aesthetic harkens back to a few seconds near the end of the “Ave Maria” in Fantasia, but otherwise “Trees” is distinct from anything else that has appeared in the Disney animated canon. When setting to work on “Trees”, layout artist Ken O’Connor (1941’s Dumbo, 1987’s The Brave Little Toaster) found himself enamored by the concept art, and endeavored to be a faithful to the style set by the concept art as possible. To do this, O’Connor frosted cels before drawing pastel images onto the cel. Before being photographed by the studio’s multiplane camera, each cel was laminated in clear lacquer to prevent the pastel from smudging. Thanks to O’Connor’s experimentation, “Trees”, however fleeting, lays claim to some of the most beautiful animation among all of the package Disney animated features.

“Blame it on the Samba” sees a reunion of Donald Duck and Brazilian parrot José Carioca (Saludos Amigos, 1944’s The Three Caballeros) are walking about, depressed, directionless. Suddenly, they encounter the Aracuan Bird (who debuted in The Three Caballeros), who whisks them inside a cocktail that introduces them to the rhythmic pleasures of the samba. The segment’s title song is based on Ernesto Nazareth’s polka Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho, sung by The Dinning Sisters with adapted English lyrics, and accompanied by organist Ethel Smith (who appears as herself).

“Blame it on the Samba” feels like it should have been featured in either Saludos Amigos or The Three Caballeros – and that was the intention exactly. Intended to appear in Saludos Amigos, “Blame it on the Samba” was animated and completed in time for it to be incorporated in The Three Caballeros. Given Donald Duck’s lust for human women in the second half of the latter movie, “Blame it on the Samba” might have otherwise been a serviceable penultimate number in that film. The segment is an explosion of color, a kick in the rear for a movie that feels much longer than its seven-five-minute runtime might suggest. And yet in a segment for a music genre innovated in Brazil and popularized by Brazilians, the performers and the performance lack any discernible Brazilian influence or roots. This is not samba music. Instead, it is the culmination of what a white American might think samba music sounds like. This unfortunate development probably would have been avoided entirely if “Blame it on the Samba” appeared in those two aforementioned films instead.

“Pecos Bill”, based on the Texan folk hero of the same name, makes reference to American Indians in ghastly ways. Simultaneously, its absurd humor and lack of fidelity to sensible human behavior and physics make it a delight to watch. The segment also boasts the presence of Roy Rogers and the Pioneers (and Rogers’ horse, Trigger). Child actors Luana Patten and Bobby Driscoll, both of whom had just starred in Song of the South (1946), make brief appearances in the segment’s hybrid animation/live-action introduction. Rogers, then contracted to Republic Pictures, was one of the quintessential stars of the singing cowboy subgenre – singing cowboy movies were almost exclusively made by the “Poverty Row” studios including Republic, and they were extremely profitable against their barebones budgets). “Pecos Bill” all begins with the atmospheric, moody “Blue Shadows on the Trail”. “Blue Shadows on the Trail” describes and, through its spare instrumentation, reflects the emptiness and desolation of the American West. It is a beautiful ballad, and could easily be placed in any Western (singing cowboy movies or otherwise).

Once the hybrid animation/live-action introduction concludes, “Pecos Bill” steams forward with comic hyperbole followed by another comic hyperbole. The title song (music by Eliot Daniel, lyrics by Johnny Lange) doubles down on the exaggerations. Those exaggerations include the segment’s constant gunplay – escaping censorship from the Hays Code: a risqué gag that includes Pecos Bill’s guns going off because of love interest Slue Foot Sue. At least Melody Time ends brashly and riotously, but any impressionable children watching will require a discussion from a trusted adult. Its depictions of American Indians and men-women relations are deplorable, but after just over an hour of inconsistent quality, I found myself enjoying “Pecos Bill” more than I imagined.

Shortly after the release of Melody Time, Walt Disney embarked on a three-week cruise to Hawai’i. Walt rarely went vacationing, and he spent these weeks fully concentrating on his family and escaping from the minutiae of managing his studio. Even after returning from Hawai’i, Walt did not spend much time in Burbank. Walt invited animator and fellow train enthusiast Ward Kimball on a trip to the Midwest. Together, they attended the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair, visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and stopped at other locations close to Walt’s childhood in the Midwest. Through the end of 1948, Walt spent more time constructing the train set in his backyard than paying attention to the animation and live-action movies his studio was producing. What seemed like idleness to many (including New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, who believed that Disney was a cinematic genius wasting his time on quixotic projects) was a major inspiration for a draft sketch entitled “Mickey Mouse Park”, dated August 31, 1948.

The package era at Walt Disney Productions (now Walt Disney Animation Studios) was nearing its end. Every film during this run – Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) – faced the same narrative of Walt Disney’s personal indifference to the projects, a lack of direction and motivation among the animators, and audience and critic dissatisfaction when compared to Disney’s Golden Age movies. A return to non-package animated features would be imminent, in spite of Melody Time’s mediocre performance at the box office. The Disney studios would attempt to begin a period of renewal with a tradition that inaugurated their animated canon – with a fairy tale.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[themurphyzone]

Oneshot: Lollipops and Burritos

Summary: How does a studious man with big dreams and a slacker with no regard for the rules become partners? Easy, just make your own rules. 

Spoilers for First Impressions! 

Seriously I loved the Dakavendish in this episode like there’s so much it’s not even funny well it is but you know what I mean! Imma stop rambling now and get on with the story! 

This was it. Today was the big day. On August 26, 2168, Balthazar T. Cavendish would pass his driving test with flying colors and become a full-fledged agent of the Bureau of Time Travel, an agency dedicated to protecting the delicate space-time continuum from evildoers, miscreants, and the shadowy Marmoset League.

Agents had it all: limousines with aquariums, high society parties, stylish tuxes and gorgeous dresses, and most importantly, recognition for their efforts in saving the world.

Cavendish always aimed high in his goals. What was the point of setting them if you didn’t aspire to achieve great things? When he was young, he dreamed of being a famous concert pianist.

Mozart had been invited to play in a royal palace when he was but a young lad. Beethoven composed despite his deafness. With the great composers of history as his inspiration, Cavendish had practiced and practiced until every note, rhythm, and key signature was burned into his mind.

But he was just a small fish in a big pond. He’d competed against children who fiddled before they walked, and the judges overlooked him despite his efforts to play everything as written in the piece.

So he turned to law in the Queen’s court instead. Barristers were fair, thorough, and had extensive knowledge of the precedents regarding a case. He would help the judges deliver justice for the innocent and punishment for the guilty.

Then Queen Elizabeth IV banned him from the royal palace for life because he dared to call her out for her refusal to compensate a florist for the damages that her precious corgi, Mr. Marshmallow Biscuit Longfellow, caused at his shop.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

He refused to go back anyway since Mr. Marshmallow Biscuit Longfellow urinated on his favorite suit and he had no choice but to throw it away.

Then Cavendish went back to school, taking classes such as Theoretical Mathematics of Time Travel and How to Avoid Erasing Yourself from History 101 until he’d earned his Bachelor’s of Science in Time Travel. Then he applied for a job at the BoTT and the rest was history.

Cavendish spent three harrowing months studying for this driving test. An important part of driving was knowing the car’s mechanics after all. 

And when he passed, he’d be a full-fledged agent!

Despite his nerves, he forced himself to concentrate on his electronic manual for this particular model of time travel vehicle. Student drivers used basic 2160 Tempos for easy handling and an auto-pilot to help get them back on track if they accidentally wound up in the Dark Ages. 

But if he clawed his way up to the S-Rank in BoTT, he could earn enough to buy a highly coveted 2167 Chronos Satellite, which was equipped to fly in the lower regions of space while providing a steady oxygen supply, temperature control, and enough safety features so that the driver didn’t accidentally hurtle to earth in a fiery blaze. 

“The Time Delineation gear is for quick trips in local space, allowing you to move three times faster than local time,” Cavendish recited. He knew the book forwards and backwards by now, but last-minute cramming never hurt anyone. 

“Alright, Cavendish,” he said as he stored the manual. Sounding confident was key. “You are on your way to becoming a fully-fledged time agent!  This deserves a lolly!” 

Alright, so he couldn’t resist a black currant lollipop. It was the best flavor on the market in his humble opinion. 

Then the driver’s door suddenly opened, and before he knew it, he was unceremoniously shoved into the passenger seat by some...some hoodlum with the largest afro Cavendish had ever seen in his life. 

The world was a cruel mistress. He spent all this time studying for this moment, and the payoff was being carjacked by some greaser who thought he looked good just cause he wore a leather jacket. 

And to add insult to injury, the jerk wasted his last black currant lollipop. 

Dakota liked food, music, and movies. He was just a simple guy with simple pleasures. While he’d be perfectly happy working in restaurant jobs for the rest of his life, it didn’t pay the bills. 

Companies preferred robot workers these days. More efficient and less costly, they argued. 

Most human servers worked in small family-owned restaurants, but they’d be out of luck in a few months when the patrons inevitably moved onto more snazzy, well-known businesses. 

Two weeks ago, Dakota had the bright idea of dressing up like a robot and seeing how well he could imitate his mechanical co-workers at a popular fast-food joint. It worked for a few hours, but his appetite got the better of him and he was caught stealing chicken strips on camera.

He’d been carted off to jail and charged with impersonating robots without a permit. Humanity had advanced to flying cars and time travel, but they’d never been able to fix the justice system.

On the plus side, the incident had given Dakota the idea to get a permit so he could legally impersonate a robot. 

He discovered the eviction notice after he’d been released from his week-long stay in jail. There just hadn’t been enough money to pay rent and groceries. He could pay rent and starve, or he could pay for food and allow himself to be kicked out. 

It wasn’t a hard choice, nor was it a total loss. Dakota was already a recruit for the BoTT, and they had many private study rooms. They called it a study room, Dakota called it his bedroom, but either way, it was a room. 

And the cafeteria food was delicious. 

The morning of August 26, 2168 was just like any other. Dakota scarfed down his eggs and French toast, topping it off with a glass of orange juice. As he prepared to sweet-talk Penelope the mechanical cafeteria lady into giving him a second batch of eggs, the intercom beeped. 

“New time agent recruits, please select a vehicle for your driving test. If you survive today, you’ll get your first assignment and partners tomorrow. Thank you,” a bored man in some serious need of coffee announced. 

For some reason, the announcement had given him a craving for one of Rita’s burritos in the 21st century. 

“Yo, Penelope, that a new ocular lens on ya? Looks good. Say, how ‘bout holding a few chocolate muffins for me? I’ll pick ‘em up later,” Dakota said, leaning on the counter lazily. 

“My circuitry is heating up,” Penelope monotoned. 

Though she had no outward forms of expression, Dakota knew from experience that circuitry heating up was the equivalent of blushing and that she would honor his request.

With everyone scrambling to file last-minute digital work (paper had been completely phased out), the path to the holding bay for student vehicles was clear. 

After a brief round of eenie-meenie-miney-mo, Dakota headed over to the winning vehicle and opened the door, which thankfully wasn’t locked. 

“Slide over, stretch. I need a ride,” Dakota said as he shoved the driver—a tall man with ginger hair and thick-rimmed glasses—aside and made himself comfortable. 

“Wait a minute, who are you?” the other man asked indignantly. His accent was overly posh like one of those fake Brits on TV. He held a purple lollipop in his outstretched hand, and Dakota snatched it up, much to the other man’s dismay.

He was kinda funny actually, so Dakota decided to name him Stretch. 

“Is this for me? Thanks!” Dakota exclaimed as he stuck the lollipop in his mouth. Something to suck on for the road couldn’t hurt. 

Then an extremely bitter flavor exploded across his tongue, and Dakota yanked the lollipop out of his mouth, exclaiming his disgust for Stretch’s choice in flavor. 

“BLECH! What flavor is this?” Dakota asked in disgust. He was going to need some extra salsa to get rid of this gross flavor that had no right existing. 

“Black currant,” Stretch enunciated carefully, his eyebrows knitting together. 

Yeah, didn’t look like they were getting along, especially if Stretch insisted that black currant was delicious and Dakota’s taste buds were the ones that were in need of major readjustments. 

Dakota threw the disgusting lollipop over his shoulder, its purple juices making the entire thing stick to the window. 

“Not even gonna ask what that is,” Dakota muttered as he started up the car and opened a time portal. 

Good thing he knew a shortcut, because he seriously needed to get that lollipop out of his system. 

Cavendish privately named this man—no, this unwanted hitchhiking selfish lollipop-stealing vagrant ‘Hoodlum’. 

It didn’t matter how loud Cavendish protested. Hoodlum broke every speed limit law in the manual and in all of existence, took bends at two hundred temporometers an hour when the recommended was just fifty, and didn’t check the gauge to make sure they had enough time juice to last the entire trip. 

In the span of thirty seconds, the vehicle was caught in the powerful jaws of a T-rex, used as leverage for a sauropod to reach some high-hanging leaves, and battered by an angry Triceratops. 

By the time Hoodlum finally got them to the safety of paved 21st-century streets, the time vehicle had been battered and bruised to the point of being a miracle that it functioned. 

“What. Was. That?” Cavendish asked flatly, too scared for his life that he couldn’t outwardly express his mortal terror. 

“Shortcut through the Mesozoic,” Hoodlum said casually, as if he hadn’t just taken them on a crazy joyride that would’ve made them another statistic to the list of BoTT recruits who didn’t survive the training. “Come on, let’s get some burritos.” 

Hoodlum pushed the eject button, and Cavendish was thrown onto the asphalt, his glasses knocked askew from impact. 

“Tres burritos, Rita!” Dakota called to a nearby street vendor. “That means three burritos, Rita.” 

This miscreant was actively sabotaging Cavendish’s driving test with his reckless, self-serving ways. Who did he think he was anyway? Cavendish’s anger boiled to a breaking point. He was sick and tired of being tossed around like a ragdoll caught in the whimsical fantasies of a child who’d never grown up. 

“GREAT GRABKNACKLES! YOU RISKED OUR LIVES FOR A LOUSY BURRITO?” Cavendish stormed up to Hoodlum, pointing an accusing finger in his face. Cavendish ignored the dirty looks Hoodlum and Rita threw his way. 

Any sane person would know perfectly well that burritos did not supersede basic self-preservation. 

“No, no. I risked our lives for an amazing burrito, so good it only exists in this time and place,” Hoodlum retorted. “You want nachos with yours?” 

Cavendish scowled and folded his arms. He would never sink low enough to accept food from Hoodlum. “You would make a terrible partner,” Cavendish snapped, pointedly turning his back to this scoundrel. 

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t asking,” Hoodlum replied. 

That was the only sensible thing he’d said all day. 

Stretch didn’t want a burrito. 

Fine, whatever. Dakota tried, at least. Though who in their right mind would turn down an amazing burrito? Literally, an Amazing Burrito. It was right on the sign. 

Rita quietly excused herself, not wanting to be part of the awkwardness that permeated the air as Dakota ate and Stretch grumbled. 

Stretch seemed to have two speeds: Buzzkill and Even More Buzzkill. 

Really, hadn’t this guy ever heard of fun in his life? 

“It’s in the manual. Page 9, Paragraph 15, Line 5. ‘A recruit may not use a company vehicle for personal use’,” Stretch quoted. 

Dakota had no desire to open the manual and check it himself, but he was pretty sure the manual didn’t have every individual paragraph and line marked. He almost felt bad for Stretch. He didn’t seem to have much of a social life if he memorized everything in that dusty old knickknack. 

“THERE ARE RULES, MAN!” Stretch yelled, shoving the manual in Dakota’s face. 

For a stickler, Stretch had no qualms about invading personal space and breaking rules on basic politeness. 

Dakota had to give the man a point. 

“I know, I just choose not to follow them,” Dakota proudly admitted. Rules never did anything for him, so why should he have to obey some stupid list? 

“When we get back to our own time, I will be reporting you to the proper authorities,” Stretch said pompously, puffing out his chest in a pitiful attempt to be authoritative. 

Really, his spaceman suit was working against him in that regard. It looked more ridiculous than anything. 

Besides, the authorities never could make charges stick for long. Robots were so easy to bribe with spare nuts and bolts. 

“Not everything’s in that manual. Sometimes you gotta improvise when the unexpected happens-” a strange whooshing noise caught Dakota’s attention, and he craned his neck to see a torrent of water carrying a battered school bus with a rocket sticking out of its roof and—were those kids being dragged behind on a broken back door?

“-like that! Those kids need help!” Dakota shouted, tossing his burrito aside as he leaped out of his seat. “Come on, let’s roll!” 

He wasn’t sure how those kids wound up in such a precarious situation, but their bus driver was endangering their lives and not even slowing down so he had to do something! 

As he darted toward the car, he suddenly realized how cool it would be if he could leap over the car hood like some inexplicably awesome action hero. 

He felt like a regular James Bond, like a jerky 1980s movie protagonist whose trumpets bellowed their theme like they were some god descended to earth and-

He felt that solid concrete hurt. 

A lot. 

It all happened so fast. One moment they were locked in a vicious argument, then they saw children in peril (an incredibly strange sort of peril, but they called it peril for a reason), then Hoodlum shouted about rescuing them and wound up faceplanting into the asphalt as he tried to leap over the time vehicle’s hood.

If the situation wasn’t so dire, Cavendish would’ve been more than happy to hold it over Hoodlum’s head as karma. 

Cavendish buckled himself a scant two seconds before Hoodlum gunned the engine, floored the gas pedal, and crashed through a fence without remorse for destroying public property. 

Cavendish found himself not caring that they broke the rules regarding wonton destruction with a time vehicle as outlined on Page 45, Paragraph 6, Lines 3-7. 

Fences could be replaced. Children’s lives could not. 

As they pursued the school bus at a speed that surely couldn’t be safe for any car, much less a near-totaled one, Cavendish caught a glimpse of the panicked expression on Hoodlum’s face. He gripped the wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white as he wildly spun the wheel to avoid oncoming traffic. 

Hoodlum didn’t know these kids. 

But he would still shatter speed limit laws, risk crashing himself, and refuse to adhere to BoTT’s rules about revealing the existence of time travel before it was invented for them. 

Cavendish had a feeling that he sorely misjudged Hoodlum after all. 

The rocket propelled the bus into a river, and the children—dear White Cliffs of Dover how were they even holding on at this point—were getting further away every second. 

“We’re going to lose them!” Cavendish shouted as the bus careened down the opposite fork in the river. 

“Not if I can help it!” Hoodlum yelled, slamming the gas pedal to the floor and pushing their odometer to dangerous levels. 

Cavendish clung to his seat for dear life, an uncomfortable pit of dread settling in his stomach that wasn’t just from being airborne and upside-down. 

His first mission as a time travel agent would not end in tragedy. He’d never forgive himself if it did. 

The moment they landed (right-side up thank goodness) on the opposite bank, the rocket suddenly ignited, pushing the bus and children even further out of their reach. 

“They’re going too fast!” Cavendish bit back a curse. They’d been so close that time, yet the chance of a successful rescue had been snatched from their grip. 

The water churned and swirled uncontrollably, throwing all sorts of flailing aquatic creatures into the air. 

Just their luck, the children and the bus door they’d been riding on went airborne and the rope that tied them to the bus fell away. 

Dakota gritted his teeth, massively frustrated that they’d been so close to getting those kids away from danger but failing every single time. “And now they’re airborne,” he griped.  

“Wait, we’ll use the Time Delineation gear!” Stretch exclaimed. 

Dakota had no idea what Stretch was talking about. They didn’t have time to waste. “The what now?” 

“It’s the Time Delineation gear! It allows you to move three times faster than local time! That’s in the manual!” Stretch exclaimed, pulling a lever through a series of ninety-degree turns. A strange power surrounded the time vehicle, bringing everything to a near-complete standstill while Dakota maintained their rapid speed. 

Water stood still, animals were suspended in their movement, and the children and door hovered in midair without being subject to gravity. 

It was incredible. 

If Stretch hadn’t memorized that manual, neither of them would have known about the Time Delineation gear and the children’s lives would be in even greater jeopardy. 

When all was said and done, maybe Dakota could borrow Stretch’s manual and see if anything else in there would be useful. 

If Stretch was willing to forgive him for the whole burrito thing, that is. 

“Whoo-hoo!” Stretch yelled. “We’re actually driving on water!” 

Huh. So Stretch could smile after all. Who knew? He looked good. 

“Bet that wasn’t in your manual!” Dakota exclaimed. 

He leaned forward, giving the car one last burst of speed before they went airborne a second time. The underside of the bus door hit the windshield, and he and Stretch held the door in place with their fingertips. The two children, a boy with an overly-large backpack and a girl with flaming red hair, had frightened expressions on their faces but seemed physically unharmed. 

How two elementary-age children wound up in this situation, he had no idea.

Stretch pulled the Time Delineation gear back into its previous position with his free hand, and the timeflow went back to normal. 

The rocket finally burned out, thank goodness. 

Driving was harder with just one hand, and Dakota nearly rammed into the back of the stopped school bus in front of the elementary school. He was just glad the student driver cars had excellent brakes. 

The momentum of their sudden stop caused the children to fly off the windshield and into the safety of the bus, the door slamming shut into place behind them. 

Once Dakota and Stretch recovered from nearly hitting the windshield themselves, they sighed in relief. 

The return trip to 2168 had been awkward, to say the least. Whether Hoodlum drove at normal speed because he wanted to or because the poor car suffered enough abuse, Cavendish had no clue. After Hoodlum’s reckless yet heroic driving, Cavendish decided to hold his tongue for once and make plans for the imminent future. 

Cavendish knew he didn’t have the best track record when it came to working with others. Back when he played piano, he never worked well with an accompanist. Too often those sessions devolved into a screaming match over tempo and dynamics. He’d cultivated a reputation for being uptight and obnoxious in the barrister community.

It would be difficult to work with someone he didn’t know, but he supposed he’d manage. They would just be work partners after all. Their work and personal lives would never intersect.

He was just thankful that the vehicle maintenance department didn’t ask too many questions about the battered state of the car. Apparently, many student driving cars didn’t survive the BoTT driving tests and wound up being used for scrap metal to build cheap robots.

The next day, Cavendish was called into Mr. Block’s office to meet his new partner. Cavendish had passed his test with flying colors. He was lucky they scored him based on how alive he was rather than what he did on the road. If anyone thought to check the vehicle records, they would’ve been horrified by what Hoodlum put the car through. And Cavendish would’ve likely been mistaken for an accomplice.

“Okay, let’s see what we got here,” Mr. Block grunted as Cavendish walked into his office. Cavendish’s heart raced, and he wrung his hands while Mr. Block looked over the official document that stated who Cavendish’s new partner would be. “Recruit number 68427, Cavendish. This is your new partner, Vinnie Dakota.” 

A figure stood up from the plush chair in front of Mr. Block’s desk, and Cavendish froze. That afro and leather jacket would forever be burned into his memory.

“Hoo boy,” Hoo-no, his name was Dakota, Cavendish reminded himself. As in North Dakota and South Dakota. Dakota rubbed the back of his head, avoiding Cavendish’s eyes. 

“It’s you!” Cavendish gasped.

Fate sure loved her irony.

But Cavendish derived some satisfaction from knowing this was just as awkward for Dakota as it was for him.

Dakota was completely stunned, his eyes flickering between Cavendish and Mr. Block.

A bubble of anger rose up. How dare Dakota show his face here, how dare he act like he didn’t endanger their lives, how dare he pretend saving two kids was nothing, because that was the most courageous act of foolishness Cavendish had ever seen in his life.

“Wait a minute, do you two know each other?” Mr. Block asked suspiciously as Dakota stared at Cavendish as if expecting a tirade on how he would never work willingly with someone who breaks speed limits just because they couldn’t control their hunger.

Cavendish threatened to report Dakota to the proper authorities, and he was always a man of his word.

“Here it comes,” Dakota muttered, resigned to his fate. 

“I’ll tell you exactly what I know about this man,” Cavendish said. 

There were a million things Stretch could say that would incriminate Dakota right then and there.

Sabotaging a new recruit.

Taking an unauthorized trip through the timestream with a company-owned vehicle.

Using the company-owned vehicle for personal reasons. 

Stealing his favorite lollipop. 

Reckless driving. 

Dakota normally didn’t give a second thought to his rulebreaking, but geez, he was feeling lower than a discarded piece of gum on a leather boot for dragging along an innocent man who could potentially do great things in his future. 

“When someone is in trouble, he’s a good man to have around. Balthazar Cavendish, pleased to make your acquaintance, sir,” Stretch said, extending his hand in a formal greeting. 

Shocked by Stre-Cavendish’s formality and calm but respectful tone, Dakota stared at the offered hand for several tense seconds before finally grasping it in a firm handshake. 

Dakota wasn’t usually forgiven so easily, and Cavendish most definitely struck him as the type to hold a grudge. Still, it beat getting into trouble with the authorities. 

On another note, didn’t he see that old surname on bananas at the grocery store? 

“Pleased as well. And thanks,” Dakota finally managed. 

“Don’t mention it,” Cavendish replied. 

“I won’t,” Dakota grinned. 

“Though I might,” Cavendish said, his eyes narrowing. “Later.” 

Dakota had no doubt that his new partner would indeed follow up on that threat. “I’m sure you will.” 

By this point, their handshake was less of a handshake and more just rhythmically moving their arms up and down together. 

“Whatever. Get out of my office,” Mr. Block snapped.

Unwilling to be on the receiving end of Mr. Block’s wrath on the first day, they hurried out and the door automatically closed behind them.

“So, partner. What kinda mission do ya think they’re gonna send us on?” Dakota asked. They passed by a secretary’s desk, and Dakota discreetly snagged a cotton candy lollipop from the jar left conveniently on the side. 

“Well, I believe they’d start us off with reviewing old cases,” Cavendish mused. “It would help us learn the patterns, see which areas of time require more of a presence, and help us catch the perpetrators who dare mess with the planet and its inhabitants. Which would include evil scientists bent on misusing the field of discovery for nefarious purposes, hunters intending to swipe the most valuable objects in history, and worst of all-” 

Cavendish snatched the unwrapped cotton candy lollipop out of Dakota’s hand, stuck it in his mouth, pulled it out, and stuck it on the window behind him in one smooth flourish. 

The man was so smooth at revenge. 

Dakota felt a light tap along his jaw, and belatedly he realized Cavendish had closed his mouth for him because he was too stunned to do it himself. 

“-lollipop thieves who revel in stealing and wasting other people’s favorite food,” Cavendish smirked. “I believe I said I’d mention it later. Don’t look so flabbergasted, man.” 

“You are one petty stickler, Cavendish.” 

“And you are a reckless hoodlum, Dakota.”

“Square.” 

“Carjacker.” 

“Stick up your butt.” 

“Scoundrel.” 

And that’s how Dakota knew it would be the dawn of a beautiful partnership. 

[epistolizer]

Have Yourself A Coronavirus Christmas

In “The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis, one of the hardships Narnia suffers under is that it is always winter but never Christmas.  Imposed upon the realm by the White Witch, the plot point serves as a powerful symbol of the extent to which despots are willing to suppress the basic joys of existence for the purposes of advancing their own agendas at the expense of those that they conspire to rule over.  

For decades now, secularists along with those thinking they know how to organize the details of your life better than you do have conspired to impose any number of policies intended to disabuse the American people of their Christmas habits and more importantly the religious source from which such traditions stem.  Fortunately, the nation has yet to fully yield to this particular assault against their liberties and most have at least been alerted regarding this threat arrayed against our own underlying Western culture.  

Unfortunately, the agents of tyranny are seldom discouraged.  Such operatives are always eager to try new strategies in the attempt to achieve their nefarious objectives.  

Often the issue and policies are formulated in the following manner.  A government authority forbids the erection of Christmas decorations or the holding of a holiday celebration on public property.  But take heart, the discouraged yuletide reveler is admonished, you are perfectly free to commemorate these holidays in any way that you desire in the confines of your own home with whomever it is that you please.  

However, now with the Conornavirus Plague, there exists a pretext by which thoroughgoing statists are unabashed regarding the extent to which assorted government bureaucrats and  agencies intend to intrude into the lives of average Americans to an even more unprecedented level.  

For example, a number of jurisdictions have decreed the number of visitors that that will be allowed into your home, often limiting the number to ten guests.  And what if you allow eleven to fourteen; does it somehow though off the occultc numerology or Masonic geometry?  

If that means cutting off family members from the family during Thanksgiving or Christmas, then so be it.  In the opening days of the New World Order or what is being called “The Great Reset”, the primary disease to be eradicated is not so much a virulent microorganism but rather the notion that you as a free individual should be able to decide for yourself the risks one is willing to take in a world fraught with any number of dangers.  

Like the giddy urchins depicted in propaganda posters erected by dictatorships spanning the ideological spectrum, your joy is no longer to be derived from traditional notions of family or even personal relationships.  Rather that satisfaction is to be derived from knowledge of your dutiful obedience to the regime even if that means those small pleasures that gave life much of its meaning are obliterated in pursuit of collectivist goals and agendas.  After all, to paraphrase the motto of the Psi Corps from the drama “Babylon 5”, “The State is Mother. The State is Father.”    

Just as bad and perhaps even worse than the state telling you how many may enter into your domicile is its functionaries telling you which otherwise perfectly legal activities you may or may not engage in while ensconced within the four walls for which you will no doubt be required to pay increasingly crippling taxes on in the years to come in order to finance economic amelioration efforts to address conditions imposed by the state to not only address the virus but also manipulate the masses into embracing extensive authoritarian intrusion into their lives.  

For example, the state of California views itself as so all-pervasive that, in an act of beneficence, permission has been granted for the occupants of structures (for at this point of existential regulation can one really be considered a “home owner” any longer) and their permitted guests to engage in the basic excretory functions in the confines of the domicile's designated facilities.  

In a number of microtyrannies (a phenomena I foretold the pending of over a decade ago), the assembled are forbidden from singing or chanting.  But it must be asked if the phrases articulated include “Black Lives Matter” or “This is what democracy looks like” (which apparently consists now of riotous mobs looting in the streets or assorted state functionaries imposing an increasing array of arbitrary restrictions in no way authorized by legislative law) does the edict still apply?  After all, one of the main lesson learned in 2020 is that the rules promulgated by the technocratic elites do not have to be obeyed when countermanding them in violent protest advances the revolutionary conception of social justice advocated by the aspiring planetary administrators.  

In the attempt to make these deprivations and impositions supposedly easier to bear, propaganda disseminated through various venues assures that “We are all in this together.”  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  

For example, throughout the 2020 presidential campaign, the rallies at which Trump devotees gathered to bask in their candidates stream of consciousness orations were condemned as “super spreader events” by the most thoroughgoing adherents of Harris/Bidenism.  Yet as soon as the establishment media declared victory for the Democratic ticket, these partisans and their affiliated masses swarmed into the streets ignoring most CDC decrees that have been invoked for months to keep you away from cherished loved ones, recreational pursuits, and houses of worship and are still in place to prevent you from enjoying the simple pleasures of life most fully.  Perennial media whore Charles Schummer was caught with his mask down until he realized a video camera was focused on his shenanigans.  

In Washington DC, residents are discouraged from traveling outside the boundaries of the federal city and those coming into the district from jurisdictions characterized by high rates of Plague are threatened with demands to quarantine.  Yet Mayor Muriel Bowser traveled to Biden's victory announcement in Wilmington, Delaware.  This mere municipal functionary insisted such a pilgrimage was essential even though the office she holds is so insignificant that government there would probably operate more efficiently if it didn't even exist in the first place.  

Relatedly, Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago invoked what listeners of “The Sean Hannity Program” might recall as the Ariana Huffington Doctrine when that perennial airhead responded as to why she was riding around in private jets when the average American was obligated to flagellate themselves over their own use of automobiles and fossil fuels in that these aircraft were going there anyway.  In a voice significantly less sultry than that of the flip-flopping Grecian pundit, Lightfoot excused her own frolicking amongst the Biden throng conspicuously failing to socially distance in that these celebrations would have taken place whether or not she participated.  Mind you, Lightfoot's contempt for the Almighty runs so deep that in the name of the Coronavirus dictatorship that she blocked access to church buildings and threatened to tow the vehicles of assembled parishoners.  

Throughout nearly every level of government across America, pronouncements have been issued threatening punishment ranging from punitive fines to outright jail time for citizens daring to decide for themselves what otherwise perfectly legal and inherently moral activities can take place in their own homes.  Yet when the elected officials that ironically rank among the most strident in insisting upon unwavering obedience within their respective police state fiefdoms are caught violating their own restrictions, the errant such as California Governor Gavin Newson seem to think a rendition of Brenda Lee's “I'm Sorry” with Covid-specific lyrics ought to be enough.  

See if the articulation of such formulations of contriteness prove sufficient when law enforcement operatives are beating down your door to enforce edicts that technically don't even arise to the procedural specifics of law.  These statements on the part of governors such as Gavin Newsom insinuate that the vanguards of the proletariat such as himself should be showered with celebratory gratitude for providing an incarnate example of exactly how we ought not to do in furtherance of the grand experiment of transformative revolution we now find ourselves thrust into.

This holiday season your once-vibrant elderly loved ones will slip deeper into cognitive twilight locked away in their once mentally stimulating assisted living communities now likely not much different than a cross between a prison and a loony bin.  Remember that as the governors yuck it up Etruscan  vomitorium  style ironically maskless and shoulder to shoulder in violation of social distancing decrees with the very hierarchs of the medical establishment bent on turning the nation into a pharmaceutical police state.

By Frederick Meekins

[freelanews-blog]

President Buhari’s visit to Russia and Get takeaways

President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to Nigeria from his four-day visit to the Russian Republic extremely happy with the success of the visit, which outcome is the best response to a few skeptical audiences back home, including a toxic newspaper editorial, “Buhari, Stay On Your Job,” by the Lagos-based Punch Newspaper asking him to not travel. Based upon the results, it must be concluded that the President’s mission was fully accomplished. The definite high point was the decision by the Russians to agree to a government-to-government understanding that would see them return to complete the Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill and commission it. Nigeria had expended well over USD 5 billion without it coming to fruition. When he campaigned early in the year for his re-election, which he won with a majority of four million votes, marking a difference of 14 per cent against his closest rival, President Buhari reiterated an earlier promise to complete Ajaokuta to provide jobs and the steel backbone that the nation’s industrial complex needed so desperately. Could this have been achieved if he had locked himself inside the Aso Rock Villa? The answer is obviously a “no.” Yet, this was not all that he secured. Presidents Buhari and Vladimir Putin opened a “new chapter” in the historically important relationship between the two countries as they both agreed to expand cooperation in energy sector, petroleum and gas, trade and investment, defence and security, mining and steel development, aluminium and phosphate, education and agriculture and a plethora of other issues which, to my pleasure had been spelled out in an elaborate manner by Tonye Princewill, an astute leader in the All Progressives Congress, APC in an opinion article he widely circulated. President Putin noted that the traditional friendly relationship between Nigeria and his country has gained a new momentum, symbolized by a 93 per cent growth in trade between the two nations in 2018, promising that “Russian companies are ready to offer their scientific and technological developments to their African partners, and share their experience of upgrading energy, transport and communications infrastructure.” In President Buhari’s view, this summit was a necessary anchor “to kick start what has been a very cordial and mutually beneficial relationship in past years…there are similarities between Russia’s journey under your leadership (Putin’s) and Nigeria’s aspirations for the future. We can learn a lot from the experiences of Russia’s ongoing reforms of transitioning from an oil dependent economy to a modern, diversified and inclusive economy.” Russia is clearly seeking to reconstruct the important role the country played in its Soviet era. They had traditionally supported African countries in their fights for independence and sought to build industrial infrastructure and develop national economies. In another sense, the focus of the summit on multilateralism, the advocacy for the reform of the United Nations and climate change action is a direct response to Trump era unilateralism. It is noteworthy that Nigeria got everything our delegation asked for. When German Chancellor, Angela Merkel visited President Buhari in Abuja in August last year, she made reference to a pertinent defect in the relationship between Europe and Africa when it comes to the promotion of projects. “When we give you a project, we show you the door to a bank. We tell you to go and obtain financing. The Chinese give you the project, they give you financing. That is something we will have to look at,” she said to President Buhari. Before the Europeans make up their minds on this, the Russians are now having a go at the idea. For every viable project Nigerian officials suggested in the course of this summit, the chances of the financing appeared within sight. It is in the light of this that one of Russia’s leading rail line service providers, MEDPROM indicated their interest in undertaking the 1,400-kilometer Lagos-Calabar rail track that will pass through all the states in the South-South sub-region. The agreement and MoU signed between the NNPC and the Russia’s Lukoil is another spectacular agreement along these lines. Lukoil owns seven refineries and a record turnover of USD 38 billion. The two oil giants will upgrade their commercial relationship to a government-to-government backed partnership, to work together in upstream operations and in revamping Nigeria’s ill-functioning refineries. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari signed for the Nigerian side while Vagit Alekperov, President, signed on behalf of Lukoil. In support of this, President Buhari made clear that he wished to work with Russian businesses to improve the efficiency of our oil and gas sector, giving a strong assurance that his administration will “ensure this initiative is implemented within the shortest possible time.” Of no less significance is the MoU resolving past issues, paving the way for the revival of the rested joint venture between the NNPC and Russia’s gas giants, GASPROM for the development of Nigeria’s enormous gas resources and its infrastructure. In that waggish but poisonous editorial, the newspaper in question raised concerns about terrorism, kidnapping and general insecurity in the country. It asked a question, wondering why the President would travel abroad when there is, in the country, the problem of kidnapping and fire from oil tankers had caused the loss of life and devastation of shops. Yes, these are sad and unwelcome. This is a President who is praised for his prompt response to the Onitsha fire, first by releasing a message of commiseration same evening and thereafter, dispatching the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs on a condolence mission. The minister gave directive on the spot to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA for the immediate deployment of emergency assistance to the Southeast. Either out of ignorance or mischief, the Punch failed to see how important it is for the President to seek international support in tackling home grown terrorists, the Boko Haram, reinforced by 2000 ex-ISIS fighters as disclosed by Mr. Putin. Not only did President Buhari get that needed support to fight Boko Haram terrorists, he got the two countries to cooperate extensively in the strategic fields of defence, civil nuclear energy and in dealing with piracy and oil pipeline vandalism in the Gulf of Guinea. The Nigerian leader also got a deal for the technological upgrade and timely delivery of the balance of seven, out of an existing order for 12 Attack Helicopters. These, and an assortment of military hardware are direly needed by Nigeria to deal with the new wave of crime bedevilling the country. Interestingly, one of the three key themes of the whole conference is security. African states with Russia’s support have, as an outcome, drawn up a regional security architecture that would use new technological solutions to ensure security for cities, securing the borders and creating a buffer against the illegal movement of explosives, weapons, drugs and smuggling to reduce terrorist danger to the continent. Still on security, the Nigeria-Russia Military Technical Agreement that lapsed a few years ago without being renewed will be given due attention by Nigeria. Russia had been ready with her part. President Buhari gave a response to this, saying, “I have directed the Minister of Defence to work with the Ministry of Justice to conclude this matter within the shortest possible time.” The significance of this agreement lies in the fact that it opens the door to the procurement of military hardware, on a government-to-government basis, eliminating middlemen and reducing cost, as well as the training of military personnel, modernization of the armed forces, refurbishment and renewal of infrastructure and equipment, which President Putin said he is ready to assist Nigeria to undertake. The one perennial business and, if you like emotional topic between the two countries is the protracted issue of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, Ikot-Abasi, Akwa-Ibom State. It too, will be resolved. President Buhari announced that he had asked the Ministry of Justice, “to submit a comprehensive report on the UC Russel (the Russian owners of the plant) matter…I want to assure you that the aim of our reforms is to ensure such investments are concluded and actualized in a professional and painless manner.” There are many of our citizens who do not reckon with the fact that this country has a nuclear programme for about 40 years, one however, that has not gone beyond the setting up of research stations. Arising from these discussions, President Putin invited President Buhari to join him in taking the next step in the implementation of the project by commencing the construction of the nuclear power plant. The two Presidents also addressed issues in education and agriculture. Russia said she would give additional scholarships. There are currently 100 Nigerian students studying under her scholarship and so far, 797 students from Nigeria have benefited from scholarships for training in Russia in various academic fields. On agriculture, Russia agreed to support Nigeria in laying a solid foundation for food security. This will partly come through raw materials (phosphate) supply for President Buhari’s very impactful Presidential Fertilizer Initiative that has seen the reopening of dozens of blending plants and the return to work of thousands of employees. Russia, now the world’s largest producer of wheat according to President Putin, will work with Nigeria in growing wheat to meet domestic and market needs. This is in response to President Buhari who made a request to Putin, that “we seek your Government’s support especially in the area of wheat production. Today, Nigeria produces less than one hundred thousand metric tons of wheat locally while our imports are projected to exceed five million tons in 2020. We therefore need your support to bridge the deficit which will create jobs and save our foreign exchange for other important areas like security, defence and infrastructure.” The two leaders also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest, with President Buhari pointedly asking for Russia’s support for Nigeria’s aspiration to assume a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, in the envisaged reform of the UN. Realizing that the relationship between our two countries had suffered the loss of the momentum characteristic of the Soviet era, President Buhari said “to move forward, may I suggest that our countries organize the fifth Joint Commission meeting to review and ratify all the agreements (about 40) contained in the Inter-governmental Nigeria-Russia Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation Protocol of November 11, 2016,” to which his Russian counterpart agreed. For the African continent that been looked at as a potential bright spot in the world economy for a long time, the flurry of summits between the leaders of the major economies of the world and the Heads of African states and government is a clear indication of Africa coming of age. For Nigeria and President Buhari in particular, the Russia-Africa Summit had served the desire the two countries to diversify and further strengthen the bonds of our robust bilateral relations. A solid foundation has indeed been laid for the promotion of the mutually beneficial cooperation between both nations. Read the full article

[caveartfair]

Tintoretto Was the Unsung Hero of the Venetian Renaissance

Jacopo Tintoretto, The Origin of the Milky Way, c. 1576/78. © The National Gallery, London.

In 16th-century Venice, an artistic arms race was underway. A young painter named Tintoretto was striving to establish himself alongside—and perhaps even to eclipse—his rivals. During the Renaissance, Venice was a place where artists worked at the vanguard of painting, incorporating humanist ideas and technical innovations that arrived from Florence and Rome, and outdoing them. Titian, the city’s leading painter, cast a long shadow over the next generation of artists. Meanwhile, Tintoretto’s contemporary Veronese was earning praise for his rich, elaborate compositions. In the midst of this competition, Tintoretto fought to secure the most prestigious commissions from the city’s churches, ducal palaces, and guilds. He also sought to distinguish himself by creating larger and larger paintings. But how to compete with Titian’s refinement, sensuality, and transporting architectural settings, or Veronese’s opulent color?

Last Supper, 1590-1592. Jacopo Tintoretto Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore

The two curators behind a landmark survey of Tintoretto’s work, which marks the 500th anniversary of his birth, hope to show that he offered something quite distinct. Tintoretto’s devotion to the Catholic Church and knack for dramatic storytelling made him “the great painter of religious narrative in the 16th century, who tells the stories of the Bible and the saints with a kind of operatic grandeur,” said Frederick Ilchman, who, along with fellow Tintoretto expert Robert Echols, curated the blockbuster exhibition, set to open at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., next month. Tintoretto also made invaluable contributions to the development of oil painting, forging a rapid painting technique that enabled his hand to keep up with his lofty ambitions.

Venus of Urbino, 1538. Titian Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Lucretia, 1580-1583. Paolo Veronese Legion of Honor

In so doing, Tintoretto advanced a looser, broader brushstroke and a more expressive, direct quality to his paint-handling and compositions—a precedent that the curators see echoed in works by El Greco, Gustave Courbet, and other giants of the art-historical canon. Indeed, the composition of Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas (1656) is based on Tintoretto’s The Washing of the Feet (ca. 1548–49), which Velázquez observed in the Spanish royal collection. “It’s really hard to imagine later painters like Rubens and Delacroix, or Van Gogh for that matter, who loved a rich play of paint and strong, aggressive marks, without Tintoretto as a predecessor,” Ilchman said.

Jacopo Tintoretto, Standing Clothed Man Seen from Behind, c. 1555. © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017. Courtesy of the Royal Collection Trust and the National Gallery of Art.

Figures and Legs (verso), 1575/1580. Jacopo Tintoretto National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Tintoretto was born Jacopo Robusti, the working-class son of a cloth-dyer, or tintore. Unlike many of his Renaissance counterparts, Tintoretto lacked extensive formal training. His 17th-century biographers described him as largely self-taught, save for a brief stint as an apprentice in Titian’s studio. Nor did he possess a natural flair for channeling his artistic vision: Tintoretto “was not a prodigy like Raphael or Pablo Picasso, preternaturally accomplished from an early age,’’ write Echols and Ilchman in the exhibition’s accompanying tome. “He was more like Van Gogh or Jackson Pollock, struggling to harness his raw and often unruly talents.”

What Tintoretto did have was ample experience working alongside fresco and furniture painters, who were “very much at the bottom of the totem pole of Venetian painters,” Echols said. These low-prestige painters, who were often stationed outside in the Piazza San Marco, worked fast and rough. “They would quickly dash off a little landscape scene or a little story to go on a wooden chest. They didn’t strive for the very finished, careful technique that Titian, for example, was doing, or fresco painters of the early 16th century,” Echols explained.

Detail of The Miracle of St. Mark freeing a Slave, 1548. Jacopo Tintoretto Il Museo dell'Accademia, Venice

Tintoretto’s ability to work quickly was matched by his considerable aspirations and energies—even as he associated with the city’s poor, holding onto a working-class nickname while other artists upgraded their names to appear more aristocratic (Veronese, for instance, adopted the name of a noble family, Caliari). Tintoretto’s “impulse toward the gigantic, his overwhelming desire to create enormous paintings that would dominate prominent public places” was fundamental to his identity, according to Echols and Ilchman. Indeed, a playwright once wrote a note to the young Tintoretto, testifying to his largesse: “Your personality is so big despite your small stature that you’re like a single peppercorn that takes over the flavor of a whole dish.”

But Tintoretto’s confidence was not immune to Titian’s daunting influence. It was perhaps due to the artistic challenge the older artist posed on his home turf that the young Tintoretto instead aligned himself with Michelangelo. As Echols and Ilchman demonstrate, Tintoretto specifically quoted some of his compositions and poses, placing an emphasis on the rendering of vigorous male bodies with fabulous, rippling muscles. The curators point to the way in which two seated figures in Tintoretto’s breakout painting, The Miracle of the Slave (1548), echo Michelangelo’s marble statues from the Medici tombs in Florence, a bent wrist evoking that of the artist’s powerful resting figure Dusk (1524–34).

Jacopo Tintoretto, The Forge of Vulcan, 1578. © Photo Archive - Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

The unveiling of Tintoretto’s Miracle in the Scuola Grande di San Marco—one of the city’s charitable guilds—“created a sensation,” launching the artist and “setting a new artistic standard for Venetian painting,” write Echols and Ilchman. But Tintoretto’s real triumph would come later with his cycles for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, 50 canvases depicting the life of Moses and the Virgin Mary—what the curators call Tintoretto’s Sistine Chapel. They note in particular the empathy that the artist displayed for the poor and humble by portraying the apostles with patched clothing in ramshackle settings.

This same humility can also be seen in Tintoretto’s portraits, which are underlined in the National Gallery survey. Among them are two self-portraits, painted at the beginning and end of his career, around 1546–48 and 1588, respectively. They are remarkably direct, showing the artist gazing intently out at viewers with a furrowed brow and slightly rumpled hair. A pared-down emphasis on the subject’s face was unusual for portraits at the time, as were Tintoretto’s loose, visible brushstrokes. While in his self-portraits Titian presented himself as “a patrician, formally posed, luxuriantly dressed,” the curators write, Tintoretto portrayed himself without the window dressing. “This may be the first autonomous self-portrait in European art to leave the touch of the artist so evident, functioning almost as a signature,” Echols and Ilchman explain. “The line that extends to the freely painted self-portraits of Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne starts here.”

Jaco Tintoretto, Self-Portrait, c. 1546/48. Courtesy of The Philadelphia Museum of Art / Art Resource, New York.

Jacopo Tintoretto, Self-Portrait, c. 1588. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, Jean Gilles-Berizzi. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

While Tintoretto’s achievements were considerable, he was, in some ways, “a victim of his own success,” said Echols. In his aggressive pursuit of new commissions, Tintoretto bit off more than he could chew. He consequently employed a large studio, and had numerous followers and imitators who were unable to recreate Tintoretto’s swift, personal technique—but whose paintings are nonetheless often attributed to him. “The result is that there are many paintings all over Venice that are second-tier,” argued Echols, whose dissertation involved weeding out dozens of these misattributions. “And those are the paintings that people generally have in mind when they say they don’t really like Tintoretto.” Shining a spotlight on the very best of his work, they hope to give Tintoretto back his voice—one characterized by a painterly, experimental approach to his medium, an appetite for drama as expressed through the human body, and a deep empathy for his fellow Venetian citizens.

from Artsy News

[sinrau]

Imagine any number of scenarios that come to pass over the next five months or so, just before the next American Presidential election.

Another black man’s killed by the police, triggering an ever bigger wave of protest and riots. Trump uses it as a pretext to declare the martial law he’s already threatened. The election goes on — but scores of minorities don’t get to vote. Trump coasts to an easy victory.

Or maybe Trump loses the election, by a narrow margin. He decides to contest it, mounting every kind of legal challenge he can muster. The nation’s plunged into nail-biting anxiety. The case goes before the Supreme Court — which leans heavily Republican. Who do you think they’ll decide it for?

Or maybe Trump loses the election by a wide margin. But he simply refuses to accede to a peaceful transfer of power. What happens then? The military has to decide whether to throw him out of office. But, as it turns out, Trump still has a loyal enough following amongst generals that the country plunged into the condition so many failed states have been in: the military decides its destiny — and after a period of infighting, its leaders choose Trump, who offers them the most funding, resources, and power.

Or maybe, thanks to a little help from his friends in the Kremlin, Trump “wins,” by a wide margin. One so wide that its flatly implausible. And while pundits debate and the opposition is flabbergasted, everyone sane person knows what’s gone on. The voting machines were hacked, the election quietly taken. The Kremlin really now does run America, in one of history’s grand ironic twists.

Or maybe…Trump just gets re-elected. White Americans still — still — support Trump by a wide enough margin over Biden to make the election a thing of nail-biting uncertainty. They talk a good game — haven’t they always? — but when it comes time to cast their votes, they vote the same way the have they tend to: for their own tribe. Trump gloats and preens. He’s pulled it off. White America’s backed him — maybe with a little disgust, maybe holding their noses — but what does it matter?

How many ways does America get to four more years of the lunatic known as Donald Trump? There are too many to count.

And that brings me a certain conclusion.

America has 150 days left to save its democracy.

Yes, really.

Now, on the one hand, that might be obvious to some of you. On the other hand, it might strike some of you with just the opposite beliefs as implausible.

Let me assure you, then. As someone who’s both lived through social collapses, studied them, and written about them extensively, nothing could be truer than this: America has 150 days.

If Trump gets four more years, American democracy as we know it is dead. Not just American democracy, by the way. But the hope of America ever becoming a modern, functioning society. The idea that America could be a society of free equals. Peace, prosperity, progress, freedom. All these die if Trump gets four more years. They already have, during the last four, haven’t they? What else do soldiers on the streets of American cities tell you?

It did happen here. The first stage — an authoritarian hoping to seize power. He did. The next stage is whether he keeps it. If he does, it usually lasts for life. Control is then transferred to his kids, via his flunkies and cronies. That’s the pattern that authoritarianism almost always follows. Kim Jong Un became Kim Jong Il. Saddam installed Uday and Qusay — Trump has his idiot kids.

America is now becoming an authoritarian state. Camps, bans, raids, cages, purges, soldiers on the streets. That’s been the last four years, up to now. Sadly, most Americans didn’t care very much until that last part — when they saw soldiers in their own streets with machine guns. Wait — shouldn’t literal concentration camps have been a warning that something was wrong? That one day, soon — the bad men would come for you, too, if you refused to join their insane quest for authoritarian power? That’s the problem: America cared too little too late. Now it has just 150 days left.

Let me drive that point home.

Trump has already told you what he wants to do. He’s told you his plan. That plan couldn’t be any clearer.

He threatened to declare martial law, from the steps of a church, no less. That is one thing he hopes to do in the next 150 days. Martial law.

He’s joked about a third term, or never giving up power at all. That is another thing he hopes to do: to cling to power as long as he can.

He’s talked about challenging the election legally, no matter the outcome. That’s another thing he’s going to do: use every legal tactic and maneuver he can to influence, sway, and manipulate whatever results the election comes back with.

He’s talked about who should have the right to vote. That’s another thing he’s going to do. Try to control the patterns of voting in America, restrict the rights of minorities to cast ballots, deter them from voting with every trick in the book.

He’s joked about his kids being in power. That’s another thing he hopes for: the dynastic control of a nation that’s so typical of failed authoritarian states.

I could go on endlessly, but I want you to see the point. America’s not getting this point yet, and it needs to, now if it’s to save its democracy.

This is what authoritarians do. They tell you exactly what they hope to achieve, and how they hope to do it. The problem is that nations don’t often take them seriously, because they can’t imagine the unthinkable. My friends: it’s time to imagine the unthinkable.

Trump has told you exactly what he wants, and how he’s planning to get it. Power for life, for himself and his kids, using any means necessary, right down to martial law.

He’s told you that. The question is why you don’t believe him.

Let’s go back a step in history.

The whole time, America’s problem hasn’t just been Trump, but also America. Trump’s been telling America exactly what he’s going to do. The problem is that either America didn’t take him seriously enough, or didn’t care enough. He said he was going to put bans in place. He did. He said he was going to build his stupid wall. He did. He talked of immigrants and refugees as animals and vermin — his words, not mine — and then he built camps.

Like any good aspiring dictator, Trump’s been telling you exactly what he was going to do.

So why didn’t Americans believe him? They couldn’t think the unthinkable. America, a country of camps, cages, bans, raids, purges…in just four short years? Come on, don’t be ridiculous. I understand that it’s hard to imagine such things. But if you can’t the unthinkable, then the authoritarians win. You must — must — believe them when they promise to do terrible things.

That is the one things authoritarians don’t lie about. They lie about everything else — who’s to blame for the people’s woes (the hated minorities), what kind of leaders they themselves are (perfect and strong, not the kind who pay porn stars hush money), what kind of economy there is (always strong, never broken), and so on. So there’s a kind of paradox that results, a haze that leaves bewildered. Should we believe him when he says he wants to do these absurd, terrible things?

That’s the one truth you must hold on to: authoritarians hope to do what they proclaim, from ethnic cleansing, to having total control of a society, to handing it to their kids. The rest is a Big Lie (those are Hitler’s words, by the way, and one of the things that clued people like me onto the fact that Trump was a real fascist was his love for…Mein Kampf.)

The second thing that authoritarians do is never give up. Trump was defeated in his first attempt at passing a ban — and then, when America had stopped caring, he passed them on his second try. He never gave up on putting kids in camps — they’re still there. He’s never given an inch on any issue, really. Why is that? Because authoritarians have an authoritarian psychology. They don’t give up — they double down. Right on into the abyss.

So when Trump threatens to declare martial law, don’t think that just because he seems to have backed down, he’s not serious. He is, because that is who he is. He will try and try again until he can and does. Think the unthinkable, and think it now.

America’s been in deep, profound denial about what authoritarianism is — and therefore, how to fight it, too. (The link above, by the way, is a piece I wrote about this — almost two years ago.) Authoritarianism isn’t really just one man. It’s a structure of power. The one at the top is the most hateful and violent one. He commands the respect of people like him because he is the one willing to transgress boundaries the most. They’re a little more fearful, a little more hesitant. He’s their “alpha,” the one willing to do what they won’t. Trump still commands an army of people like this, from the peroxide blondes with the crazy eyes to the men in suits with the dead eyes. They are willing to do exactly what he says — and to sacrifice everything for him, too, whether their careers, dignity, future, or families.

Americans don’t understand the grimmest truth of all about authoritarianism. A tiny number of committed enough fanatics can indeed control a whole society. They just have to be violent, loud, and threatening enough. It doesn’t take a huge number of people to control a nation — it never has. A small gang committed to enough violence can rule a whole city. So it is with authoritarians. Saddam, Gadhafi, Kim — needed a few torturers, and a secret police, and a few administrators — a whole society fell under their thumb. Terrorizing a society into submission isn’t a job of large numbers. A relatively small number can do it.

That is what America faces now. Trump and his authoritarian army — terrorizing it into submission. Who are those dudes in riot gear that won’t answer any questions, anyways? What about the Supreme Court — do they really care about democracy? How about the GOP — why don’t they ever seem to rein in this lunatic? How on earth do white voters still prefer Trump? What the? But that is what Trump’s army of authoritarians is made of.

It may not be a big army. And its numbers may be declining. But that is very much besides the point. The question is: is this army violent, loud, and fanatical enough to do the job of trying to terrorize, intimidate, and threaten the rest of America into submission?

And is America now cowed enough to be frightened into giving up its democracy?

On the other side, against Trump’s authoritarian army, we have a last few remaining institutions. Generals who won’t obey Trump. A media that barely functions. An intellectual class that seems bewildered. An opposition who’s barely opposed Trump’s worst abuses of power. The American people, who’ve emerged from their shock for the first time in years, to protest en masse.

All these parties must work together if American democracy is to be saved. They must come together, put their differences aside temporarily, and prepare for the worst. The challenges to the election. The hacking of an election. The martial law. The voter suppression. The incitement of violence. The endless misdirection. All that has to be anticipated, and worked against, together, now. In these next 150 days.

They are going to decide whether America stays a democracy, or becomes something more like, in the best case, Russia, or in the worst, Nazi Germany. A society made of hate, with a dictator, where secret police forces, militarized violence, institutionalized hate, and a grand ideological crusade of brutality led by a madman controls every last aspect of life.

Deep down, you already know what I’m about to tell you next. You’ve thought it a hundred times by now — and then you’ve doubted yourself. Doubt it no longer.

This is America’s last chance.

Umair June 2020

[gagandeepg02]

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Question: Were they addicted to being famous?

Answer: You're gambling. This is their main drive, by far. Being famous includes a few important functions: it gives power to the narcissist, provides him with a constant source of narcissistic supply (admiration, adoration, approval, awe), and fulfills important ego functions. 

The perception that he is thrown back at by the superficial programs, mirrored by those attracted to his celebrity or popularity. He feels alive this way, his own life is confirmed, and he gets a sense of clear boundaries (where the narcissist stops and the world begins).

The pursuit of celebrity is characterized by a set of narcissistic behaviors. The narcissist refrains from doing almost nothing, almost no lines which he hesitates to reach in order to achieve notoriety. There is no such thing as "bad advertising" for him–what matters is being in the eye of the public. 

Because the narcissist enjoys all kinds of attention equally and likes to be feared as much as to be loved, for example–he doesn't mind if what's published about him is wrong ("as long as my name is spelled correctly"). In times with lack of attention, recognition, or visibility, the only bad emotional phases of the narcissist are. 

Then the narcissist feels empty, hollowed out, insignificant, embarrassed, indignant, discriminated against, robbed, ignored, unjustly treated, and so on. At first, he is trying to get attention from continuously shrinking comparison ranges ("supply scale down"). But the sense of cheating is gnawing at his frail self-esteem anyhow. 

The air is coming sooner or later. The insecure schemes, crafts, prepares, conspires, considers, analyzes, synthesizes, and does whatever else is required to regain in the public eye the missed publicity. The more he does not gain the goal group's interest (always the largest)–the more bold, quirky and ridiculous he is. The firm decision to become recognized is turned into a committed movement and then into a panicky cycle of behavior-seeking scrutiny.

The narcissist doesn't really think for ads per se. Narcissists are being manipulated. The narcissist seems to enjoy himself–and, yet, he abhors himself. Similarly, he seems to be involved in becoming a star–because, in fact, he is concerned with his fame's REACTIONS: people are watching him, recognizing him, thinking about him, debating his acts–so he exists. 

The narcissist is about "hunting and gathering" the way people's faces eyes shift once they encounter him. He places himself at the center of attention, or even as a controversial figure. In an attempt to convince himself that he does not sacrifice his reputation, his golden touch, the affection of his social milieu, he continuously and regularly plagues those nearest and dearest to him.

The narcissist is not really an option. He does it if he can become popular as an author–he reads, if he is an entrepreneur. With simplicity and without regret, he moves from one sector to the other because he is present without hesitation in all of them, baring the belief that he will (and deserves) become successful. 

He rates practices, interests, and individuals not according to the enjoyment they offer him, but according to their usefulness: they can or can not make him aware, and to what degree, if so. The narcissist is (not to mention obsessive) one-track oriented. His is an universe of black and white (being popular and celebrated) (being anonymous and robbed of attention).

This is understandable: people like to see other people who are successful. But why do viewers like to see the embarrassment of celebrities?

A. With respect to their audiences, celebrities serve two psychological functions: they provide a fictional storyline (a tale that the audience will embrace and connect with) and they operate as blank screens on which the fans project their visions, aspirations, worries, ambitions, beliefs and wishes (wish fulfillment). The slightest deviation from these established positions triggers immense anger and makes us want to prosecute the "deviating" stars.

But why is that?

When it reveals a celebrity's human weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and frailties, the fan feels humiliated, "cheated," hopeless, and "empty." The fan must develop his moral superiority over the erring and "sinful" star to reassert his self-worth. The fan has to "teach a lesson to the celebrity" and show the celebrity "who is the boss." It is a basic method for security-the grandiosity of narcissism. This places the spectator on a level playing field with the star that is revealed and "naked."

Q. Does this taste of watching a humiliated person have anything to do with the attraction of catastrophes and tragedies?

A. There is always a sadistic joy of vicarious pain and a sick curiosity. The fact that others are spared the pains and tribulations makes the observer feel "selected," secure, and virtuous. The higher stars are rising, the harder they are falling. Anything gratifying is being resisted and imprisoned with hubris.

Q. Would you think the audience places themselves in the reporter's spot (when he asks a celebrity for something embarrassing) and gets revenged in some way?

A. The author "represents" the audience who is "bloodthirsty." Belittling celebrities or watching their arrival is the gladiator rink's modern equivalent. Gossip used to perform the same function and now broadcast live the slaughter of fallen gods by the mass media. There's no question of revenge here - just Schadenfreude, the guilty pleasure of witnessing the penalization of your superiors and "cut to size."

Q. Who are the popular people who love to hate in your country?

A. Israelis like to see diminished, demeaned, and slightly reduced officials and rich businessmen. In Macedonia, where I live, all well-known people are subject to extreme, constructive, and damaging jealousy, irrespective of their vocation. This love-hate interaction towards their heroes, this ambivalence, was related to the child's feelings towards his family through psychodynamic hypotheses of personal development. Yes, most negative emotions we hold about celebrities are moved and displaced.

Q. I would never dare to ask the celebrity journalists any questions. What are individuals like these journalists ' characteristics?

A. Sadistic, arrogant, selfish, empathic, self-righteous, pathologically and destructively envious, with a differing sense of self-worth (possibly a complex of inferiority).

6. Do you think the actors and reporters want to be as famous as they tease the celebrities? Because I almost think this is happening...

A. It's a very thin line. Newsmakers and newsmen and women become stars solely because they are public figures and whatever their real successes may be. A celebrity is known for being well-known. Of course, such journalists are likely to fall prey in an endless and self-perpetuating food chain to up and coming colleagues...

7. I assume both sides are gratified by the fan-celebrity partnership. What are the advantages of the audience and what are the rewards of the celebrities?

A. A celebrity and his fans have an implicit contract. The celebrities are obliged to "act the part," to fulfill their admirers ' expectations, not to deviate from the roles they impose and accept them. The fans are showering the celebrity with adulation in return. They idolatry him or her and make him or her feel omnipotent, immortal, "greater than life," all-knowing, superior, and (unique) sui generis.

What's the issue for the fans?

Above all, the chance to enjoy the fantastic (and typically partly confabulated) life of the star vicariously. The star in fantasyland is their "representative," their extension and conduit, the reification and representation of their deepest desires and the most elusive and culpable fantasies. Many celebrities are role models as well as figures of father / mother. Celebrities are proof of life being more than drab and normal. The stunning-well, great-there are people and they lead charmed lives. There is still hope-this is the message to his fans from the celebrity. 

The inevitable decline and corruption of the celebrity is the contemporary equivalent of medieval morality play. This trajectory-from rags to wealth and fame, and back to rags or worse-shows that order and justice prevail, that hubris is invariably punished, and that the celebrity is no better to his fans, nor is it superior.

8. Why are narcissistic celebrities? Why did this disease come into being?

No one knows whether pathological narcissism is the result of hereditary traits, the sad result of abusive and traumatizing education, or the confluence of both. Often in the same family, with the same set of parents and the same emotional environment-some siblings become malignant narcissists, while others are "normal" perfectly. This certainly indicates some people's genetic predisposition to the development of narcissism.

Although there is no shred of evidence at this stage, it would seem reasonable to assume that the narcissist is born with a propensity to develop narcissistic defenses. They is triggered by neglect or stress in puberty or early adolescence during the formative years. By "abuse" I refer to a spectrum of behaviors that objective the child and treat it as an extension of the caregiver (parent) or as a mere gratification instrument. Dotting and smothering are just as violent as hitting and starving. Yet violence can be washed out by friends, family, or role models of adults.

Not all popular personalities were narcissists. Today, there are definitely some of them.

We are all searching for positive signs from those around us. These indications reinforce our certainty

[i-jayadevi]

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Question: Were they addicted to being famous?

Answer: You're gambling. This is their main drive, by far. Being famous includes a few important functions: it gives power to the narcissist, provides him with a constant source of narcissistic supply (admiration, adoration, approval, awe), and fulfills important ego functions. 

The perception that he is thrown back at by the superficial programs, mirrored by those attracted to his celebrity or popularity. He feels alive this way, his own life is confirmed, and he gets a sense of clear boundaries (where the narcissist stops and the world begins).

The pursuit of celebrity is characterized by a set of narcissistic behaviors. The narcissist refrains from doing almost nothing, almost no lines which he hesitates to reach in order to achieve notoriety. There is no such thing as "bad advertising" for him–what matters is being in the eye of the public. 

Because the narcissist enjoys all kinds of attention equally and likes to be feared as much as to be loved, for example–he doesn't mind if what's published about him is wrong ("as long as my name is spelled correctly"). In times with lack of attention, recognition, or visibility, the only bad emotional phases of the narcissist are. 

Then the narcissist feels empty, hollowed out, insignificant, embarrassed, indignant, discriminated against, robbed, ignored, unjustly treated, and so on. At first, he is trying to get attention from continuously shrinking comparison ranges ("supply scale down"). But the sense of cheating is gnawing at his frail self-esteem anyhow. 

The air is coming sooner or later. The insecure schemes, crafts, prepares, conspires, considers, analyzes, synthesizes, and does whatever else is required to regain in the public eye the missed publicity. The more he does not gain the goal group's interest (always the largest)–the more bold, quirky and ridiculous he is. The firm decision to become recognized is turned into a committed movement and then into a panicky cycle of behavior-seeking scrutiny.

The narcissist doesn't really think for ads per se. Narcissists are being manipulated. The narcissist seems to enjoy himself–and, yet, he abhors himself. Similarly, he seems to be involved in becoming a star–because, in fact, he is concerned with his fame's REACTIONS: people are watching him, recognizing him, thinking about him, debating his acts–so he exists. 

The narcissist is about "hunting and gathering" the way people's faces eyes shift once they encounter him. He places himself at the center of attention, or even as a controversial figure. In an attempt to convince himself that he does not sacrifice his reputation, his golden touch, the affection of his social milieu, he continuously and regularly plagues those nearest and dearest to him.

The narcissist is not really an option. He does it if he can become popular as an author–he reads, if he is an entrepreneur. With simplicity and without regret, he moves from one sector to the other because he is present without hesitation in all of them, baring the belief that he will (and deserves) become successful. 

He rates practices, interests, and individuals not according to the enjoyment they offer him, but according to their usefulness: they can or can not make him aware, and to what degree, if so. The narcissist is (not to mention obsessive) one-track oriented. His is an universe of black and white (being popular and celebrated) (being anonymous and robbed of attention).

This is understandable: people like to see other people who are successful. But why do viewers like to see the embarrassment of celebrities?

A. With respect to their audiences, celebrities serve two psychological functions: they provide a fictional storyline (a tale that the audience will embrace and connect with) and they operate as blank screens on which the fans project their visions, aspirations, worries, ambitions, beliefs and wishes (wish fulfillment). The slightest deviation from these established positions triggers immense anger and makes us want to prosecute the "deviating" stars.

But why is that?

When it reveals a celebrity's human weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and frailties, the fan feels humiliated, "cheated," hopeless, and "empty." The fan must develop his moral superiority over the erring and "sinful" star to reassert his self-worth. The fan has to "teach a lesson to the celebrity" and show the celebrity "who is the boss." It is a basic method for security-the grandiosity of narcissism. This places the spectator on a level playing field with the star that is revealed and "naked."

Q. Does this taste of watching a humiliated person have anything to do with the attraction of catastrophes and tragedies?

A. There is always a sadistic joy of vicarious pain and a sick curiosity. The fact that others are spared the pains and tribulations makes the observer feel "selected," secure, and virtuous. The higher stars are rising, the harder they are falling. Anything gratifying is being resisted and imprisoned with hubris.

Q. Would you think the audience places themselves in the reporter's spot (when he asks a celebrity for something embarrassing) and gets revenged in some way?

A. The author "represents" the audience who is "bloodthirsty." Belittling celebrities or watching their arrival is the gladiator rink's modern equivalent. Gossip used to perform the same function and now broadcast live the slaughter of fallen gods by the mass media. There's no question of revenge here - just Schadenfreude, the guilty pleasure of witnessing the penalization of your superiors and "cut to size."

Q. Who are the popular people who love to hate in your country?

A. Israelis like to see diminished, demeaned, and slightly reduced officials and rich businessmen. In Macedonia, where I live, all well-known people are subject to extreme, constructive, and damaging jealousy, irrespective of their vocation. This love-hate interaction towards their heroes, this ambivalence, was related to the child's feelings towards his family through psychodynamic hypotheses of personal development. Yes, most negative emotions we hold about celebrities are moved and displaced.

Q. I would never dare to ask the celebrity journalists any questions. What are individuals like these journalists ' characteristics?

A. Sadistic, arrogant, selfish, empathic, self-righteous, pathologically and destructively envious, with a differing sense of self-worth (possibly a complex of inferiority).

6. Do you think the actors and reporters want to be as famous as they tease the celebrities? Because I almost think this is happening...

A. It's a very thin line. Newsmakers and newsmen and women become stars solely because they are public figures and whatever their real successes may be. A celebrity is known for being well-known. Of course, such journalists are likely to fall prey in an endless and self-perpetuating food chain to up and coming colleagues...

7. I assume both sides are gratified by the fan-celebrity partnership. What are the advantages of the audience and what are the rewards of the celebrities?

A. A celebrity and his fans have an implicit contract. The celebrities are obliged to "act the part," to fulfill their admirers ' expectations, not to deviate from the roles they impose and accept them. The fans are showering the celebrity with adulation in return. They idolatry him or her and make him or her feel omnipotent, immortal, "greater than life," all-knowing, superior, and (unique) sui generis.

What's the issue for the fans?

Above all, the chance to enjoy the fantastic (and typically partly confabulated) life of the star vicariously. The star in fantasyland is their "representative," their extension and conduit, the reification and representation of their deepest desires and the most elusive and culpable fantasies. Many celebrities are role models as well as figures of father / mother. Celebrities are proof of life being more than drab and normal. The stunning-well, great-there are people and they lead charmed lives. There is still hope-this is the message to his fans from the celebrity. 

The inevitable decline and corruption of the celebrity is the contemporary equivalent of medieval morality play. This trajectory-from rags to wealth and fame, and back to rags or worse-shows that order and justice prevail, that hubris is invariably punished, and that the celebrity is no better to his fans, nor is it superior.

8. Why are narcissistic celebrities? Why did this disease come into being?

No one knows whether pathological narcissism is the result of hereditary traits, the sad result of abusive and traumatizing education, or the confluence of both. Often in the same family, with the same set of parents and the same emotional environment-some siblings become malignant narcissists, while others are "normal" perfectly. This certainly indicates some people's genetic predisposition to the development of narcissism.

Although there is no shred of evidence at this stage, it would seem reasonable to assume that the narcissist is born with a propensity to develop narcissistic defenses. They is triggered by neglect or stress in puberty or early adolescence during the formative years. By "abuse" I refer to a spectrum of behaviors that objective the child and treat it as an extension of the caregiver (parent) or as a mere gratification instrument. Dotting and smothering are just as violent as hitting and starving. Yet violence can be washed out by friends, family, or role models of adults.

Not all popular personalities were narcissists. Today, there are definitely some of them.

We are all searching for positive signs from those around us. These indications reinforce our certainty

source https://www.gyanns.com/2019/11/addiction-for-wealth-and-popularity.html

[mansoormaghfoor]

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Question: Were they addicted to being famous?

Answer: You're gambling. This is their main drive, by far. Being famous includes a few important functions: it gives power to the narcissist, provides him with a constant source of narcissistic supply (admiration, adoration, approval, awe), and fulfills important ego functions. 

The perception that he is thrown back at by the superficial programs, mirrored by those attracted to his celebrity or popularity. He feels alive this way, his own life is confirmed, and he gets a sense of clear boundaries (where the narcissist stops and the world begins).

The pursuit of celebrity is characterized by a set of narcissistic behaviors. The narcissist refrains from doing almost nothing, almost no lines which he hesitates to reach in order to achieve notoriety. There is no such thing as "bad advertising" for him–what matters is being in the eye of the public. 

Because the narcissist enjoys all kinds of attention equally and likes to be feared as much as to be loved, for example–he doesn't mind if what's published about him is wrong ("as long as my name is spelled correctly"). In times with lack of attention, recognition, or visibility, the only bad emotional phases of the narcissist are. 

Then the narcissist feels empty, hollowed out, insignificant, embarrassed, indignant, discriminated against, robbed, ignored, unjustly treated, and so on. At first, he is trying to get attention from continuously shrinking comparison ranges ("supply scale down"). But the sense of cheating is gnawing at his frail self-esteem anyhow. 

The air is coming sooner or later. The insecure schemes, crafts, prepares, conspires, considers, analyzes, synthesizes, and does whatever else is required to regain in the public eye the missed publicity. The more he does not gain the goal group's interest (always the largest)–the more bold, quirky and ridiculous he is. The firm decision to become recognized is turned into a committed movement and then into a panicky cycle of behavior-seeking scrutiny.

The narcissist doesn't really think for ads per se. Narcissists are being manipulated. The narcissist seems to enjoy himself–and, yet, he abhors himself. Similarly, he seems to be involved in becoming a star–because, in fact, he is concerned with his fame's REACTIONS: people are watching him, recognizing him, thinking about him, debating his acts–so he exists. 

The narcissist is about "hunting and gathering" the way people's faces eyes shift once they encounter him. He places himself at the center of attention, or even as a controversial figure. In an attempt to convince himself that he does not sacrifice his reputation, his golden touch, the affection of his social milieu, he continuously and regularly plagues those nearest and dearest to him.

The narcissist is not really an option. He does it if he can become popular as an author–he reads, if he is an entrepreneur. With simplicity and without regret, he moves from one sector to the other because he is present without hesitation in all of them, baring the belief that he will (and deserves) become successful. 

He rates practices, interests, and individuals not according to the enjoyment they offer him, but according to their usefulness: they can or can not make him aware, and to what degree, if so. The narcissist is (not to mention obsessive) one-track oriented. His is an universe of black and white (being popular and celebrated) (being anonymous and robbed of attention).

This is understandable: people like to see other people who are successful. But why do viewers like to see the embarrassment of celebrities?

A. With respect to their audiences, celebrities serve two psychological functions: they provide a fictional storyline (a tale that the audience will embrace and connect with) and they operate as blank screens on which the fans project their visions, aspirations, worries, ambitions, beliefs and wishes (wish fulfillment). The slightest deviation from these established positions triggers immense anger and makes us want to prosecute the "deviating" stars.

But why is that?

When it reveals a celebrity's human weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and frailties, the fan feels humiliated, "cheated," hopeless, and "empty." The fan must develop his moral superiority over the erring and "sinful" star to reassert his self-worth. The fan has to "teach a lesson to the celebrity" and show the celebrity "who is the boss." It is a basic method for security-the grandiosity of narcissism. This places the spectator on a level playing field with the star that is revealed and "naked."

Q. Does this taste of watching a humiliated person have anything to do with the attraction of catastrophes and tragedies?

A. There is always a sadistic joy of vicarious pain and a sick curiosity. The fact that others are spared the pains and tribulations makes the observer feel "selected," secure, and virtuous. The higher stars are rising, the harder they are falling. Anything gratifying is being resisted and imprisoned with hubris.

Q. Would you think the audience places themselves in the reporter's spot (when he asks a celebrity for something embarrassing) and gets revenged in some way?

A. The author "represents" the audience who is "bloodthirsty." Belittling celebrities or watching their arrival is the gladiator rink's modern equivalent. Gossip used to perform the same function and now broadcast live the slaughter of fallen gods by the mass media. There's no question of revenge here - just Schadenfreude, the guilty pleasure of witnessing the penalization of your superiors and "cut to size."

Q. Who are the popular people who love to hate in your country?

A. Israelis like to see diminished, demeaned, and slightly reduced officials and rich businessmen. In Macedonia, where I live, all well-known people are subject to extreme, constructive, and damaging jealousy, irrespective of their vocation. This love-hate interaction towards their heroes, this ambivalence, was related to the child's feelings towards his family through psychodynamic hypotheses of personal development. Yes, most negative emotions we hold about celebrities are moved and displaced.

Q. I would never dare to ask the celebrity journalists any questions. What are individuals like these journalists ' characteristics?

A. Sadistic, arrogant, selfish, empathic, self-righteous, pathologically and destructively envious, with a differing sense of self-worth (possibly a complex of inferiority).

6. Do you think the actors and reporters want to be as famous as they tease the celebrities? Because I almost think this is happening...

A. It's a very thin line. Newsmakers and newsmen and women become stars solely because they are public figures and whatever their real successes may be. A celebrity is known for being well-known. Of course, such journalists are likely to fall prey in an endless and self-perpetuating food chain to up and coming colleagues...

7. I assume both sides are gratified by the fan-celebrity partnership. What are the advantages of the audience and what are the rewards of the celebrities?

A. A celebrity and his fans have an implicit contract. The celebrities are obliged to "act the part," to fulfill their admirers ' expectations, not to deviate from the roles they impose and accept them. The fans are showering the celebrity with adulation in return. They idolatry him or her and make him or her feel omnipotent, immortal, "greater than life," all-knowing, superior, and (unique) sui generis.

What's the issue for the fans?

Above all, the chance to enjoy the fantastic (and typically partly confabulated) life of the star vicariously. The star in fantasyland is their "representative," their extension and conduit, the reification and representation of their deepest desires and the most elusive and culpable fantasies. Many celebrities are role models as well as figures of father / mother. Celebrities are proof of life being more than drab and normal. The stunning-well, great-there are people and they lead charmed lives. There is still hope-this is the message to his fans from the celebrity. 

The inevitable decline and corruption of the celebrity is the contemporary equivalent of medieval morality play. This trajectory-from rags to wealth and fame, and back to rags or worse-shows that order and justice prevail, that hubris is invariably punished, and that the celebrity is no better to his fans, nor is it superior.

8. Why are narcissistic celebrities? Why did this disease come into being?

No one knows whether pathological narcissism is the result of hereditary traits, the sad result of abusive and traumatizing education, or the confluence of both. Often in the same family, with the same set of parents and the same emotional environment-some siblings become malignant narcissists, while others are "normal" perfectly. This certainly indicates some people's genetic predisposition to the development of narcissism.

Although there is no shred of evidence at this stage, it would seem reasonable to assume that the narcissist is born with a propensity to develop narcissistic defenses. They is triggered by neglect or stress in puberty or early adolescence during the formative years. By "abuse" I refer to a spectrum of behaviors that objective the child and treat it as an extension of the caregiver (parent) or as a mere gratification instrument. Dotting and smothering are just as violent as hitting and starving. Yet violence can be washed out by friends, family, or role models of adults.

Not all popular personalities were narcissists. Today, there are definitely some of them.

We are all searching for positive signs from those around us. These indications reinforce our certainty

[jhansikumari]

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Addiction for wealth and popularity

Question: Were they addicted to being famous?

Answer: You're gambling. This is their main drive, by far. Being famous includes a few important functions: it gives power to the narcissist, provides him with a constant source of narcissistic supply (admiration, adoration, approval, awe), and fulfills important ego functions. 

The perception that he is thrown back at by the superficial programs, mirrored by those attracted to his celebrity or popularity. He feels alive this way, his own life is confirmed, and he gets a sense of clear boundaries (where the narcissist stops and the world begins).

The pursuit of celebrity is characterized by a set of narcissistic behaviors. The narcissist refrains from doing almost nothing, almost no lines which he hesitates to reach in order to achieve notoriety. There is no such thing as "bad advertising" for him–what matters is being in the eye of the public. 

Because the narcissist enjoys all kinds of attention equally and likes to be feared as much as to be loved, for example–he doesn't mind if what's published about him is wrong ("as long as my name is spelled correctly"). In times with lack of attention, recognition, or visibility, the only bad emotional phases of the narcissist are. 

Then the narcissist feels empty, hollowed out, insignificant, embarrassed, indignant, discriminated against, robbed, ignored, unjustly treated, and so on. At first, he is trying to get attention from continuously shrinking comparison ranges ("supply scale down"). But the sense of cheating is gnawing at his frail self-esteem anyhow. 

The air is coming sooner or later. The insecure schemes, crafts, prepares, conspires, considers, analyzes, synthesizes, and does whatever else is required to regain in the public eye the missed publicity. The more he does not gain the goal group's interest (always the largest)–the more bold, quirky and ridiculous he is. The firm decision to become recognized is turned into a committed movement and then into a panicky cycle of behavior-seeking scrutiny.

The narcissist doesn't really think for ads per se. Narcissists are being manipulated. The narcissist seems to enjoy himself–and, yet, he abhors himself. Similarly, he seems to be involved in becoming a star–because, in fact, he is concerned with his fame's REACTIONS: people are watching him, recognizing him, thinking about him, debating his acts–so he exists. 

The narcissist is about "hunting and gathering" the way people's faces eyes shift once they encounter him. He places himself at the center of attention, or even as a controversial figure. In an attempt to convince himself that he does not sacrifice his reputation, his golden touch, the affection of his social milieu, he continuously and regularly plagues those nearest and dearest to him.

The narcissist is not really an option. He does it if he can become popular as an author–he reads, if he is an entrepreneur. With simplicity and without regret, he moves from one sector to the other because he is present without hesitation in all of them, baring the belief that he will (and deserves) become successful. 

He rates practices, interests, and individuals not according to the enjoyment they offer him, but according to their usefulness: they can or can not make him aware, and to what degree, if so. The narcissist is (not to mention obsessive) one-track oriented. His is an universe of black and white (being popular and celebrated) (being anonymous and robbed of attention).

This is understandable: people like to see other people who are successful. But why do viewers like to see the embarrassment of celebrities?

A. With respect to their audiences, celebrities serve two psychological functions: they provide a fictional storyline (a tale that the audience will embrace and connect with) and they operate as blank screens on which the fans project their visions, aspirations, worries, ambitions, beliefs and wishes (wish fulfillment). The slightest deviation from these established positions triggers immense anger and makes us want to prosecute the "deviating" stars.

But why is that?

When it reveals a celebrity's human weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and frailties, the fan feels humiliated, "cheated," hopeless, and "empty." The fan must develop his moral superiority over the erring and "sinful" star to reassert his self-worth. The fan has to "teach a lesson to the celebrity" and show the celebrity "who is the boss." It is a basic method for security-the grandiosity of narcissism. This places the spectator on a level playing field with the star that is revealed and "naked."

Q. Does this taste of watching a humiliated person have anything to do with the attraction of catastrophes and tragedies?

A. There is always a sadistic joy of vicarious pain and a sick curiosity. The fact that others are spared the pains and tribulations makes the observer feel "selected," secure, and virtuous. The higher stars are rising, the harder they are falling. Anything gratifying is being resisted and imprisoned with hubris.

Q. Would you think the audience places themselves in the reporter's spot (when he asks a celebrity for something embarrassing) and gets revenged in some way?

A. The author "represents" the audience who is "bloodthirsty." Belittling celebrities or watching their arrival is the gladiator rink's modern equivalent. Gossip used to perform the same function and now broadcast live the slaughter of fallen gods by the mass media. There's no question of revenge here - just Schadenfreude, the guilty pleasure of witnessing the penalization of your superiors and "cut to size."

Q. Who are the popular people who love to hate in your country?

A. Israelis like to see diminished, demeaned, and slightly reduced officials and rich businessmen. In Macedonia, where I live, all well-known people are subject to extreme, constructive, and damaging jealousy, irrespective of their vocation. This love-hate interaction towards their heroes, this ambivalence, was related to the child's feelings towards his family through psychodynamic hypotheses of personal development. Yes, most negative emotions we hold about celebrities are moved and displaced.

Q. I would never dare to ask the celebrity journalists any questions. What are individuals like these journalists ' characteristics?

A. Sadistic, arrogant, selfish, empathic, self-righteous, pathologically and destructively envious, with a differing sense of self-worth (possibly a complex of inferiority).

6. Do you think the actors and reporters want to be as famous as they tease the celebrities? Because I almost think this is happening...

A. It's a very thin line. Newsmakers and newsmen and women become stars solely because they are public figures and whatever their real successes may be. A celebrity is known for being well-known. Of course, such journalists are likely to fall prey in an endless and self-perpetuating food chain to up and coming colleagues...

7. I assume both sides are gratified by the fan-celebrity partnership. What are the advantages of the audience and what are the rewards of the celebrities?

A. A celebrity and his fans have an implicit contract. The celebrities are obliged to "act the part," to fulfill their admirers ' expectations, not to deviate from the roles they impose and accept them. The fans are showering the celebrity with adulation in return. They idolatry him or her and make him or her feel omnipotent, immortal, "greater than life," all-knowing, superior, and (unique) sui generis.

What's the issue for the fans?

Above all, the chance to enjoy the fantastic (and typically partly confabulated) life of the star vicariously. The star in fantasyland is their "representative," their extension and conduit, the reification and representation of their deepest desires and the most elusive and culpable fantasies. Many celebrities are role models as well as figures of father / mother. Celebrities are proof of life being more than drab and normal. The stunning-well, great-there are people and they lead charmed lives. There is still hope-this is the message to his fans from the celebrity. 

The inevitable decline and corruption of the celebrity is the contemporary equivalent of medieval morality play. This trajectory-from rags to wealth and fame, and back to rags or worse-shows that order and justice prevail, that hubris is invariably punished, and that the celebrity is no better to his fans, nor is it superior.

8. Why are narcissistic celebrities? Why did this disease come into being?

No one knows whether pathological narcissism is the result of hereditary traits, the sad result of abusive and traumatizing education, or the confluence of both. Often in the same family, with the same set of parents and the same emotional environment-some siblings become malignant narcissists, while others are "normal" perfectly. This certainly indicates some people's genetic predisposition to the development of narcissism.

Although there is no shred of evidence at this stage, it would seem reasonable to assume that the narcissist is born with a propensity to develop narcissistic defenses. They is triggered by neglect or stress in puberty or early adolescence during the formative years. By "abuse" I refer to a spectrum of behaviors that objective the child and treat it as an extension of the caregiver (parent) or as a mere gratification instrument. Dotting and smothering are just as violent as hitting and starving. Yet violence can be washed out by friends, family, or role models of adults.

Not all popular personalities were narcissists. Today, there are definitely some of them.

We are all searching for positive signs from those around us. These indications reinforce our certainty

[upshotre]

THE TAKEAWAYS FROM PRESIDENT BUHARI’S VISIT TO RUSSIA by Garba Shehu

President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to Nigeria from his four-day visit to the Russian Republic extremely happy with the success of the visit, which outcome is the best response to a few skeptical audiences back home, including a toxic newspaper editorial, “Buhari, Stay On Your Job,” by the Lagos-based Punch Newspaper asking him to not travel. Based upon the results, it must be concluded that the President’s mission was fully accomplished. The definite high point was the decision by the Russians to agree to a government-to-government understanding that would see them return to complete the Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill and commission it. Nigeria had expended well over USD 5 billion without it coming to fruition.     When he campaigned early in the year for his re-election, which he won with a majority of four million votes, marking a difference of 14 per cent against his closest rival, President Buhari reiterated an earlier promise to complete Ajaokuta to provide jobs and the steel backbone that the nation’s industrial complex needed so desperately. Could this have been achieved if he had locked himself inside the Aso Rock Villa? The answer is obviously a “no.”   Yet, this was not all that he secured. Presidents Buhari and Vladimir Putin opened a “new chapter” in the historically important relationship between the two countries as they both agreed to expand cooperation in energy sector, petroleum and gas, trade and investment, defence and security, mining and steel development, aluminium and phosphate, education and agriculture and a plethora of other issues which, to my pleasure had been spelled out in an elaborate manner by Tonye Princewill, an astute leader in the All Progressives Congress, APC in an opinion article he widely circulated.     President Putin noted that the traditional friendly relationship between Nigeria and his country has gained a new momentum, symbolized by a 93 per cent growth in trade between the two nations in 2018, promising that “Russian companies are ready to offer their scientific and technological developments to their African partners, and share their experience of upgrading energy, transport and communications infrastructure.”     In President Buhari’s view, this summit was a necessary anchor “to kick start what has been a very cordial and mutually beneficial relationship in past years…there are similarities between Russia’s journey under your leadership (Putin’s) and Nigeria’s aspirations for the future. We can learn a lot from the experiences of Russia’s ongoing reforms of transitioning from an oil dependent economy to a modern, diversified and inclusive economy.”     Russia is clearly seeking to reconstruct the important role the country played in its Soviet era. They had traditionally supported African countries in their fights for independence and sought to build industrial infrastructure and develop national economies. In another sense, the focus of the summit on multilateralism, the advocacy for the reform of the United Nations and climate change action is a direct response to Trump era unilateralism. It is noteworthy that Nigeria got everything our delegation asked for. When German Chancellor, Angela Merkel visited President Buhari in Abuja in August last year, she made reference to a pertinent defect in the relationship between Europe and Africa when it comes to the promotion of projects. “When we give you a project, we show you the door to a bank. We tell you to go and obtain financing. The Chinese give you the project, they give you financing. That is something we will have to look at,” she said to President Buhari. Before the Europeans make up their minds on this, the Russians are now having a go at the idea. For every viable project Nigerian officials suggested in the course of this summit, the chances of the financing appeared within sight. It is in the light of this that one of Russia’s leading rail line service providers, MEDPROM indicated their interest in undertaking the 1,400-kilometer Lagos-Calabar rail track that will pass through all the states in the South-South sub-region. The agreement and MoU signed between the NNPC and the Russia’s Lukoil is another spectacular agreement along these lines. Lukoil owns seven refineries and a record turnover of USD 38 billion. The two oil giants will upgrade their commercial relationship to a government-to-government backed partnership, to work together in upstream operations and in revamping Nigeria’s ill-functioning refineries. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari signed for the Nigerian side while Vagit Alekperov, President, signed on behalf of Lukoil. In support of this, President Buhari made clear that he wished to work with Russian businesses to improve the efficiency of our oil and gas sector, giving a strong assurance that his administration will “ensure this initiative is implemented within the shortest possible time.” Of no less significance is the MoU resolving past issues, paving the way for the revival of the rested joint venture between the NNPC and Russia’s gas giants, GASPROM for the development of Nigeria’s enormous gas resources and its infrastructure. In that waggish but poisonous editorial, the newspaper in question raised concerns about terrorism, kidnapping and general insecurity in the country. It asked a question, wondering why the President would travel abroad when there is, in the country, the problem of kidnapping and fire from oil tankers had caused the loss of life and devastation of shops. Yes, these are sad and unwelcome. This is a President who is praised for his prompt response to the Onitsha fire, first by releasing a message of commiseration same evening and thereafter, dispatching the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs on a condolence mission. The minister gave directive on the spot to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA for the immediate deployment of emergency assistance to the Southeast. Either out of ignorance or mischief, the Punch failed to see how important it is for the President to seek international support in tackling home grown terrorists, the Boko Haram, reinforced by 2000 ex-ISIS fighters as disclosed by Mr. Putin. Not only did President Buhari get that needed support to fight Boko Haram terrorists, he got the two countries to cooperate extensively in the strategic fields of defence, civil nuclear energy and in dealing with piracy and oil pipeline vandalism in the Gulf of Guinea. The Nigerian leader also got a deal for the technological upgrade and timely delivery of the balance of seven, out of an existing order for 12 Attack Helicopters. These, and an assortment of military hardware are direly needed by Nigeria to deal with the new wave of crime bedevilling the country. Interestingly, one of the three key themes of the whole conference is security. African states with Russia’s support have, as an outcome, drawn up a regional security architecture that would use new technological solutions to ensure security for cities, securing the borders and creating a buffer against the illegal movement of explosives, weapons, drugs and smuggling to reduce terrorist danger to the continent. Still on security, the Nigeria-Russia Military Technical Agreement that lapsed a few years ago without being renewed will be given due attention by Nigeria. Russia had been ready with her part. President Buhari gave a response to this, saying, “I have directed the Minister of Defence to work with the Ministry of Justice to conclude this matter within the shortest possible time.” The significance of this agreement lies in the fact that it opens the door to the procurement of military hardware, on a government-to-government basis, eliminating middlemen and reducing cost, as well as the training of military personnel, modernization of the armed forces, refurbishment and renewal of infrastructure and equipment, which President Putin said he is ready to assist Nigeria to undertake. The one perennial business and, if you like emotional topic between the two countries is the protracted issue of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, Ikot-Abasi, Akwa-Ibom State. It too, will be resolved. President Buhari announced that he had asked the Ministry of Justice, “to submit a comprehensive report on the UC Russel (the Russian owners of the plant) matter…I want to assure you that the aim of our reforms is to ensure such investments are concluded and actualized in a professional and painless manner.” There are many of our citizens who do not reckon with the fact that this country has a nuclear programme for about 40 years, one however, that has not gone beyond the setting up of research stations. Arising from these discussions, President Putin invited President Buhari to join him in taking the next step in the implementation of the project by commencing the construction of the nuclear power plant. The two Presidents also addressed issues in education and agriculture. Russia said she would give additional scholarships. There are currently 100 Nigerian students studying under her scholarship and so far, 797 students from Nigeria have benefited from scholarships for training in Russia in various academic fields. On agriculture, Russia agreed to support Nigeria in laying a solid foundation for food security. This will partly come through raw materials (phosphate) supply for President Buhari’s very impactful Presidential Fertilizer Initiative that has seen the reopening of dozens of blending plants and the return to work of thousands of employees. Russia, now the world’s largest producer of wheat according to President Putin, will work with Nigeria in growing wheat to meet domestic and market needs. This is in response to President Buhari who made a request to Putin, that “we seek your Government’s support especially in the area of wheat production. Today, Nigeria produces less than one hundred thousand metric tons of wheat locally while our imports are projected to exceed five million tons in 2020. We therefore need your support to bridge the deficit which will create jobs and save our foreign exchange for other important areas like security, defence and infrastructure.” The two leaders also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest, with President Buhari pointedly asking for Russia’s support for Nigeria’s aspiration to assume a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, in the envisaged reform of the UN. Realizing that the relationship between our two countries had suffered the loss of the momentum characteristic of the Soviet era, President Buhari said “to move forward, may I suggest that our countries organize the fifth Joint Commission meeting to review and ratify all the agreements (about 40) contained in the Inter-governmental Nigeria-Russia Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation Protocol of November 11, 2016,” to which his Russian counterpart agreed.     For the African continent that been looked at as a potential bright spot in the world economy for a long time, the flurry of summits between the leaders of the major economies of the world and the Heads of African states and government is a clear indication of Africa coming of age.       For Nigeria and President Buhari in particular, the Russia-Africa Summit had served the desire the two countries to diversify and further strengthen the bonds of our robust bilateral relations. A solid foundation has indeed been laid for the promotion of the mutually beneficial cooperation between both nations.     Garba Shehu, is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity Read the full article

[kellydiels]

what's missing from mainstream success formulas detailed in books by Ryan Holiday and Peter Thiel

***

this is from my most recent Sunday Love Letter. If you’d like to subscribe, you can do that here.

***

Right now I'm on a reading jag. I'm reading books waaaaaaaay outside my worldview. It's really useful; and it's not purely a literary counterintelligence exercise. Every thoughtful human might have insight I can learn from. Even an incomprehensibly rich libertarian tech founder/investor who campaigned for the devil might have things they can teach this inclusive feminist culture maker. In other words, I just finished Zero to One by Peter Thiel.

I also read Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday (about how Peter Thiel conspired, successfully, to bankrupt Gawker Media; it's a rollicking good read) and Trust Me, I'm Lying, also by Ryan Holiday. Add to this mix, Anti-Fragile and Skin in The Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and basically I've been bodysnatched, send help.

Here's what's interesting about these books (which seriously, I did learn really useful things from): what's missing. What's not said.

In Thiel's book, for example, he writes a lot about the big thinking and big projects -- the space program that landed a rocket on the moon! -- that created huge technological leaps in our world. He sincerely values miracles (he thinks 'technology' is a synonym for miracle); he values nonconformists and people who've never fit in or been welcome in the mainstream world; he thinks something is systemically broken in the American culture and cultural imagination; he wants to create a culture where we invent things that make our world better. In this way, and in many others, I see so much common ground between my own culture making aspirations, my lefty feminist community members and colleagues, and Thiel. True story.

But when Thiel waves at and celebrates the last 30-40 years of intense, near-miraculous technological progress and productivity, he's leaving out something crucial -- and it’s what Anand Giridharadas writes back into the conversation in his book Winners Take All (it's really good, read it!):

"All around us in America is the clank-clank-clank of the new...But these novelties have failed to translate into broadly shared progress and the betterment of our overall civilization." (1)

'...three and a half decades worth of wondrous, head-spinning change [have had] zero impact on the average pay of 117 million Americans." (4)

"...the system -- in America and around the world -- has been organized to siphon the gains from innovation upward, such that the fortunes of the world's billionaires now grow at more than double the pace of everyone else's..." (4)

I can see why people who mostly read books about success and business and The Good Life that are authored by the "winners" of our cultural lottery/system could sincerely be seduced by them.

I was -- and I came equipped with a systemic, counter-cultural, feminist analysis!

[side rant: Holiday's reading list on his website is revealing and disheartening. He’s underestimating himself and starving himself of the innovative insights that come from people who literally live outside the box. Someone please get him to pledge to only read people of colour and women for a year, stat. It seems to me that he’s intellectually receptive and a conscience-driven person (the early editions of Trust Me, I’m Lying notwithstanding) and reading excellence far outside his life experience and worldview would take his insights to a brilliant new level --

Holiday also spends some time in Conspiracy scanning the books in Thiel's home to get an understanding of his influences; it's an admission that who we're reading is what we end up thinking --

It’s so bizarre to me that so many of the people who value innovation and who *know* it comes from the weirdos and nonconformists overlook or devalue (often simply by overlooking) the intense brilliance that’s found in counterculturals and people with marginalized identities -- wisdom and insights that come from being on the margins and seeing our culture and social patterns in a way that people in the centre otherwise can’t]

It's really easy to not think about things that aren't being thought about.

One of the tasks of culture-makers, I think, is to constantly assess what brilliance and wisdom is missing -- and needed -- and reinsert who and what's missing back into our cultural narratives.

Because often what's missing is us.

And all the insights and wisdom we have to offer.

Absent from the narrative about how wondrous business is and the amazing things start-up culture has created in our world is a discussion of how sexual abuse and harassment and systematic exclusion are a feature, not a bug, of that same culture -- and how those biases get built right into the algorithms and platforms of the tech (miracles!) we're supposed to worship. (The book Technically Wrong is brilliant on this front.) Thiel, for example, talks about the traits of successful founder's but doesn't connect the dots to how a founder's bias (this is A Thing: Founder's Bias) gets built into the very products that are now structuring our brave new world.

That's because Thiel’s unit of analysis is business and founders. 

He may be concerned with The Common Good, and probably I'm a fawn prancing in a meadow with butterflies because I believe he sincerely is concerned with it, but because his unit of analysis is founders/business, he's looking at the conditions they require to create their version of that good...so that it facilitates more of their particular type of Common Good manufacturing.

It's a tragic, deeply political, narrowing of scope. You can't see what you're not looking for.

Ryan Holiday does this, too, in Trust Me, I'm Lying.

I have such a complicated imaginary relationship with Ryan Holiday. Again, this could be me frolicking in meadows with talking rabbits and charming insects, but I sincerely believe that he's grown and matured and is anguished by the state of our media and our culture -- part of which his book played a role in devolving (his most recent version of TMIL makes his regret pretty explicit). A few years ago, however, I hated this book and, by extension, him. I saw a twenty-something white man who lacked an understanding of social inequity and consequences publishing and profiting from a manual on how to manufacture outrage and manipulate the media. I saw that as a tutorial on how to manipulate people and our society. Which it is.

[Side rant: Using manipulative, disempowering tactics to influence the audience in order to sell shit is everything I oppose in my own work on The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand. So I have super strong feelings about this book. And Launch by Jeff Walker. Even though I have no doubt Walker's a lovely person, I think the encouragement to use mental triggers against consumers is profoundly damaging to people and our larger cultural context; I also think it conditions the sellers and entrepreneurs to dehumanize other people in the name of profit. Which cannot be good for us.}

The book carried a warning, sure but it felt like Machiavelli’s disengenous warning about The Prince (Holiday references the same warning in Conspiracy so perhaps I’m correct to connect the dots). Back to my point. Holiday seemed to be warning us that media is corrupt and the system by which journalism functions needs to be fixed...but what that does, helpfully for his profile and the book’s sales, is justify deliberate media manipulation, not correct it.

His logic appeared to me to go like this: no, you don't have to feel bad about manipulating a broken system. It's corrupt. So go ahead and exploit those weakness for profit and pleasure.

The villain in Holiday's book was the corrupt media. By making it a villain, no one has to feel bad about whatever bad things they do to the villain.

Making the media system the focus of the book conveniently erases who gets hurt by wanton media manipulation: us.

Holiday's book basically helps its readers not feel bad about profiting from fuckery and deliberately fucking with their end user.

You know, people. Our society. Our democracy that NEEDS the fourth estate.

By leaving media consumers -- us, the general public, our society and our democracy -- out of the book and out of the equation, and focusing on ‘the media’ as a villain, his blueprint and tactics seem savvy and achievable. Though outrageous, the apparent do-able-ness of his advice (in the earlier editions of his book) is a function of what's left out of the book: the real victims. The damage it inflicts on people and our society.

Women in corporate spaces, for example, are acutely aware of how many women are not at the boardroom table (or on the reading list. Ahem). When my biracial daughters walk into a room, they count how many people of colour are present. How many white people or men do that? Does Ryan Holiday? Or Peter Thiel?

(I didn't scan for textual or physical absences until recently. I'm a person of a mostly dominant identity. I've rarely had to.)

When we don't account for what and who are missing, it's easy to get seduced by rah-rah-cis(!)-boom-bah narratives and formulas for success and want to replicate them.

It's really easy to get dazzled by the superhuman feats of invention -- PayPal! Tesla! Space-X! Facebook! -- and notice and celebrate the way they're tangibly reconfiguring the world and creating huge amounts of value (capital) and totally fail to miss the fact that this is not shifting the material conditions of most humans.

All the money and capital being created in the USA by start-ups-cum-institutions did not increase the salaries of most Americans. It did not improve our democracies or the quality or safety of our public spaces. (Temple and church and school shootings. Police shootings of unarmed black people. Pipe bombs being mailed to political figures in the weeks before an election.) Knowing how to manipulate the media for fun and profit did not improve the quality or strength of our fourth estate. Instead, it contributed to a context in which the president of the United States can declare war on the media -- a pillar of democracy -- and the 'truth' becomes whatever ranks highest on Google's first page.

All of this to say: definitely read outside your experience and world view AND read every context, every room, every group, every book (and book list) for who and what is missing. It changes everything.

It makes our tactics and formulas and reflections for creating cultural change better.

And I think that's what we need to truly make a better world, for all of us.

***

this is from my most recent Sunday Love Letter. If you’d like to subscribe, you can do that here.

***

[perceptionsofsociety-blog]

The Rot beneath Baltimore’s Glitter: A Discussion of Racial Representations in The Wire

Television, as a form of media, is incredibly impactful. As of 2009, 99% of all American households owned at least one television, whereas 66% of American homes owned three or more televisions (Isaacs, 2010). Americans fifteen and older, on average, spent 2.8 hours a day watching television (Isaacs, 2010). Since the invention of television and the advent of mass-media in the post-war era of the 1950s, television has become an increasingly central aspect to the American home, a device which supplies entertainment, news or information through reflections, reports or messages upon our society. As of July 2016, white-Caucasians made up around 73% of the American population, with African Americans being the largest racial minority, amounting to 13.3% of the population (United States Census Bureau, 2017). This paper assesses the inclusion, representation or misrepresentation of racial minorities, particularly African Americans in television dramas; specifically, The Wire. Media has become such an enormous component of American society, and thus, this paper investigates how minorities are permitted to participate in this growing industry.

This paper hypothesises that media, due to its incredible influence in the modern age, has the potential to advertise, demonstrate and lend support to minority groups whom would otherwise suffer under the subjugation of majority groups. Firstly, this paper will discuss how at face-value, The Wire could be perceived to grossly misrepresent the African American experience through its inclusion and heavy implementation of black characters filling cast-categories, such as: occupational roles (drug dealers), negatively personal characteristics (violent, sinful) and maintaining a low-achieving status (‘at the bottom’, or existing below the poverty line). These essentially allude to a mass-generalisation and misconstruction of the black experience in millennial America and highlight The Wire as a shamefully stereotypical and naïve production (Punyanunt-Carter, 2008). Nonetheless, through a utilisation of the cultural approach to The Wire, this paper intends to discuss the wholly redeeming qualities of the production in terms of racial-representations in the media. Through character and setting analysis of Omar and the urban-grit of Baltimore, this paper will continue to discuss how “the show might be the first major television serial which engaged so extensively with African American society while trying to avoid being identified as being about race” (Huffington Post, 2017). Through a critique of this program’s alleged tendency to stereotypically portray the black experience, compared to an in-depth cultural approach into its reception by black audiences and its homage to black tradition in America, this paper seeks to reach a conclusion upon media’s relationship to race through a close analysis of The Wire.

The Wire has initially been lambasted by several critical reviews for its basic interpretation and portrayal of racial minorities in type-cast formats. This paper will initially investigate the reasonings and any evidence for the misrepresentation of African Americans through their fulfilment of occupational roles, negative personal characteristics or maintenance of low-achieving status (Punyanunt-Carter, 2008). The basic assumption behind these accusation is that the repetitive casting of African Americans in these formats is not only degrading, it also limits their performance potential on screen by establishing a ‘glass ceiling’, and potentially, through observation and the cultivation theory, audiences of The Wire may begin to apply these stereotypical representations to African Americans in their real and immediate worlds, resulting in unfair and unpractical stigma. African Americans, through these factors, can appear the victim of othering, stereotyping, exclusion and assimilation (Punyanunt-Carter, 2008). Through textual analysis of The Wire and critical support, this initial section will discuss the potential failings of The Wire in terms of racial representation. Negative personality characteristics are immediately recognisable in Avon Barksdale, one of the most powerful drug dealers in Baltimore, he runs the Barksdale Organization ruthlessly, accepting nothing less than absolute power: the viewer is first introduced to Barksdale in Orlando’s Strip Club in Season 1, Episode 1. The camera pans from the ground up, framing Barksdale as if he were sitting atop a throne, misogynistically degrading the women dancing below his balcony. Barksdale’s later outrage over the foul of one of his basketball players in Game Day, S1 E9, personifies him as aggressive, ruthless and seriously lethal- he seems to possess no beneficial traits. His dialogue with the referee of the game is as follows:

Avon Barksdale: Yo ref, yo ref, yo ref... what the fuck? The boy was fouled, clear, straight up... how you going to not call that?  Referee: Look, if you want I can put time back on the clock and replay it, I don't want any trouble, okay...  Proposition Joe Stewart: Ain't going to be no trouble over no ball...  Avon Barksdale: Man, you supposed to be the ref, right? Why don't you stand up for your fuckin' self, you pussy! You can't just let any ol' motherfucking nigga get in your face... understand? Proposition Joe Stewart: We cool?  Avon Barksdale: Yeah, we cool baby, you tell your people to come up here to the park Saturday at noon. Of course, you come on the West Side again, without a ball, I'm a light your ass up. 

(Simon, Wes t, Doman, Faison, Gillen, Lovejoy, Peters, 2008)

Barksdale: "I'm a light your ass up..." Game Day, S1 E9

The dialogue is coarse, vulgar, and only seems to reaffirm prevalent stereotypes in the media that black men are type-cast as not only gangsters, but aggressive. Whilst Avon Barksdale’s aggressive and coarse personality reflects poorly upon the black experience within social communities, his role as a dictating drug kingpin only fuels his proverbial phrases and linguistic clichés. The Wire falls short of opening the floor to adequate and level racial representation by casting predominantly African American men in drug-lord roles (Punyanunt-Carter, 2008). Barksdale’s role, in addition to the linguistic tropes offered to him through his scripted dialogue, entirely contribute to the establishment of rigid, racially-cast, stereotypical character representations in the narrative. Other black actors fulfil roles such as ‘the corner-boy’, ‘the man’, ‘the junkie’, and ‘the snitch’ (Coulouma, 2012), without room for adaptation or transfer. Furthermore, Barksdale admits no intention to progress, thus enacting a maintenance of low status, energy and charisma, all of which reflect badly and untruthfully upon the 13% African American minority within America trying earnestly to stand out against the persevering Caucasian majority (Punyanunt-Carter, 2008). Whilst conversing with his second-in-command, Stringer, Barksdale admits a reluctance to ‘change’, stating in Homecoming, S3 E6:

Stringer: "We could run more than corners"

Avon: "- Like business men?"

Avon "I ain't no suit-wearin’ businessman like you…you know? I’m just a gangsta, I suppose…and I want my corners"

(Simon, West, Doman, Faison, Gillen, Lovejoy, Peters, 2008).

Barksdale: "I like my corners..." Homecoming, S3 E6 The Wire

One must ask then, or consider, the effects of these representations or of the strict categorization of African Americans within the criteria outlined by Punyanunt-Carter (2008). These representations ultimately allude to a stereotypical depiction of the African American community, and individual figures prominent or evident within it. Stereotypes are, ultimately, “beliefs, opinions and representations concerning a given social group and its members. As fixed images in the collective imagination, they filter our perception of reality, disenabling our ability to effectively comprehend and categorize incidents around us” (Barthes, Roland, Paris, Seuil, 1970, found in (Coulouma, 2012) p. 46.). Due to their function as fixed parameters which we can use to reach instantaneous judgement on social communities, stereotypes can come between the process of effective identification. This is especially detrimental in cases such as The Wire, where characters are portrayed uniquely, but due to their vernacular language or actions, they appear to stereotypically represent an entire community.

The prevalence of stereotypes can prevent the true recognition or formulation of distinct identities. This conflicting tension between stereotypes and the desire for identification are paramount through Season 1 of The Wire through the Barksdale’s organisation which establishes a strictly codified gangster milieu. Cellphones are disallowed, only lieutenants are permitted pagers, and only then their identity is reduced to a number for anonymity in case of police wire-taps. These prevailing stereotypes, a lack of individualism and a fulfilment of racially typical roles in The Wire create a larger sense of exclusion, othering and alienation amidst the African American community whereby black aspiring actors, in real life, experience problems with glass ceilings, as later discussed through Idris Elba. These representations can occasionally impede upon people’s perceptions of the African American community at large. The wider implications of these prevailing stereotypes and racial type-cast roles supplied to African American men, such as the drug dealer, king pin, junkie and so forth can really limit the professional advancement of black men in the acting world. These fictional roles can have implications on real lives. Idris Elba, a British actor cast as Stringer in The Wire, discusses his casting as a lieutenant to a Baltimore kingpin as actually an advancement in terms of the roles himself, and other black actors are normally used to.

The Guardian reports that “Elba had to move to the US having seen a glass ceiling for black actors in Britain, himself saying ‘I was very close to hitting my forehead on it’, the actor argues that he was never going to be given a lead roles if he stayed in Britain, where he would have been trapped playing ‘best friends’ and ‘cop sidekick’ parts” (The Guardian, 2016). Elba has continued to fulfil lead roles in popular television dramas such as Luther (BBC), indicating a potential advancement in racial type-cast roles in response to his performance as Stringer in The Wire. Nonetheless, these advancements feel seemingly futile if the essence of stereotypical roles remain: racial roles require diversity if strong currents of change for the black community are ever to be channelled, and stereotypes consequentially broken. The danger of stereotypes and the observation of these by predominantly white audiences can be explained through The Dynamics of the Cultivation Process (Gerbner, 1976). Following the process of the Cultivation Theory, audiences whom watch more hours of television than others may likely ‘cultivate’ the information they observe on screen and apply them to their real lives. In the case of The Wire, due to the constant images of African American crime and delinquency, audience members may be led to believe ridiculous notions that “every black male is most likely a criminal” due to their heavy exposure to stereotypical or misrepresentative media messages (Davie, 2010), an effect which can lead to seriously long-term and damaging impacts on interracial relationships in American communities.

Clearly, there is evidence and an argument for The Wire’s misrepresentation of the African American community and an active endorsement of common stereotypes which have real potential to limit black acting potential or cause harm to said community. In contradiction to the prior argument, however, The Wire does not completely rely upon black characters being involved in drug use and distribution: throughout the duration of the show’s five seasons, both white and black characters contribute to Baltimore’s decline. The second season, for example, focalised on the notion that the drugs corrupting the city were in-fact coming from a group of powerful, white Europeans (Singal, 2010). This paper previously used the Cultivation Approach to criticise The Wire, whereas now, the Cultural Approach will be used to defend it. The Wire, through its depiction of African Americans, arguably contains many uniting representations which defy stereotypes and provide strength: Barksdale’s gang seemingly wear a uniform on ‘the streets’, showing they belong somewhere and represent something. Essentially, “culture is simply what human beings produce and the means by which we preserve what we have produced. The building blocks of culture falls roughly into three forms: physical, social and attitudinal” (Ott & Mack 2014 p. 52).

The following argument seeks to explore whether The Wire has the potential to represent, preserve, and memorialize African American culture. Physical culture, for example, is evident through the mannerisms and approach of black characters in The Wire. The clothes worn by Barksdale: leather jackets and printed bandannas, were for many years items of individuality amidst the black community, as Civil Rights groups such as the Black Panthers adopted uniforms to march for independence amidst a racially, Caucasian-dominant America. Many black audiences would recognise these as symbols of African American culture, and to interpret them as symbols of stereotyping could come down to a split in opinion (Ebony, 2015). Applying these physical forms of culture to society results in a celebration of social culture- we can learn more about a particular society through the individual aspects of physical culture embedded within it (Ott & Mack 2014). In many ways, the existence of drugs in African American culture is a form of memorialization for many within the community- the 1980s crack epidemic was a terrible crisis which affected black communities particularly hard, so to forget or push this notion from memory acts as both a sign of disregard and disrespect. The Wire, in many ways, memorializes and showcases the urban struggles many African Americans were forced to endure during the turn of the century. The final form of culture is attitudinal: our customs, laws and traditions reflect ways of understanding the world (Ott & Mack 2014). We can attitudinally reflect upon our approach to black customs and artefacts as discussed within physical and social cultural parameters.

From these elements of physical and social cultures gleaned from The Wire, we can distinguish the black experience from the white, and learn how in fact as a collective culture African Americans embraced what many perceived as stereotypes to be points of cultural identification. Aside from acting as a potential means of cultural exploration or promotion, The Wire also does not try to present racial lines or experiences as they were not: indeed, “in Baltimore, there is rot beneath the glitter” (Schmoke, The Guardian, 2008). Schmoke, the mayor of Baltimore in 1987, writing for The Guardian in 2008, discusses The Wire’s exposition of the reality of the ‘true’ Baltimore. Schmoke discusses that “the creators of the show…are trying to convey a message about many cities, not just Baltimore”. There is a certain importance in honestly facing up to the fact that American cities are imperfect, and representing them in such a way through television dramas is not so much incorrect on behalf of producers or characters, as it is authentic. Schmoke finalises his comments by declaring that “most will recognise that until there are improvements in national drug control policy, the war on drugs on the streets of Baltimore will yield no final victories. That is a reality that is conveyed in The Wire” (Schmoke, The Guardian, 2008). The Wire is not trying to be something it cannot be; in many ways it is an authentic homage to the struggles of the black experience within seriously neglected American cities at the turn of the century- an interpretation worlds different from that of stereotyping, othering and exclusion.

The Wire can be argued from two very separate camps. At base level, yes it depicts African American men, woman and children in what could be perceived to be stereotypically-cast racial roles. Whether they are stereotypical or not, evidence shows that through the consecutive casting of these roles, aspiring African American actors indeed begin to struggle with elements of diversity: they are soon formatted and appropriated into type-cast roles, which prove difficult to breach and thus limit room for professional manoeuvrability or progression. Furthermore, through the cultivation approach to media studies, it is possible to explain how stigma and unfair prejudices are routinely attached to African American communities in our society on a day-to-day basis. If audiences routinely watch black crime and delinquency in a popular, prime-time television drama, it is quite likely their predispositions of real-life African Americans will be affected too. Nonetheless, The Wire undeniably holds wider implications in the larger picture. It is not a black-exhibitionist program, nor an attack on African American society: white Europeans are hailed as criminals within the show too, and despite black roles appearing stereotypical, actors like Idris Elba finally achieved the break they needed through the program through their casting in a leading role, which thus helped carve the way for professional careers. In order to break the constrictive notions which can become attached when considering media and race, I feel there needs to be not only more diversity within media spheres but also a celebration and promotion of racial roles, whenever and in whatever form those roles take place.

[technitoon-blog]

The Office Concerns of an Abuse Survivor

bolestné Shortly following a new staff started off at a local insurance policy corporation, the veteran staff members associates agreed that he was "really great" and "would go out of his way for you." They knew practically nothing about what determined these behaviors in his place of work nor the fact that he subconsciously viewed it as his household-of-origin. The floor floor serves as the basis on which all other people in a making rest. So, as well, does a person's upbringing-apart from that it becomes the foundation on which his lifestyle rests. If it has entailed abuse, dysfunction, or even alcoholism, it is weak and can simply crumble, usually demanding a individual to compensate for it with inflated and often practically scripted behavioral characteristics other individuals are unsuccessful to comprehend. He sees the globe the way no other individuals do. This foundation frequently calls for a particular person to camouflage his deficiencies by portraying an picture opposite to that which he feels or thinks about himself. He could, for illustration, be perceived as becoming outwardly welcoming and effortlessly acquiring alongside with other people, but inwardly he churns with dread and insecurity, participating in silent conflicts with other folks as he chews on the points they do that retrigger his personal untolerated ones. Insecurity, fear of errors, an incapacity to carry out the features for which he believes he is incapable, and internal staff conflicts might spark regular and spontaneous career resignations. Conversely, this continual will need to mask these insecure features can rework a person into the tremendous-worker, as he acts out his childhood require to obey and comply with every rule and that's why show his functionality and self-worth by volunteering for tasks others avoid, overworking and -attaining, folks- and boss-satisfying, functioning extra time with or without added payment, assuming greater tasks, and even using perform home, in the process turning out to be the quintessential "firm person" with no others ever understanding his motivations. Ironically, this efficiency and loyalty might guide to at any time-increased positions for which he is not emotionally geared up, creating him to compensate for and cover up the more and more terrified thoughts with even increased determination and exertion. In their excessive, these endeavors can substitute his nonexistent persona right up until it becomes his personality, as he is reworked from a human becoming to a human doing. Most of his misbeliefs about his inadequacies result from his regularly replayed important guardian voices, which echo the real, but seldom content reception of his achievements in the course of his upbringing. Like a computer system, his mind can only return what has been downloaded into it. Lengthy striped of boundaries at home, he is simply utilised and exploited by coworkers and supervisors alike. As a target cultivated by his upbringing, he can be taken advantage of and is aware of no other implies of survival. If his steps and responses could be voiced, they would very likely say, "I am significantly less than you, not worthy, and flawed. So do what at any time you would like and use me nevertheless you see match. I'll in no way protest or complain. This is what I'm utilised to." But, unless he has started restoration or remedy, he is ironically not likely to be in touch with this voice or even fully grasp why he submits himself to these using situations. Aside from the fact that he has been so cultivated, he subconsciously sights these men and women as existing-time representatives of previous-time moms and dads who were never glad with what he did. The much more, in simple fact, that he submits to these habits, the significantly less worthy he feels, only supporting his misbelief. Very similar workplace incidents unknowingly regress him to his childhood when he was powerless and his moms and dads had been perceived as flawless and incapable of mistake, making the essential misbelief that any mistreatment of him was because of to his own shortcomings and not their possess. To compensate for this dysfunctional and most most likely abusive upbringing, he adopted nearly scripted roles, which he may possibly subconsciously continue to act out in his work venue, as the only thought methods of survival. The 1st of these is "hero," whose origin and reason are most likely the most difficult to decipher, due to the fact he turns into the "ideal particular person," performing in accordance to the manual-recommended restrictions. Without a doubt, he could characterize the common by which some others can only aspire. He is impartial, desires no 1, is frequently the a single others consult about techniques, overachieves, and is flawlessly trustworthy and liable, thus masking the inferior and insecure thoughts that motivate him. Because the latest to his emotions is little much more than a trickle, he turns on the juice to the successful aspect of him as if it have been a gushing hearth hose, unsuccessfully attempting to substitute one particular with the other. Skating on thin ice, he tries to do everything in a best manner till his pursuits become the equivalent of his self-worthy of. But any error might shatter this fleeting emotion. This function immersion, on top of that, could be the totality of his daily life. Whilst some others may carry out inside of business specified parameters to earn their paychecks, for instance, they most probable also have family members and other actions to whom and to which they return in the evening. The hero may possibly not. Riddled with childhood-originating resentment, the "scapegoat"-the next purpose-was developed by the man or woman who was continuously compelled to accept the blame and burden his parents or even other siblings would not, hence persuading him to just take obligation for the errors or infractions of other folks now. So acclimated is he to carrying the body weight of them, in truth, that he may subconsciously make the circumstantial catalysts which impose the burdens on him, enabling him to act out his a great number of related childhood episodes and then lament about their unfairness and injustice. Even though the scapegoat passively plots his childhood reenactments, the "lost youngster"-the 3rd role-silently slinks from them, as he had for the duration of his developmental a long time, now barely present. Perceived as an unnamed, personality-devoid silhouette--whose sort, at occasions, could seem minor a lot more than the shadow it displays on the wall and just as dimensionless--his id may be reduced to minor much more than, "What is his name?" Unfortunately, he is recognized by his absence or recognition. His nonexistent existence typically reflects how he feels about himself within. "Chortle, clown, laugh" can be used to describe the fourth purpose, the "comedian" or "clown," but, in each instances, that laughter is most likely the veil that camouflages the person's inner disappointment. Tapping into his spontaneous ability to locate humor in most conditions and entertain his coworkers, the kid-turned-adult comedian turns lemons into lemonade for other folks, reworking particular inside unhappiness into exterior pleasure for them, enabling him, in the method, to attain a perceived amount of safety by weaving a net of acceptance around him. These 4 roles, all adopted as protection mechanisms from childhood threat, evolve into a lifetime of survival features aimed at self-protection, due to the fact the individual once once more subconsciously views the entire world as an extension of the one particular established in his residence-or-origin, forcing him to pave a path with the methods that proved safe for him. Therein lies the factors powering an abuse survivor's habits in adulthood and the problems he provides to the workplace-his nearly programmed, but unchallenged perception that the grownup earth is a transplant of his childhood 1, leaving him fearful and hypervigilant of father or mother-resembling and -retriggering authority figures. Irrespective of his ostensibly bonding qualities and functions, this kind of as his perception of humor, socializing at lunch, and keeping the same or equivalent-degree titles as his coworkers, he continuously feels as if he is not element of them, as if he had been on the exterior seeking in, due to the fact bodily existence does not always ameliorate or change psychological absence and isolation. A individual can, in fact, be in a place with a dozen or far more other individuals and nevertheless really feel by itself, due to the fact his distrust of them renders it hard to hook up with them on a social and that's why soul degree. In fact, sensing a person's distance and emotional disconnection, other folks may possibly exclude him from right after-perform or weekend social engagements, as if he silently conveys his lack of want to be part of them, but this can ironically depart him hurt and additional solidify his misbelief that he is not worthy of their friendship. Gathered, but unresolved childhood infractions, abuses, and traumas can retrigger and rekindle at work venues, as persons and incidents replay in the person's head, progressively "eliminating" him from the present and immersing him in his earlier, his mirror neuron-saved tapes attempting to persuade him that the surroundings and people in it are not protected and somehow detrimental to him. So effective can these unfavorable thoughts and fears grow to be, in actuality, that they could in the end regulate him till he either releases them by implies of spontaneous anger outbursts or resigns. This, in essence, is an expression of the classic adult-baby dichotomy, as the previous requirements to be aspect of the planet, operating as a mature particular person, functioning, and earning income, even though the latter, mired in the internally fleeing inner little one, seeks protection devoid of problem for the monetary indicates to support him. Both are motivated by the need to endure, but on distinct levels and from age divergent views. Simply because of constantly replaying traumas in an abusive survivor's head, he can neither question for assist nor defend his steps, and is often subconsciously lowered to the powerless and confused kid that spawned his first debilitation. Nothing is more terrorizing than a personal confrontation with another, due to the fact it transports him back to the a great number of-and, most most likely, hazardous-ones he by now endured. In the course of that powerlessness, in addition, he was under no circumstances perceived as having been on the proper or triumphing side. Paradoxically, when these a individual is appointed to positions of management and superiority as an grownup, it provides a degree of basic safety for him, considering that it elevates him to the outstanding or winning part the moment represented by his abuser. Alternatively of getting belittled and overpowered as a little one, he now feels that he can exert these outcomes on some others, and hence feels much better and safer. In reality, this variety of person, to higher or lesser degree, can be classified as the usually-labeled "management freak," mainly because he grew up in a chaotic atmosphere exactly where deficiency of manage led to his detriment and he now strives to get back it with such a part at his job. In essence, he employs the identical misdirected system his abusive moms and dads did at his position of work. Conversely, when he does not suppose this sort of a part, and is therefore psychologically regressed to the interior baby stance, he is decreased to using what ever arrives his way, no matter if it be extra features, duties, or duties that are not necessarily paired with improved compensation, because he feels way too unworthy to refuse them. Ironically, they may signify an intangible "profit," which most most likely only exists for him-particularly, proportionately assuming more of a workload transforms him into somebody who is favored, who is viewed as an ally, escalating his diploma of security. This conclusion is more logical than it may well very first show up to be, considering that abused little ones feel that they are noticed more as enemies than "good friends" to their dad and mom-that is, people who somehow get in the way, are burdensome, and not always needed. Propelled by this kind of unaccepting primary caregivers down a path toward perfection in his duties-all in an try to compensate for his "imperfections" and elusively get that seldom presented adore--he may well translate this dynamic to the workplace, finishing work, features, and studies in a exact and complete method, and then anticipating, but failing to observe, very similar functionality in his coworkers. Eventually adopting the very same intolerance for their shortcomings as his mothers and fathers did for his, he only re-sparks the cycle in his personal daily life, if he has not currently carried out so with his possess kids at house. This condition could evolve until eventually it produces the workaholic, or the particular person who replaces his self-well worth with accomplishment- and financial-value. As an abyss devoid of positive emotions, he finds it tough to extract joy from friendships and associations, and his immersion into function enables him to stay away from inspecting his unexpressed hurts. His get the job done natural environment may be far more of an extension of his household environment than imagined, as the occupation hopper, frequently in search of new work venues for the ostensible reason of landing "that excellent task," may subconsciously be in lookup of "that perfect house"-or the 1 he in no way had, provided that he can believe in the "relatives member" workers residing in it.

[12thfebruary-blog1]

The Office Worries of an Abuse Survivor

náklady na pohřeb Shortly following a new worker started at a community insurance policy company, the veteran workers customers agreed that he was "really nice" and "would go out of his way for you." They knew nothing at all about what inspired these behaviors in his office nor the truth that he subconsciously seen it as his household-of-origin. The floor ground serves as the foundation on which all others in a creating relaxation. So, also, does a person's upbringing-except that it turns into the basis on which his lifestyle rests. If it has entailed abuse, dysfunction, or even alcoholism, it is weak and can effortlessly crumble, usually requiring a human being to compensate for it with inflated and sometimes almost scripted behavioral traits other individuals are unsuccessful to comprehend. He sees the planet the way no other individuals do. This basis often demands a man or woman to camouflage his deficiencies by portraying an graphic opposite to that which he feels or thinks about himself. He could, for instance, be perceived as becoming outwardly helpful and easily receiving together with others, but inwardly he churns with anxiety and insecurity, partaking in silent conflicts with others as he chews on the issues they do that retrigger his very own untolerated ones. Insecurity, worry of mistakes, an inability to perform the features for which he thinks he is incapable, and internal employee conflicts could spark regular and spontaneous work resignations. Conversely, this continual need to mask these insecure elements can completely transform a human being into the super-worker, as he functions out his childhood need to obey and comply with just about every rule and hence establish his capacity and self-worthy of by volunteering for initiatives other individuals prevent, overworking and -obtaining, people- and boss-satisfying, doing work time beyond regulation with or with no extra compensation, assuming improved tasks, and even taking perform home, in the process getting to be the quintessential "firm male" with no other individuals ever knowing his motivations. Ironically, this overall performance and loyalty may well guide to ever-increased positions for which he is not emotionally geared up, causing him to compensate for and deal with up the increasingly terrified feelings with even increased dedication and energy. In their excessive, these endeavors can change his nonexistent temperament until it becomes his personality, as he is transformed from a human staying to a human executing. Most of his misbeliefs about his inadequacies result from his frequently replayed essential guardian voices, which echo the real, but seldom happy reception of his achievements during his upbringing. Like a personal computer, his brain can only return what has been downloaded into it. Lengthy striped of boundaries at household, he is easily employed and exploited by coworkers and supervisors alike. As a target cultivated by his upbringing, he can be taken advantage of and knows no other suggests of survival. If his steps and responses could be voiced, they would most likely say, "I'm considerably less than you, not deserving, and flawed. So do what at any time you desire and use me however you see healthy. I am going to by no means protest or complain. This is what I am utilised to." But, until he has begun recovery or remedy, he is ironically not likely to be in touch with this voice or even recognize why he submits himself to this kind of working with situations. Apart from the actuality that he has been so cultivated, he subconsciously sights these folks as present-time representatives of previous-time mother and father who were being never glad with what he did. The additional, in reality, that he submits to these habits, the a lot less worthy he feels, only supporting his misbelief. Equivalent workplace incidents unknowingly regress him to his childhood when he was powerless and his parents were being perceived as flawless and incapable of mistake, creating the fundamental misbelief that any mistreatment of him was due to his possess shortcomings and not their personal. To compensate for this dysfunctional and most most likely abusive upbringing, he adopted virtually scripted roles, which he may subconsciously proceed to act out in his work location, as the only believed procedures of survival. The initial of these is "hero," whose origin and purpose are perhaps the most tough to decipher, given that he will become the "best person," doing according to the guide-recommended rules. Without a doubt, he could represent the standard by which other individuals can only aspire. He is impartial, demands no just one, is usually the one other people seek advice from about treatments, overachieves, and is flawlessly dependable and liable, as a result masking the inferior and insecure emotions that motivate him. Considering that the existing to his thoughts is small additional than a trickle, he turns on the juice to the effective aspect of him as if it ended up a gushing hearth hose, unsuccessfully making an attempt to substitute one with the other. Skating on slim ice, he attempts to do every little thing in a best fashion till his pursuits develop into the equivalent of his self-really worth. But any error may shatter this fleeting experience. This operate immersion, in addition, may well be the totality of his lifetime. Even though some others might carry out within business specified parameters to receive their paychecks, for example, they most very likely also have family members and other activities to whom and to which they return in the night. The hero may well not. Riddled with childhood-originating resentment, the "scapegoat"-the next function-was created by the person who was continuously pressured to settle for the blame and load his parents or even other siblings would not, consequently persuading him to take accountability for the errors or infractions of other folks now. So acclimated is he to carrying the fat of them, in fact, that he may subconsciously make the circumstantial catalysts which impose the burdens on him, enabling him to act out his numerous very similar childhood episodes and then lament about their unfairness and injustice. Whilst the scapegoat passively plots his childhood reenactments, the "lost youngster"-the 3rd position-silently slinks from them, as he experienced throughout his developmental years, now scarcely present. Perceived as an unnamed, temperament-devoid silhouette--whose kind, at times, might look minor far more than the shadow it reflects on the wall and just as dimensionless--his identification could be diminished to small more than, "What is his identify?" Sadly, he is identified by his absence or recognition. His nonexistent existence often demonstrates how he feels about himself inside. "Chuckle, clown, chuckle" can be applied to explain the fourth part, the "comedian" or "clown," but, in both situations, that laughter is most probably the veil that camouflages the person's inside sadness. Tapping into his spontaneous potential to uncover humor in most circumstances and entertain his coworkers, the baby-turned-adult comedian turns lemons into lemonade for other people, transforming personal internal unhappiness into external pleasure for them, enabling him, in the approach, to achieve a perceived amount of protection by weaving a world-wide-web of acceptance all around him. These 4 roles, all adopted as defense mechanisms from childhood hazard, evolve into a life time of survival characteristics aimed at self-safety, because the person once again subconsciously views the globe as an extension of the one set up in his home-or-origin, forcing him to pave a path with the techniques that proved risk-free for him. Therein lies the factors powering an abuse survivor's actions in adulthood and the anxieties he provides to the office-his just about programmed, but unchallenged perception that the adult entire world is a transplant of his childhood a single, leaving him fearful and hypervigilant of guardian-resembling and -retriggering authority figures. Regardless of his ostensibly bonding qualities and pursuits, this sort of as his sense of humor, socializing at lunch, and holding the very same or comparable-degree titles as his coworkers, he frequently feels as if he is not component of them, as if he had been on the outdoors hunting in, since physical existence does not automatically ameliorate or substitute emotional absence and isolation. A individual can, in truth, be in a place with a dozen or far more other individuals and however truly feel by itself, since his distrust of them renders it challenging to hook up with them on a social and hence soul level. Certainly, sensing a person's distance and emotional disconnection, other folks may exclude him from right after-work or weekend social engagements, as if he silently conveys his absence of motivation to join them, but this can ironically go away him harm and further solidify his misbelief that he is not worthy of their friendship. Accrued, but unresolved childhood infractions, abuses, and traumas can retrigger and rekindle at employment venues, as individuals and incidents replay in the person's thoughts, progressively "eradicating" him from the present and immersing him in his previous, his mirror neuron-stored tapes making an attempt to convince him that the atmosphere and those in it are not risk-free and by some means detrimental to him. So effective can these unfavorable feelings and fears become, in simple fact, that they may possibly in the end handle him until eventually he either releases them by implies of spontaneous anger outbursts or resigns. This, in essence, is an expression of the classic adult-little one dichotomy, as the former requirements to be aspect of the planet, functioning as a mature man or woman, performing, and earning funds, even though the latter, mired in the internally fleeing interior kid, seeks security with out problem for the financial signifies to guidance him. Equally are motivated by the will need to endure, but on diverse stages and from age divergent views. Simply because of regularly replaying traumas in an abusive survivor's head, he can neither ask for aid nor protect his steps, and is generally subconsciously reduced to the powerless and overcome baby that spawned his first debilitation. Nothing is additional terrorizing than a private confrontation with another, given that it transports him back again to the a great number of-and, most very likely, damaging-kinds he currently endured. Throughout that powerlessness, on top of that, he was never ever perceived as having been on the right or triumphing side. Paradoxically, when these a particular person is appointed to positions of handle and superiority as an adult, it offers a degree of basic safety for him, since it elevates him to the remarkable or winning position when represented by his abuser. Instead of currently being belittled and overpowered as a baby, he now feels that he can exert these consequences on other folks, and as a result feels more powerful and safer. In fact, this type of human being, to larger or lesser diploma, can be categorized as the generally-labeled "handle freak," because he grew up in a chaotic surroundings where lack of handle led to his detriment and he now strives to get back it with this kind of a purpose at his task. In essence, he employs the same misdirected method his abusive dad and mom did at his position of work. Conversely, when he does not suppose this sort of a position, and is thus psychologically regressed to the inner baby stance, he is decreased to using what ever comes his way, no matter whether it be further features, obligations, or duties that are not essentially paired with improved payment, mainly because he feels far too unworthy to refuse them. Ironically, they may possibly signify an intangible "profit," which most very likely only exists for him-specifically, proportionately assuming more of a workload transforms him into somebody who is favored, who is considered as an ally, raising his diploma of protection. This conclusion is much more reasonable than it may possibly initially surface to be, considering that abused kids believe that that they are seen much more as enemies than "friends" to their mothers and fathers-that is, people who by some means get in the way, are burdensome, and not always wished. Propelled by these kinds of unaccepting main caregivers down a route towards perfection in his duties-all in an endeavor to compensate for his "imperfections" and elusively achieve that seldom furnished appreciate--he may well translate this dynamic to the workplace, finishing employment, features, and stories in a exact and complete method, and then expecting, but failing to be aware, comparable performance in his coworkers. In the long run adopting the very same intolerance for their shortcomings as his parents did for his, he only re-sparks the cycle in his very own lifestyle, if he has not previously performed so with his very own children at house. This predicament may evolve right up until it makes the workaholic, or the particular person who replaces his self-really worth with achievement- and financial-worthy of. As an abyss devoid of positive thoughts, he finds it difficult to extract joy from friendships and interactions, and his immersion into operate enables him to prevent examining his unexpressed hurts. His function environment could be more of an extension of his house atmosphere than imagined, as the job hopper, regularly in search of new employment venues for the ostensible cause of landing "that perfect occupation," might subconsciously be in look for of "that ideal household"-or the one he in no way had, offered that he can rely on the "family members member" personnel residing in it.