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Wednesday, August 26, 2015





A Cautionary Political Tale to the American Public: 
“The Morton Downey Jr. Story” –The Meteoric Rise of Shock/Shlock/ Reality TV on CNN [Magnolia Films].
During a casual Saturday evening meal of turkey [and cranberry sauce], my friend, the hostess, started an effortless conversation which spun off from Donald Trump’s triumphant gathering in Mobile, Alabama.

 The guests, consisting of former Vietnam Veterans and their spouses, agreed that Trump was skyrocketing through the presidential race like a meteorite that hopefully would not burn out before the election. My hostess, an extremely well-versed reader and former health professional, started talking about someone that I had heard about but really did not know much about: Morton Downey Jr.

The table was silent as she described in her usual logical manner how Morton Downey Jr reminded her of Donald Trump and some other political narcissists whose personality pre-empts any consideration for substantive discussion of policy. She then added that CNN was replaying the film underwritten by Magnolia Films entitled, “Evocateur” which portrayed the beginning of Downey’s rise as the “King of Shock/Shlock Reality TV”.
As I watched the unnecessarily long film, replete with annoying commercials, I became quite disturbed by what I was witnessing. Morton Downey Jr, the son of a famous Irish tenor/ film star, tried his whole life to attain the fame and notoriety of his father. However, the son chose a path based on completely inflated narcissism, lies, deceptions and ‘in your face anger’.
For the most part, his TV producers who had facilitated Morton’s meteoric rise in the TV ratings aided and abetted what they euphemistically called a ‘Shock TV Personality’; eager to encourage the narrative that outside of the TV set, Morton was a decent kind man who loved his family. Yet like most hucksters, be they on TV or in politics, their persona becomes the message [Marshal McLuhan].

In the case of Morton, his persona knew no bounds of reality. He affiliated with other sociopaths of any color or message, including the obese Al Sharpton, after he had performed his greatest scam involving a black teenager who claimed she was raped and sodomized by white boys. Of course, Sharpton and Downey knew this was a lie. However, both of them used this tragic case as ‘ratings booster’. 
Sound familiar?
Ironically we see pictures of Morton Downey Jr consorting with a very young Donald Trump at one of his palatial condominiums, Trump Towers in NYC. Whether the producers of the Magnolia film had intended to make this association between a young Trump and a decaying Downey intentionally is up for conjecture. After seeing Evocateur, I decide to write this blog as a cautionary tale to my readers and others that the self-inflated narcissist, be it a business man or politician, can distort any semblance of a rational narrative by simply acting boorish and inappropriately.
Downey and Trump understand all too well that politics and TV shows are literally entertainment where ‘shock and shlock’ created by any side of the political spectrum will override any attempt at a rational, fair give-and-take discussion on any matters of state.

Back in 1976, the brilliant screenwriter, Paddy Chayefsky, wrote the foreboding Academy Award film “Network”. This film delineates the cynical use of TV for increasing ratings by showing the blended evolution of reality and reality shows. He predicted that real terrorist/hostage sieges would become part and parcel of daily TV watching. Boy, was he right. Starting wars and crises gained legitimacy in creating increased TV viewing and ratings. 
Two stellar thoughts arose from that film:
“We know things are bad, worse than bad.”
“TV will never be the same.”
You all know that I like Trump. I like the idea of him as a presidential candidate and evidently, a lot of other people do as well. Yet, Trump and other TV personalities, who garner and manipulate mass attention have an inherent destructive element built within their hysteria, eventually they can self-destruct. Continuous ranting and raving about the decrepit nature of our political situation in America will not result helpful solutions. There is an underlying anger and discontent of the political citizenry that is rallying around Trump.  However, if the crowd turns their anger against Caesar, then the Republic must once again dissolve in a coup or into the ashes of history. Morton Downey Jr could not, at the end of his career, discern the difference between his narcissistic fantasies and the reality of every day living.

Democracy demands a certain modicum of psychological sophistication which I believe the American public possess when they have shut off their respective TV sets.
Let me quote my former boss, Dr. Henry Kissinger:
“Now when I bore people at a party, they think it’s their fault.”
Or let me a bit more crass and let one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, explain fame more clearly:
“The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.”  



11 comments:

  1. Problem with monarchies is that if king is crazy whole society is crazy, if king is old, society is not shaky enough to enact needed reforms. Best system on world is strong monarch like i already was mentioning and people under with no intermediaries between.
    King from time to time must call all plutocracy and aristocracy to grand dinner, and poison them all, and then replace all of them with new on same positions.
    Then all those new people there are going to be happy and loyal servants who are not going to work against king, behind his back and pillage people.
    All land must be owned by king so that king will make sure that plutocracy or aristocracy will not plunder around, because that is of king, they would steel from king.
    King will crete free royal cities where local capitalists cannot tax people in to oblivion and cannot plunder people.
    Yes if king is crazy or weak (controlled by plutocracy) than people must rebel, cut head of king and give throne to next in line, his son...
    That way son will know how not to behave, but the most important is that there must be king.
    Nation who kill own king cannot have much luck.
    Kennedy wanted to become king.
    Now Trump will try. I hope he will make it.

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  2. "when they have shut off their respective TV sets."... Indeed, last month my DVR/tuner died (and haven't had cable in decades), so I am relieved from the distractible TV hype. As a result, I am more focused, I read more, I have more quality time. Eventually I probably will restore the tuner, but am in no rush.

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  3. I disagree, where is your compass pointing when every politician is a self-inflated narcissist? Trump showed a lot of class the last few days by invited that disruptive media person from Mexican TV back for a conversation. No one has ever done that.

    He was very thankful and appreciative of those who showed up to his rally multiple times. He was very sincere about that. You have a very positive feel for the future of the US. Many of us are very negative about the future of the US. It basically comes down to that.

    Trump is firm in his believe that the US is in big trouble going forward. Look at the last 20 years, how can one not see that? That is driving the message, motivation and grand ideas he has been propounding. It has resonance with many, not just a few chuckle heads.

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  4. I agree, thanks for your comments. I like Trump, I want him to finish first. It is a treacherous road but like you, I acknowledge that he is smart. We need this.

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  5. Now for a history Lesson....

    After the Versailles Treaty stripped away huge areas of Germans from Germany one of these areas was the Saar Land, an area between Germany and France in which everyone was German...but it was given to France merely because the French wanted it.

    The Germans there kept complaining so after a couple of years the Americans and English and French agreed to have elections there to decide if the Saar should go back to Germany. This was in keeping with the principle of self-determination which President Wilson imposed at the Paris Peace Conference.

    Well the election was held and over 90 percent of the voters voted to go back to Germany, and so the Saar Land did go back to Germany.

    But because of this the English and French thereafter blocked any similar redresses by the local inhabitants of other areas such as the Sudatenland, Bohemia, Moravia, and the areas given to Poland.....

    What happened with the Saar Land elections is the "Rosetta Stone" explaining why the other events happened which resulted ultimately in the German invasions of Bohemia, Moravia, and then western Poland. Remember also that the Germans only occupied less than half of Poland.... The Soviet communists occupied and annexed more than half of Poland. The Poles had previously attacked Soviet Russia in 1923 and imposed a harsh agreement on them.

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  6. None of Hitler's actions in marching into all these areas by force would have been necessary if the English and French had simply allowed self-determination of these German populations. They opposed these peoples' self-determination and blocked elections just as the Americans blocked elections in Vietnam in 1956 because it would have yeilded a result which the Americans didn't want to admit to....that the people wanted what the superpower of that era was opposed to....

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  7. There's nothing worse, no one worse, than anyone who invites themselves into your country, and doesn't care about a visa or permission....

    They just invite themselves in uninvited and with callous disregard for the law and wishes of the people whose country they're inviting themselves into....

    What kind of mind is it which just invites themselves into someone else's country and squats down and declares it now there own.

    That's not an act of respect or even good will.

    it's an act of ill will and bad faith and all these people should be either expelled or slain in the streets to make examples to others...

    We need some brown shirts in this country to take matters into the hands of the people because the politicians have utterly betrayed us ans stabbed us in the back just as the democratic politicians of Germany sold out the German people.

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  8. There is possible hidden menace in all folk wishing to climb 'the greasy pole' maybe the roles should be offered to worthies who do not want to be Prez and then they do it out of civic duty. The reason Trump is doing so well is he is telling his truth and not 'spin' everywhere the image of the lying Politician has become a cliche. My ears always perk up when someone like Trump or here Corbyn are being attacked by MSM, ex-politicos and telling you all the reasons you should not vote for them. I really hope Trump makes it...in one piece to take the job. America needs a CEO not a puppet, for your sake's and our sake's. One of my relatives has just been deployed to the middle east to plan shit in a bunker, so God knows what is coming next. I love the clips of 'Network' on Youtube they are so spot on. Although I turned off the TV because I could not stand the Ads anymore. I think Ad agencies should be made to have their names in the corner of each ad so folk can see where the crap is coming from. As regards Trump being like Hitler there is one huge difference, Adolf did not have a pot to piss in during the rise of national socialism and had to be funded by American and European industrialists. Trump has his own fat wallet, or what they call here 'Fuck you money' so nobody can tell him what to do.

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  9. Thinking about it being shot live on air mid-interview by a fat, black and gay bloke is the ultimate reality television. If only he could have been transgender they would have hit the jackpot!

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  10. Looks like Obama wants to take Hillary out by not stopping FBI investigation of her server. Seems to want Biden "in" so there will be no "review" of their own administration. Reminds me of the show called "Survivor"

    Bill seems agitated. Maybe Bill will have to drop some Haldol before this election is over.

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