"The First Lady’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, casts the blurriness of the Be Best campaign as a strength, 'something unique.' 'She has not narrowed her platform down to just one topic, as has been done in the past,' Grisham said, on CNN. 'Mrs. Trump wishes to help the next generation by creating change through awareness on a variety of issues.' Be best: Is it a competitive challenge to kids? (Yikes!) A benediction? A Yoda-esque mantra? It has a Trumpian tinge, a view of life as a competition divided into winners and losers.... Donald Trump’s emptiness revealed itself over decades in the media glare. But Melania, a former model, has long embraced vacancy as an aesthetic. She has the creepy, objectified opacity of a doll, or a robot—a shimmer of the uncanny valley. Her willed passivity may be the strongest expression of her agency. She is an avatar of blankness, a mute queen. Standing behind a podium in the Rose Garden, her husband in the audience, Melania spoke slowly, with practiced inflections; she sounded like an actor reading from a script that she didn’t quite understand...."
From "The Childlike Strangeness of Melania Trump’s 'Be Best' Campaign" by Katy Waldman at The New Yorker.
I haven't read the "Be Best" booklet. Is it a booklet? A website somewhere? But I can honestly say I haven't a clue what it means other than some idea of striving for excellence. What's weird about it is the absence of "your" before "best." We can't all be best, even if lots of us are tippy-top excellent and we work really, really hard. That's not enough if we aren't the best? I'd say it's "best" to give up and not play that competition.
But if "your" were there, "be" would seem wrong. The colloquial expression — not that Melania has any feeling for colloquial English — is "Do your best." But I guess that didn't seem strong enough. I did my best is something we often say lamely. And it seems to provoke the response, "Sometimes your best is not good enough." Isn't that a famous quote? The internet seems to credit Winston Churchill with the line, "Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required."
Do what is required. Maybe some future first lady will use that. No, of course not. In America, you'd get a first lady going with "Do your own thing" before "Do what is required." We prefer freedom to being told what to do. And yet, you could have your own personal goals, and "Do what is required" would be nothing more than a prod to figure out the means to that end — your end — and get it done.
But Melania's mystifying slogan doesn't have the action word "do." Her verb is "be." Maybe it's not about achieving at all. Just "be." Maybe it's more hippie that "Do your own thing." It's "Be here now." We can have a Be-In. The notion of "best" melts away. It's all best.
And that's how to be best at blogging.
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"Be Best." I still like it.
The Be Asshole campaign on the left sure caught on.
Do what is required. Maybe some future first lady will use that. No, of course not. In America, you'd get a first lady going with "Do your own thing" before "Do what is required."
I think it's great that you have forgotten the forgettable Michelle Obama already. But she did say her putative baby-daddy would require you to work and so forth. Yeah, you wouldn't think a flotus would go all totalitarian on the people, but there it is, or happily, was.
At least kids can eat food again.
I found this discussion of "Do your thing" useful, but it almost got me to say Ralph Waldo Emerson said it first:
"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think... The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you, is, that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the Government or against or against it, spread your table like base housekeepers,—under all these screens, I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are. And of course, so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. But do your thing, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. A man must consider what a blind-man's-buff is this game of conformity."
Great, but the original essay says "do your work," not "do your thing." Glad I checked that. Nevertheless, the idea is similar, as long as you define "work" broadly.
That article also prods me to think of the Bob Dylan lyric (not that I need much prodding):
"If dogs run free, then why not we/Across the swooping plain?/My ears hear a symphony/Of two mules, trains and rain./The best is always yet to come,/That's what they explain to me./Just do your thing, you'll be king,/If dogs run free."
I'd love to see Melania go with the slogan "If dogs run free, then why not we?"
I suspect a marketing guru came up with it.
Probably got it from a Trump U seminar.
I like it.
And, of course, the Trump haters have to bash everything Donald and Melanie do. The Dems need to learn, hating Trump is not a policy and will not win elections for them.
And, of course, Althouse is the best blogger in the Western world and maybe even the universe. She is the First Lady of blogging. Not sure what that makes Meade.
Do be do be do.
She has the creepy, objectified opacity of a doll, or a robot—a shimmer of the uncanny valley.
Sure, lets dehumanize the first lady.
Be Bop a Lula
"Be best" will never be popular with the "if it feels good, do it" crowd on the left.
It also seems to conflict with sports participation awards and scoreless soccer games.
It’s telling how Katy is so catty about slamming models. Now I’ll have to google her visage to confirm a suspicion.
Just show up but don't show me up.
If Melania wanted to be the best First Lady, she would eschew having a program. It’s silly. I prefer FL’s to waste tax money on vacations than on contrived nonsense.
"'She has the creepy, objectified opacity of a doll, or a robot—a shimmer of the uncanny valley.' Sure, lets dehumanize the first lady."
I don't think it's dehumanizing. It's very human to want to hide yourself from the public view and to choose to put on a mask and armor, to be some kind of image rather than to show your true self. The real person is there, with that desire. We can't see her and we don't know her, and that's what she wants in some way that we cannot understand.
The description of her exterior is apt.
Be best means use your talents.
Jackie Kennedy was the same way.
Shama Lama Ding Dong (The Band of Oz)
"Be best means use your talents."
"Be best" means whatever you want it to mean, apparently.
"If dogs run free, then why not we?"
Dogs manifestly do not run free. Not anywhere civilized at least.
Collars. Leashes. Regular fences. Invisible fences. Laws. Ordinances. Dog Parks. Animal Control units. License fees.
What happens when dogs run free? They are captured, die or cause mayhem with civil or criminal liability for the negligent owner.
Melania be wiser than Althouse.
First, do no harm.
Melania's doing pretty well.
The description of her exterior is apt.
And pointed.
I keep running the phrase into a single word: Beebest.
Which makes me think it's about listening to the BBC. Really really well.
Googling, I find a Bee Best honey maker, a BeeBest water heater by BeeBull manufacturing, and a Bee Best learning center.
Be best simply means don't be bested.
"If dogs run free, then why not we?" That's just it. There are very few places left where dogs can run free anymore. I live out in the sticks, but dogs are required to be in a fenced yard or physically constrained. My dog can run around at the beach down the street if she's under my voice control, and that's only because the beach is privately owned. At public beaches all dogs are banned. Occasionally, a dog breaks free and takes a stroll around the neighborhood. We all know each other's pups, and we corral it and return it home. A pick up by animal control is expensive. All of this is supposed to be for the good of the dogs, but they didn't get to vote.
"Be all you can be!"
Of topic but...
So now Why I revealed that Tom Brokaw harassed me
First Ladies all have these campaigns that range from innocuous to mildly annoying. I tune them out. Melania is better looking than the average First Lady, and her campaign isn't especially annoying. I have a mildly positive view of her, and I'm all in favor of people eating vegatables, picking up litter, and being the best., The malice directed against her, as demonstrated in the quotes given here, seems excessive and more annoying than whatever it is the First Lady is nagging us about.
Don't just Be Best. Be Bestest.
"I'd say it's "best" to give up and not play that competition."
And that's how you become a teacher.
Leave no way to have led a better life, it means.
Do your best is too focused on whatever you're doing rather than on other things that might have been a better use of your time.
Be deplorablest.
Think Different, Be Best
Let's take another look at that best.
To be best, or not to be best
That is the quest
When is it okay for The New Yorker to publish a piece dripping in misogyny and anti-immigrant ridicule? When it’s in the service of a higher purpose—savaging Trump. Priorities!
Althouse said...
Maybe it's not about achieving at all. Just "be." Maybe it's more hippie that "Do your own thing." It's "Be here now." We can have a Be-In. The notion of "best" melts away. It's all best.
To Have or to Be?
A 1976 book by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, in which he differentiates between having and being... Fromm writes that modern society has become materialistic and prefers "having" to "being". He mentions the great promise of unlimited happiness, freedom, material abundance, and domination of nature. These hopes reached their highs when the industrial age began. One could feel that there would be unlimited production and hence unlimited consumption. Human beings aspired to be Gods of earth, but this wasn’t really the case. The great promise failed due to the unachievable aims of life, i.e. maximum pleasure and fulfillment of every desire (radical hedonism), and the egotism, selfishness and greed of people. In the industrial age, the development of this economic system was no longer determined by the question of what is good for man, but rather of what is good for the growth of the system. So, the economic system of society served people in such a way in which only their personal interests were intended to impart. The people having unlimited needs and desires like the Roman emperors, the English and French noblemen were the people who got the most out of it.
... In every mode of life, people should ponder more on "being" nature and not towards the "having" nature. This is the truth which people deny and thus people of the modern world have completely lost their inner selves. The point of being is more important as everyone is mortal, and thus having of possessions will become useless after their death, because the possessions which are transferred to the life after death, will be what the person actually was inside.
Bei mir bist du schoen, please let me explain
Bei mir bist du schoen means you're grand
Bei mir bist du schoen, again I'll explain
It means you're the fairest in the land
I could say "Bella, bella", even say "Wunderbar"
Each language only helps me tell you how grand you are
I've tried to explain, bei mir bist du schoen
So kiss me and say you understand
Andrews Sisters - Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
"It's very human to want to hide yourself from the public view and to choose to put on a mask and armor, to be some kind of image rather than to show your true self. The real person is there, with that desire. We can't see her and we don't know her"
How do we know we don't know? Asking philosophically.
Anyway, she Is Best at the mask-and-armor thing.
Perhaps we should ask that other thick-accented central European, Conan, what is best.
Considering the crap black kids get from their peers if they excel in school, maybe it will give them some cover--or maybe the reverse. Can't get any worse, if we're quoting songs of our youth.
"Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required."
Watched Dunkirk and have started on The Darkest Hour.
Sometimes we must do what is required, even if we assume it surpasses our capacity.
Is it coincidence that you asked, "A benediction?" right after linking to a tweet from abenedikt?
I'd love to see Melania go with the slogan "If dogs run free, then why not we?"
They shoot dogs, don't they?
"'If dogs run free, then why not we?' Dogs manifestly do not run free. Not anywhere civilized at least. Collars. Leashes. Regular fences. Invisible fences. Laws. Ordinances. Dog Parks. Animal Control units. License fees. What happens when dogs run free? They are captured, die or cause mayhem with civil or criminal liability for the negligent owner."
That's failing to interpret the lyrics. You're jumping to the idea that a mistake has been made and then explaining why your idea is correct. But it's not about you unless you write a song we're motivated to interpret. What you should do to interpret Bob Dylan's song is to assume that no mistake has been made and then figure out how the words work to say something that is makes sense or was worth saying for some reason.
Let's just take the part I quoted: "If dogs run free, then why not we/Across the swooping plain?/My ears hear a symphony/Of two mules, trains and rain./The best is always yet to come,/That's what they explain to me./Just do your thing, you'll be king,/If dogs run free."
1. "IF" — there's no assertion that dogs do run free, but only a conditional clause.
2. Dogs would run free if we released them to do what they want, so why not we? What is holding us back? A dog would run if you let it, so why don't we run... across the swooping plain.
3. There are other non-"if" clauses that clearly say things that are not true: "The best is always yet to come" and "Just do your thing, you'll be king." Those are identified as things that other people "explain" to him, but they are obviously untrue, just as it's also not true that dogs are running free.
4. "My ears hear" a romantic longing for freedom, despite all the limitations.
5. What kind of "symphony" is about "two mules, trains and rain." It suggests an old blues song and evokes the music of oppressed black Americans — even slaves. What freedom is there? But it's a symphony, there is music, and there is the longing for freedom, and that touches us and makes us want to make the most of what we have — to do our thing, even under constrained circumstances.
Melania has been "doing what is required" since 2005. Or the antenuptial execution date, whichever was first.
Do your worst!
Who let the dogs out ?
After writing that, I looked up the lyrics at Lyrics Genius. But there was only one annotation, on the phrase "the best is yet to come." That's the title of a Frank Sinatra song.
Out of the tree of life I just picked me a plum
You came along and everything started in to hum
Still, it's a real good bet, the best is yet to come
Anyone care to attack those lyrics? Don't attack before hearing Sinatra's phrasing.
"how the words work to say something that is makes sense"
Sorry for the vestigial "is" — especially when I was talking about making sense.
Perhaps Melania is targeting the crowd that uses the following:
I be....
You be....
We be...
They be...
Think Different, Be Best
Exactly. One is "genius". The other is ???
Be YOUR best? Too wishy-washy.
Be THE best? Too difficult.
Strive for excellence? Undefined.
Lift yourself up? Racist
Rise? #Resistance
Make Yourself Great Again? What if you never were.
When they go low, you go high? Both taken and reactionary.
Perhaps we should simply note we understand she means everyone striving to be the very best person and take the very best actions in every situation, such that we collectively benefit as a nation.
And perhaps we should note that none of us have come up with anything better in this thread or at the NYT or WAPO, so perhaps it's a very real and worthy sentiment which is so easily put into a slogan.
Be Best Taco Bowler Bigly.
Coke is it
Just do it
Still the one
Nobody complained.
Althouse said...
Sorry for the vestigial "is" — especially when I was talking about making sense.
Stop Making Sense
So the New Yorker is dehumanizing Melania, some other Clinton operative is hating on Don Jr's wife. What is it these people hope to achieve? A fleeting moment of pleasure when acknowledged by their cool Trump-hating friends? Is there not already a deep enough well of hate in this country?
The Childlike Strangeness of Katy Waldman’s Trump Derangement Syndrome at The New Yorker.
More bad news for Trump haters:
Donald J. Trump twitter feed 19 mins ago
Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured!
Winning. I'm not tired of it.
Another PURPLE ELEPHANT.
The Left cannot resist bashing the most popular public figure associated with politics. They cannot avoid drawing attention to their own intolerance.
It's amazing to watch the self-immolation.
In a very real sense- "Be best" is an objective goal and "Be Your Best" a subjective one.
I have no idea what the thing was meant to be- it isn't worth my time to investigate it, but I do know my best has always left me with a lot of wriggle room for effort because I am the one determining what that is.
I can pretty much guarantee you that Olympic level athletes don't aspire to be their best- they aspire to be the best.
"Let be be the finale of seem"
If I am ever chosen to be First Lady, my platform will be, "Abolish The First Lady Platform; If I Had Wanted To Play Miss America, I Would Have Entered a Beauty Pageant"
Be it big or be it small
Do it right or not at all
--Burke's Law
"That's failing to interpret the lyrics. You're jumping to the idea that a mistake has been made and then explaining why your idea is correct. But it's not about you unless you write a song we're motivated to interpret"
This is about a pithy phrase you said you'd love to Melania adopt. It's not about what Dylan meant if she adopts part of it as her slogan. And nobody would be interpreting the lyrics anyway, because that defeats the purpose of the pithiness.
"If dogs run free, then why not we?" If A then B.
That would be a terrible First Lady phrase because dogs don't run free. A is not true and therefore we never get to B, so why start the assertion in the first place? People would say she is clueless and does not understand America if she thinks dogs run free around here. And if she didn't think that, why say it in the first place?
Be Best makes a lot more sense than going on about free running dogs. If dogs run free/then we'd be trying to get them back on leash.
"The colloquial expression — not that Melania has any feeling for colloquial English — is "Do your best." sheesh. Some group of wizards came up with a list, people sat around a table and made recos and Melania approved one. It ain't Strunk and White, it's adspeak for some ads. Dave Remnick has lost his mind.
Be your best. Strive. Is an adult attitude that overcomes complacency, stagnation, and lowered expectations.
To be or not to be
Strive for perfection, achieve excellence.
Bastardized Vince Lombardi quote.
Be Best, Stay Woke...you say tomato, I say tomahto...
If dogs run away, why should we stay?
Question: Which one?
A. Average
B. Best
C. Cromulent
The Dems need to learn, hating Trump is not a policy and will not win elections for them.
Shhhhhhh. At least until 2020.
This post has a "Melanie" tag which should be "Melania"
Αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων.
Now always be the best, my boy, the bravest,
and hold your head up high above the others.
VI. 208 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Jordan Peterson would understand the slogan, and so would Ghandi ("Turn the spotlight inward").
I think it's an improvement on tasteless school lunches.
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