"
Everything that I thought — this doesn't make sense, this doesn't make sense — ah, now it makes sense!... That's what Aristotle said. He wrote the book called
The Poetics a little while ago. He said, the ending has gotta be
surprising and
inevitable.... So if we know that, as dramatists, it's no different than a joke. The ending's gotta be surprising —
oh, aha! — and inevitable.... That's why we laugh.... Because it re-convinces us, happily, that we really aren't that fucking smart.... The joke and the good play frees us from our self-absorption. I'm so smart or why am I not doing better? Or someone's trying to fuck me.... I'm too lazy. I'm too this and that.... And da, da da da da. That's what we do on our stupid minds all day long. So a joke frees us from that. Yeah."
I thought about that discussion when I clicked on The New York Times and got a glimpse of the play written by Donald Trump and Elon Musk:
We're in the audience, and it's the this doesn't make sense phase of the play, but I trust that the end will come and we'll be all "Now it makes sense!" We'll get it later and laugh and be re-convinced, happily, that we really aren't that smart.
Of course, I'm thinking I'm smart and can predict the end, but if the geniuses are geniuses, I'll be surprised, even as I recognize that where we ended up was inevitable.
Posts
33 comments:
Althouse, don't get sucked into the Trump/Musk brouhaha. It is just part of the 'rasling' performance for the public. Prolly done to amp up the TDS in the leftists.
Danno, did you read the post?
This is the part of the show, where the two wrestlers that normally form a tag team, get into some spat and start shoving each other, throwing chairs, and crashing over the table outside the ring.
Donald Trump has been accused of being an Epstein pedophile. No matter how this little bit of theatre plays out, it's not going to be something you'd want to watch.
We don't need some literary frame re evaluating this fight. DJT has a long record of hiring people that later reveal to the public that he is terrible/incompetent/corrupt/etc.
At some point you'd think DJT fans would notice the pattern. But, nope.
This is the part of the play where Musk-rat "should" realize that he has crippling psychological and social issues (ego; psychopathy; narcissim; arrogance; projection; self-destruction). In a happy-ending Hollywood script he'd seek repentance and somehow grow/mature.
But as a billionare surrounded by sycophants, will he go the way of Howard Hughes? Living in a dark hotel suite with wong hair, long fingernails, and collecting bottles of his own urine?
Trump hasn't changed in years: Loud mouth, empty threats, temporary forgiveness, and cutting deals. This nominal relationship breakdown won't affect him at all.
Two eminently practical men, both faced with the same realization: there is only a handful of people in Washington who even care about our approaching bankruptcy. Trump has to stay and operate within that limiting system, knowing he can't do much, but Elon can walk away. We are spectators to the crash, but also passengers on the great ship of state known as the USS Titanic.
Such a great post, I have nothing to add. Mamet. Trump. Musk. Us. It's got everything.
Whether they mean it or not, in the end it will be fine. I understand the desire of people like the Times editorial board to make some popcorn and enjoy the show, but it's really much ado about nothing.
le Douanier said...At some point you'd think DJT fans would notice the pattern. But, nope.
We're too busy enjoying the benefits of a well-run country to notice.
I still see the two as triangulating the body politic between Trumpian pragmatism and the Muskian aspiration for accelerated change. The net effect of which is to move the window rightward, however gradually, and to further marginalize the left.
Some foreshadowing was done by Trump yesterday. Speaking of the Russia/Ukraine war, he said sometimes you have to let two children fight it out a bit before you separate them. At the time, I didn't think it was an appropriate observation about war combatants but it does seem to fit their conflict. The fact that Trump said it highlights both the inevitability and stupidity of their argument, but the irony is a little too pat. ,
Ann Althouse said...Danno, did you read the post?
Yes I did. But the fact that you even created this post suggests to me that you are not really able to remain your normally aloof and cruelly neutral position by ignoring this feud. I'd expect you to ask the commenters to wake me up when it's over.
This was the Liberal/left wet dream. Musk and Trump now hate each. Their alliance is destroyed. Thank God, that was a close one! Now MAGA/Conservatives will go back to losing even more.
I don't know why the liberal/left always puts their personal feuds aside for the "Good of the team", while Conservatives and Republicans are CONSTANTLY infighting. And putting their ego ahead of the agenda.
When Falstaff was drinking next to Hal in the pub we knew where it was headed, but we secretly hoped the friendship would override the duties of leadership.
This too will pass. “It is a tale … full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
TACO, it’s already happening. Trump was probably shook when Musk suggested that he might use the Trump/Epstein friendship to destroy him.
“Oh it’s okay,” Trump told POLITICO in a brief telephone call when asked about the very public breakup with his onetime megabacker. “It’s going very well, never done better.” Trump went on to tout his favorability ratings saying, “The numbers are through the roof, the highest polls I’ve ever had and I have to go.
It was a marked contrast to what appeared for all the world to be an ugly online feud between Trump and Musk over his “big beautiful bill,” the legislation now in the Senate that incorporates his presidential agenda, from tax cuts to immigration enforcement.”
Politico
Mamet has a new book out this week. I purchased it via the Althouse portal.
I'm glad to see that I was on track with my ending to "Frankenstein, Part II." Yeah, it's a big surprise.
Good jibe about Epstein files
Trump minions look scared to shit about it
Can DJT slow walk for 4 years!!!
The net effect of which is to move the window rightward, however gradually, and to further marginalize the left.
No matter what else happens (I'm still in the 72-hr moratorium), it certainly seems as if this administration in toto has dragged the Overton window back centerward and opened it considerably wider. That aside, I hope it's further marginalizing the left, because the faction of the left that's in charge of the whole left is looney tunes at present, but I shall await the judgment of history.
I don't think Mamet is known for his humor. And his explaination of why we laugh, sorta shows why.
While some fictional television programs reward intelligent study of their lore and intrigue, it's not something a casual viewer with no investment can readily understand. By the same token, people who rely on outside sources to understand Trump v Musk (especially the NPC media drones) will likely be badly misinformed.
I'm happy Elon Musk set up DOGE and played a major tole in exposing and shutting down USAID. Not a lot else matters, and backing down is not going to ingratiate him to the left. Quite the contrary.
I want to say something but I got nothing right now.
Here’s the ending. The Old Man croaks and the Middle Age Man gets killed on the way to Mars
If there's one thing Trump knows pretty well, it's professional wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Maybe people think he attends all these public spectacles through the years, to be seen, as part of his brand. I think that's a second or third-order consideration. I think he goes to see the fights, but more importantly, to see what the crowd reacts to, and how. I can't watch Trump move on the world stage without considering this.
Glengarry Glenross is a dark comedy. Mamet is spot on. The successful punchline must be a surprise and in line with common experience
I am amused that Inga has shown up after silence since January. I am afraid that she will be disappointed with this bit of theater.
prodigious leper… yes… it fits.
Trump is nothing if not predictable maybe even unpredictably predictable. If the Epstein shite is aired publicly, perhaps we will look back at Elon‘s insult as the excuse Trump uses to air the aforementioned shite.
I don't think Mamet is known for his humor. And his explaination of why we laugh, sorta shows why.
…what I was thinking, said and spelled better…
Both men love the country in their own terms. I'm going back to Citizen Kane.
"A toast, Jedediah, to love on my terms. Those are the only terms anybody ever knows - his own."
I immediately pictured the movie Three Man and a Baby as having the same theme - or the expected unexpected end. I record the fact.
TACO, it’s already happening. Trump was probably shook when Musk suggested that he might use the Trump/Epstein friendship to destroy him.
I see your time away from this blog hasn't made you any smarter.
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