"The Odyssey" had a moment over the summer, as the Christopher Nolan movie made waves around the world. I didn't see it, having been reading Homer's epic tale for decades, along with its predecessor, "The Iliad." Judging from the reviews, I figured the film wouldn't compare.
You can't immerse yourself in masterpieces like these without getting a lot back. The violence of war. The capriciousness of fate. Then there are the stylistic flourishes. Since both works are designed to be memorized and recited out loud — I read both to my boys — in a pre-literary age, there are certain tropes intended to trip off the tongue. "The wine dark sea." "The long black ships." I imagine many people know this.
Facing Donald Trump's bottomless venality, criminality, and general unfitness and loathsomeness, I realized, quite quickly, that it wouldn't do to disgorge a big copy block of faults every time his name was mentioned.
So I coined what I considered a Homeric trope, "liar, bully and fraud," at first, later amended to "liar, bully, fraud and traitor." The essentials. Short and to the point. I hasten to add that those terms are not insults, or empty slurs, but dry journalistic descriptions. He's a liar because he lies continuously, on matters big and small, and has done so since his first day in office and before. He is a bully because he picks on the weak and vulnerable, both in his policies, directed against immigrants, children, the poor. And in his social interactions, browbeating reporters whose jobs depend on them never responding, "Will you shut the fuck up you orange shitstain of a human being?"
"Fraud" is well-documented, in various courts of law. And a "traitor" is someone who betrays his country, usually for money, which would ID Trump easily as a question on Jeopardy: "This president accepted gifts from foreign powers and allowed his family and himself to be enriched by embracing policies contrary to the interests of the United States." Only one name fits.
Over the past few years, I haven't put the Trump trope in the paper because ... well, I hesitate to speculate. My hunch is they don't want to attract the attention of the administration, which has already been hacking away at public radio funds. Which I suppose is defendable, the way you can't really blame a soldier for throwing down his gun and running away when the bullets fly. But that doesn't make it a laudable practice.
Besides, newspapers with far more solidity than the Sun-Times have long been cowering before Trump. The New York Times, while in some ways doing yeoman's work reporting on the torrent of news, has this maddening tendency to try to frame his actions in the patterns of the past. "Sanewashing" is the term I've seen. Pretending this is all normal. I subscribe to the Times, read it best I can, and generally ignore when they do this.
But Sunday ... well, they finally snapped to the idea that Trump is out of his fuckin' mind, and ran a story, quite prominently, in the upper right hand corner, with the headline, "Trump's Speech Becomes More Vulgar and Muddled."
Hard to argue that.
The fourth graph is the nut graph, and let me see if the word that stopped me dead stops you:
"He is more long-winded, more profane and more absolutist than when he ran for president a decade ago. His rambling speeches seem even more garbled at times. He makes comments that leave people wondering what he is talking about or that sound like he is saying something he is not. And even for a president who has never fully observed the norms of the office, he seems more willing to say things no other president would say.""Fully," right? "Never fully observed the norms of office." Ya think? Missed a few, did he? That has to be a joke, right? From day one, Jan. 20, 2017, when he got in a pissing match with the National Park Service because its crowd estimate didn't jibe with his delusions of grandeur, to Jan. 6, 2021, when he sicc'd a mob to storm the Capitol, then gazed at his thumb, ignoring pleas to do something to stem the violence, Donald Trump has been a grotesque violation against any kind of dignity, decorum, rationality, kindness, forethought, patriotism, selflessness, not to mention the gravitas and responsibility that, prior to him, were wrapped up in the word "presidential."
Saying that Donald Trump "never fully observed the norms of office" is like saying that Stormy Daniels did not reflect the values of modesty and diligence often associated with Quaker women.
Today is Election Day. The received wisdom is that the Democrats will do well, and I hope that wisdom is correct. And yet. I feel obligated to point out, again, that no Blue Wave is going to wash away years of corruption and norm-wrecking. Won't happen. The Democrats, quick to fall to bickering among themselves, will have to take full advantage of whatever institutional edge they get. And they've failed to do that in the past, big time. Trump should have been in a cell next to Lex Luthor on the moon by the time the Biden administration ended. That he wasn't, that he was allowed to run again and be elected is a massive failure we need to all acknowledge. And how can we do that if we can't even describe the scope of Trump's failing? He trashed the norms that made this country work, sent an engraved invitation for every grifter, hater, fanatic, con man, power-thirsty blonde enabler, plutocrat, kleptomaniac and proto fascist to come help him. That's what he did fully. This demon crew he has assembled, they will not go quietly.
Even with a Blue Wave, he still has 26 months and change left, assuming he stays alive that long. He can do a tremendous amount of damage, because he will have nothing left to lose...literally. Maybe he will become so FUBAR (look it up) that he will just behave like an old geezer with a mush-filled cabeza who is absorbed in minutiae and trivia. Maybe building model ships or planes. We should only be so lucky.
ReplyDeleteThe real danger is that he is replaced in '29 by a "liar, bully, fraud and traitor" who is younger, slicker, more charismatic, not nearly as stupid, and not crazy (That lets Jethro Vance off the hook. In many ways, he's worse than the Current Occupant). We get some smooth-talking GOP Mister Nice Guy...via still more electronic chicanery and cheatery...and then the Untied Snakes is finished. Done. For keeps.
@Grizz
Delete“…that he will just behave like an old geezer with a mush-filled cabeza who is absorbed in minutiae and trivia.”
Scarily so, this is a fairly accurate summation of what my retired self is becoming.
Thank you for a much needed morning chuckle this Election Day!
Bravo to this
ReplyDeleteNice summation for Election Day.
ReplyDeleteDamn! Does no one have a plan to save the U.S.? People in my hearing range are screaming about the Muslims taking over the United States if the madman Trump is gone. Does no one have the solution? Please - someone!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that those who profess the greatest love for this country have the least faith in it?
DeleteNS - I was thinking those of us who (minus the constant public professing) love this country have the least faith because we know America's unwhitewashed history. We have more hope than faith.
DeleteThe truth. Veritas. You have captured him in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteI was in disbelief at 0200 hrs on 9nov16 when my wife woke me up to tell me trump won the election. How could good, honest, god-fearing salt-of-the-earth americans vote for a reprobate like trump. Let alone a second time after 30,573 documented lies during his first term.
My only solace is that he has just 809 Days 3 Hours 31 Minutes 29 Seconds to continue to abuse and torment us. And, after destroying all aspects of our government, our international relations, and our dignity we will build it back through our youth, energy, and righteousness. Justice and rule of law will be served and americans will have an epiphany that their misbehavior and ill-treatment of others is un-american.
Yes, the NYT did pretty well in this story. But still, in addition to "fully," the word "seem" drives me nuts when it is used frequently in many mainstream media stories. "His rambling speeches seem ..." No, they ARE even more garbled. And "he seems more willing to say ..." No, he IS (and always has been) more willing to say things no other president (or any sane being) would say. Enough with the coddling. It was bad enough to excuse him 10 years ago; the time is long overdue for the media to tell it like it is.
ReplyDeleteAnd, with some few exceptions, the Media continues to treat this administration and election as businesses as usual. Where are the headlines recognizing the dementia and insanity? Not to put too fine a point on it, the president is an evil loon and his handlers, here and in Russia, take full advantage of that. I hope that today's election is the beginning of the end for this terrible period of vile corruption and decay. But i have little faith in the current Democratic "leadership". Their feet are clay, which will melt rather than strengthen in the fire necessary to cleanse our country.
ReplyDeleteThe most important thing you can give yourself is an education.
ReplyDeleteFor most of my life, that mantra seemed like the lamest and worst advice anyone could give.
Now... I wish i had seen the wisdom
This is powerful. Thank you for the jolt.
ReplyDeleteYou bring new meaning to telling it like it is . . . and you do it with such clarity and comprehensiveness. So beyond grateful for you not only for your exquisite communication skills that you share with us so reliably every GD day, but also for your courage and wisdom.
ReplyDeleteAs per his request I voted as if Trump were on the ballot. After a millisecond of consideration I voted only for Democrats. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. He and his party have told us they are liars, bullies, frauds, and traitors. I believe them.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget the Repubs were cowards too, Dennis. They sold out and wouldn't stand up to Dump.
DeleteShowtime at last! I am taking nothing for granted.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of the Iliad owes a great deal to David Wray at the University of Chicago, who took his students through the epic line by line. As a student I wrote about Achilles' rage, thinking mostly in personal terms. Today I read it through what I've learned about grief, mourning, and meaning, and I think it speaks to us as citizens, especially as we cast about with our litanies of justifiable sorrows seeking remedy.
ReplyDeleteThe rage so many of us feel in this political moment is what grief looks like when it has nowhere to go.
Achilles' anger begins as a wound: a loss of honor, and of trust in all those who should have protected it. When Patroclus dies, the festering wound becomes excruciating, and Achilles turns his sorrow outward in murderous rage. He can't stop himself. Dawn after dawn he drags Hector's body around Patroclus's tomb, as if repetition could undo what happened or return all he had lost.
That’s our danger, too. Rage that goes unrecognized as grief doesn't burn off and focus on what next to do to save self and others. It circles, winning nothing and changing nothing, while it isolates the people who carry it. It perpetuates misery as its own Department of War, always and forever us versus them. And whatever justice our grievances hold, we can't recover what is best in our nation from inside that stance.
Hope gains an opening when grief stops beating its chest in a warrior’s rage and is finally allowed to be grief. That’s a lesson the Iliad addresses.
When Priam comes to Achilles' tent and the two enemies weep together, each for his own dead, rage loosens its grip. Nobody has been proven right. Each simply sees his own loss in the other's face. Their peace is fragile: a returned body, a shared meal, a few days to bury the dead. But it is real, and it begins with a person willing to risk being vulnerable and to lay down arms, if only for a while. Warrior cultures in many traditions have played out in ceremony what happened in that tent, relying on fragile breaks in action to help soldiers recover their will, their strength, in a context of endless violence; to bury their dead with honor and ceremony, before returning to the relentless battles ahead.
If we are a nation stuck in rage, the poem suggests the way out is to grieve rather than to win. That means honestly naming what we have lost and recognizing that those across the divide, around the world, are mourning too. We may not get it, or we might attribute it to greed and all evil motive on the other side; we may even be “right,” but this is the way of the world. We are a very young nation that stumbles, has stumbled on its own pride.
Besides, to think of life as winning OR losing is disingenuous when you think of it.
There is no panacea. We’ve named our losses loudly all along, but as grievances to avenge, more so than griefs to mourn, with an attitude of righteous vengeance on both sides. Dawn after dawn...
Hope may grow in recognizing that beneath rage lies fear and loss.
To heal what and where we can is to take part in recovering what we can, deliver justice as we are able, and in burying the rest so we can move on.
I never wanted to read the Iliad by the way, nor listen to David read parts of it in a language I didnt understand. But by the time the course ended, I understood its wisdom delivered in lyric form. David Wray is a pretty Zen guy, btw, and so I took on a personal variant of an Eastern mantra when I retired into the world of volunteerism many years after that class: “Quit wishing or grasping for more now, Linda. More is beyond your direct control than not. But there is work still left that you can do; do that work as long as you can. Stay out of misery.“ What else is there? Stay awake.
Many thanks to you Linda (and NS). I read both the Illiad and the Odyssey in high school and then again in college and enjoyed them. So many years have gone by it is clearly time for me to revisit both. I particularly appreciate the phrasing "...there is work still left that you can do; do that work as long as you can. Stay out of misery". It is so applicable to life these days.
DeleteI knew he was off his rocker back in the early 1990s when Spy Magazine set up a phony rebate program that sent actual money to various celebrities to see how cheap they were.
ReplyDeleteThe money was real.
So Spy sent him a 13¢ check for a rebate on something & he cashed it.
OK, that happens, I used to cash those 10¢ checks the Reader's Digest sent out, but I never claimed to be a billionaire, but I also just added them to any other checks I got that month.
He not only cashed it, he actually personally signed his name on it to endorse it.
That makes him not only the world's cheapest billionaire, but an insane micromanaging one.
We see his insane out of control micromanaging now in all these idiotic, unnecessary & ugly beyond belief redecorating projects of his around Washington!
Why didn't he have a stamp & stamp pad for doing those things, he must have received dozens of checks every week to pay for stuff?
LCB - Linda? Thank you so much for this. I came here to make a snarky comment about the NYT, but your comment is so wise and profound that that seems trivial now.
ReplyDeleteYes, profound grief, for what I - and I assume many others - took for granted, a sense of pride in my country and my fellow citizens, despite our many shortcomings and stumbles. A sense that we were, most of us, part of great journey, through the years, trying to form a more perfect union. That has gone, replaced by a sense of shame and a feeling of profound loss, of what I now know was a naive and romantic view of the US.
Patricia thank you for reading it. I find the group here uniquely interesting. NS has a knack of firing up memories via his writing of times past and present. To revisit one’s lessons in light of our own, and others’ experiences offers benefits that are hard to name - but are gifts nonetheless. Makes getting older easier to swallow.
DeleteWow! Thank you everyone!
ReplyDeleteYour last paragragh, esp., is spot on Mr. S. About Democrats bickering and how he was able to run again.
ReplyDeleteNot so simple NS. There were too many who still voted for DT and other Repubs. But now, they may be changing their mind finally, this time around.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletePerfect summary-well done as usual!
things are looking hopeful, hope your wed. blog is on the election
ReplyDeleteNope. Plenty of people opining about that. I like to give myself time to think about stuff. Maybe Friday.
DeleteYes looking very hopeful for the Democrats. I will sleep well tonight
DeleteDEMS KICK ASS would be a good headline this morning.
DeleteTook control of the House and the Senate. Even won in Ohio.
Skies are gray here, but it's a bright new day.
See, mainstream Prots and even some not so strict Caths are fine. Great 2nd paragraph from Talerico.
ReplyDeleteTalarico is a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA),[16] and has cited the teachings of Jesus as the reason for launching his political career[8] in order to love God and one's neighbor.[8] He has said that Christian ethics should affect how society and politics broadly function, as it is "another word for how we treat our neighbors".[8] Talarico has said that people should not affirm "a progressive or conservative Christianity" but a "Biblical Christianity".[80][81]
Talarico is a critic of the recent rise of Christian nationalism in the United States[82] and has called it "a cancer on our religion".[83] He said, "there's nothing Christian about Christian nationalism".[82] In a 2023 guest sermon, Talarico called Christian nationalism "the worship of power—social power, economic power, political power, in the name of Christ". He has said Christian nationalists have turned Jesus "into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist" and that it is "incumbent on all Christians to confront it and denounce it".[84]
Never trust a man that doesn’t have a dog.
ReplyDelete