Laugh Out Loud?
Culture and the Moral Imagination
When Plato and Aristotle agree on a matter of philosophical importance, it is worthy of our attention. Together, they define the general parameters of classical philosophy: idealism and empiricism. Where they concur, their conclusions can be regarded as a philosophical consensus. It is therefore helpful that both view culture as the most critical of the three realms of society.
Both find culture to be particularly vulnerable to any form of imbalance among the realms and to the specific competitive abuse of either political governance or economic systems. The other two realms exist to create conditions under which human beings are enabled to flourish and to live the good life. Plato regards culture as the most important because it shapes the soul, and the soul shapes the city. Aristotle sees all three realms as interconnected, worrying most about the moral and educational foundations of society. Both evaluate the work of the three realms together with the fundamental question for each particular society: What kind of people is the society producing?
Of course, neither uses the same names I have assigned to the realms, instead employing terms specific to their respective philosophical systems. For our purposes, the definitions emerge through comparison, particularly in the way each examines the vulnerability of culture to competition from political governance and economy.
We will make room for one example from Aristotle, who devoted considerable attention to oligarchy. In such a system of governance, the economy becomes dangerous because money ceases to be a tool and becomes the ultimate purpose of society. That observation sounds painfully contemporary and is not merely a matter of inequality. Wealth itself becomes the qualification for power.
Aristotle’s most profound insight may be that oligarchy cannot remain confined to economics. When wealth becomes the highest good, every institution gradually reorganizes around it. Politics becomes a contest for resources; education becomes job training; religion becomes a source of legitimacy; art becomes a commodity; citizens become consumers. Oligarchic societies bring about a profound transformation of the moral imagination. They forget what human flourishing is for and begin treating wealth and power as ends in themselves rather than as means to a good life.
Aristotle and Plato agreed on many things, but most significantly: Oligarchy cannot last long.
I strongly suspect that most readers of Democracy or Empire have been reading the depressing news of what Trump and his loyalists have done, along with frightful indications of what they may do in the months ahead. Let’s relax for a moment. As we turn to the realm of culture, let us take a brief laugh from the absurdity of what has been and smile on what we believe will come to pass when Donald J. Trump and Trumpism have become epithets, joining McCarthyism, communism, fascism, and the many other “isms” that have been tried and found wanting on America’s list of Greatest Failed Hits.
I hope you are as disgusted as I am with the way Christian Nationalism and all the other believers in fundamentalism seemed to have missed the memo about the Exodus and the Cross revealing that God is utterly loving, gracious, and forgiving; that we live in a moral universe in which sin can be faced down and, ultimately, overcome. Fundamentalist religion assumes that God reflects a human image of a mean-spirited and narrow-minded father who enforces a harsh and impossible list of do’s and don’ts, laying down the law and ready to whip his children into line with the bad news he delivers about human life, and who wills never-ending hellish pain and suffering for the vast majority of his children.
So let’s allow ourselves a laugh at that -- or at least a giggle -- as we poke fun at the Trumpist vision, remarks drawn from contemporary political discourse and media commentary.
On Religion:
“You know, the Ten Commandments have been edited for the MAGA era. It’s much more convenient now. The new list includes classics like ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before my brand’ and ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s possessions -- unless they are running for office and you can dig up dirt on them’.”
“Trump actually started selling Bibles. The only difference is that in this new edition, whenever someone reads about feeding the five thousand, there’s a footnote clarifying, ‘I alone can feed them, and they have to pay a licensing fee to get any.”
“What happens if Trump’s major economic bills pass? He has joked at rallies that it might make people “give up their religion” -- because the financial strain of working hard will leave them no time for church, or because they will be so newly wealthy they will worship themselves instead.”
On Education:
Few things concern me more about the looming American future than the trajectory our educational system seems determined to continue building, especially when set against the beauty of the one I received at no cost -- public grammar school, college, and six years of graduate work. At no cost! There is no way my parents could have afforded today’s American educational system. And I will argue until the cows come home that there were better schools and richer educational opportunities than many available today. Time for a little ridicule!
“Trumpism is revolutionizing history. The Department of Education is now replacing textbooks with a single, 2,000-page coloring book. It’s titled The Greatest History Ever Colored: Bigly and Beautiful. Chapters like the Civil War are simply labeled ‘Sad!’ and the Industrial Revolution is replaced with a diagram of a golden escalator.”
“They wanted to arm the teachers. But they didn’t get around to the details. So now, the only thing armed in an elementary school is the debate club, and a ‘principal’s office’ is just where you go to negotiate a hostile corporate takeover of the playground.”
On the Arts:
I was driving my son Andrew to summer quarterback camp after his freshman year at Amherst. We talked about my experience defending a man on death row who had become heroic to the legal team defending him. Our engagement in his appeals helped clarify his determination to grow into the kind of person he wanted to be. It was a heroically successful effort -- and then he was killed by a jolt of electricity.
With about 1,100 miles to go to Miami, Andrew picked up his computer and asked, “What are the scenes?” From that moment, our play Song of a Man Coming Through began to take shape.
At the first performance, I was moved and thrilled by the work of the director, the set design, the music, the actors, and most of all by the response of the audience. Tears, laughter, rapt attention. I love the theater, I love to dance, and I love to sing badly. I love the arts of just about every sort.
What is Trump doing to them? #^%^&*&%$!
This morning my son called from a music studio in Boston with news that someone has offered to produce the musical he and a friend from college days -- a bona fide musician -- have written.
So take that, Trump, the bluster-buster of human creativity that I am here to lampoon!
“How many MAGA supporters does it take to change a lightbulb? None. They prefer to sit in the dark, insist the lightbulb was a “hoax” all along, and aggressively defund the artist who designed the original electrical grid.”
“In Trump’s America, the arts have been fully deregulated. Instead of government grants, artists now compete for the ‘Best Grift’ award. The highest honor goes to whoever can paint the most flattering portrait using only a tan spray and classified documents.”
“The National Endowment for the Arts has been rebranded as the ‘Department of Tremendous Real Estate Murals.’ They only fund paintings of luxury golf courses, and all statues must be at least $50 million and shaped like the artist’s own ego.”
Draw a heart here. Trump will hate it.
This post adds some needed humor to the ridiculous state in which we find our country and its government. Bravo.
Yep. And I am finally realizing that Trump will eventually be in dustbin of history. The tragedy is all those who suffer and have or will die because of his mean and evil actions.