Saturday 25 February 2017

The Unenviable State of America

The Unenviable State of America

The Universal Studio at Los Angeles has a number of rides which specialize in springing up the most unexpected shocks on unsuspecting visitors. No doubts the rides are exhilarating but they are surely not good for the health of the faint-hearted; Obamacare or no Obamacare.  In these days of “new normal” and “alternate facts”, the whole of USA has now become a giant universal studio.  Not a day goes by before some new ride is introduced making the past, well a thing of the past! Every now and then some ‘alternate fact’ gets introduced in the collective memory of the populace which makes one start wondering whether one is still living in the real world or has unknowingly migrated into the Matrix.

This time I landed here on 20th January, the day the new CEO occupied the corner room of the headquarters of his vast conglomerate.  Today on the 20th of February when the TV Talking Heads are talking their heads off listing the successes / failures of the new CEO, I can’t but resist taking a look (from an Outsider’s point of view) at just a few of the reality shows that have been aired on prime time with a great amount of fanfare in this one month. Their storylines in brief are provided:
To Russia With Love: Mystery. A four star General in charge of the security of a conglomerate is found playing games with a competitor raising doubts from the keepers of anti-trust laws. The CEO of the company feels confident that the Security Chief has not done anything wrong and that he (the CEO) would anyway have told him (the Security Chief) to play games if only he (the Security chief) had taken his (the CEO’s) permission.  Alas, the game the Security Chief was playing turned out to be Russian roulette. 
Not So Amusing. So Sad.

Quo Vadis?: Game Show. It’s a revamp of the age-old game played by Romans guarding the city of Rome. Since all the roads lead to Rome, anyone who set foot on any road, eventually found himself at the gates of Rome anyway. There were people who came from faraway places like Mesopotamia, Iran, Baghdad and Damascus too. Anybody who approached the gates of Rome was asked to name himself and then allowed to enter Rome if found suitable. Otherwise they were just fed to lions or given over to gladiators for their practice matches before the main one in Colosseum. It all depended whether their names were on the list prepared by Caesar or not. The revamped game now is made slightly more humane. After asking the names of newcomers, the guards grant or refuse entry to the newcomers based on one of the two questions which have been standardized. The question selected is solely based on the guard’s state of mind and not in any way dependent on the person seeking entry. The two questions are:
·         Spell the word “God”.
·         Spell the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”
Persons spelling the word allotted to them correctly are let inside the game-show and those who fail the test are asked to try again after 90 days. 
So Humane. So Satisfying.

The Judgement Day: Beauty Pageant: The Finalists are asked to appear for a viva voce in order to decide upon the Winner. The Sole Examiner who interviews the Finalists has a rich experience of conducting beauty pageants and very likely the questions posed to the competitors are the ones which appeared in past versions of Miss World contest. Since all the rounds take place in camera, it is not known if exciting rounds like swim-suit round etc are included or not. Only hitch is the Finalists are all top jurists in the land. 
So Hilarious.

In his recent episode of GPS, Fareed Zakaria compared the current situation to a children’s toy which most of us must have enjoyed as toddlers - a “rocking horse”. The toddler riding the toy has a great sense of motion and exhilaration that accompanies his / her apparent motion, but an onlooker doesn’t see it (rocking horse or the toddler thereon) progress anywhere. In this case one is tempted to call this particular toy a “rocking ass” because sometimes in these days of alternate realities the distinction between rider and ridden can become a bit blurred.

But light-hearted banter apart, unless things improve more than just a bit, the next State of the Union address will be a short one: Unenviable, unimaginable and Un-United.

As a complete aside (not remotely connected with anything or anyone past or present) my friend  Guy Wise tells me the word “trumpery” as defined by The Oxford English Dictionary means ‘deceit, fraud, imposture, trickery’. The word is derived from old French ‘tromperie’ which means deceit and has its roots in the French verb ‘tromper’ which means to deceive.  The word was first used in 1456. Ahhh. What clairvoyance! And here I have been singing praises of Americans for being clairvoyant.  (The Clairvoyant Americans )


LazyBee                                                                                                                                    

20th February 2017.