When the ancient Greeks went about creating art, philosophy and democracy it was their intent to come to a closer understanding of their world, themselves and to of course to rationalize all that didn’t make sense but ought to have made sense. In the face of illogic one is forced either to turn to rationale, religion, or in today’s times rock stars, teenage idols and Paris Hilton. That of course is the thing about being American, we like to believe in ideas, possibilities and the ever dying notion that we are better, the chosen ones and God’s children. And we are, yet so is everyone else.
The question is what are we to do now, after all we all have a firm sense of ourselves, a desire to do good, but given economic constraints and limited possibilities one is forced to take a position that will maximize their yield. Does one become a banker, a trophy wife, a top model, a celebrity, a lawyer, a hard working parent, or a demi god? These of course are not the only choices, just the preferred choices. We live in a culture that is about sweepstakes takings winnings, about striking it big, buying big, ordering big, driving big, marrying big, eating it big and yes even looking big even if we are all on diets.
The façade of being American, or rather what that represents will always be important, it’s like a habit we don’t know how to give away, but after the fortieth cigarette and cocktail party we’ve come to accept it, embrace it and celebrate it. Celebrate so much that if you are lucky you can now make a living simply for being vacuous but at the right place, right look and right diamond ring.
This is what Mr. Madoff played at and succeeded at. This is in fact what every president and leader does too. Except in Mr Madoff’s case as already stated he didn’t do it to a class of people we are not suppose to care about, ie terrorists (people are people whether they live in the Gaza strip, Golan Heights, Afghanistan or the utterly devastated Iraq) or just ‘plain black folk’ living in the wake of Hurricane Katrina out there in New Orleans (thank you Mr.Bush for indoctrinating us). He did it to people like you and me, people who worked hard all their lives, came from a distinct social, class or religious backgrounds. This was his first big mistake, after all you should never take from your brethren, it’s understood. Of course that too is just an illusion or at best wishful thinking. Then again we should never take from anyone, but as stated earlier our pilfering stems from being human. That’s why the news media always call it a tragedy.
Back in Los Angeles in 1994 the world was treated to a TV mega bonanza as we watched fallen football star OJ Simpson driving along La’s highway’s in his white FORD BRONCO (and boy didn’t the sale of those cars go ballistic afterwards?) what was an attempt at a futile escape and a envoy of half of the LAPD (police dept) and the world’s media cameras. What was he doing, making a get away, mulling things over? What of us, what we’re we doing as we watched that scene unfold? We’re we letting go off ideas of what supposed human heroes we’re capable of doing? Could a hero also do bad things, but didn’t that go in the face of what a hero was suppose to be, against what it is to be a wild west frontier man?
When the Ancient Greeks would build their vast temples (in 4000 BC they were vast ) they would apply a technique called ‘entasis’– an optical illusion effect to make the columns one would look up at as rigid and straight. After all this is what the study of mathematics, rationales and philosophies had allowed them to attain, the ability to rectify real life dilemmas through optical illusions. Of course this art is still with us every day, we just call it promotions, feed back, TV talk shows and editorials. A caressing of the public image of our wild west.
Living in America one is obliged to reinvent themselves, adapt to what is happening around them, but ultimately one is obliged to become their own hero and assert their own moral choices of what is good or bad, after all that’s what a real hero does…and one day you will.
