The Perceived Reality of the Last Presidency: A Made for TV Documentary
To examine the idea of reality one must consider the consensus reality, that of banks, and traffic and work, and school for kids, plus a host of other things that are necessary for the smooth function of a society. However, there is another reality that we all experience which we could loosely refer to as our perceived reality. It would be ideal if the very personal perceived reality matched to a great degree the actual consensus reality. I’m afraid that matching thing is currently experiencing its lowest approval rating since forever.
I think two of the best illustrations of this low rating could be found by examining the behaviors of two of our esteemed Governors. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are the poster children for non-matching reality. These two men share a common fantasy. They both get off on thinking they are so powerful that they can dictate how people think. That is a perceived reality for them. In the actual consensus reality them boyz be dreaming. People are gonna do people.
Consensus reality, the one where snowboarders can fly and twist in the air like they’re on a flying trapeze and guys can practice doing something beyond silly until they catch a video of them being like blind squirrels that occasionally encounter an acorn. But they do look cool the time they actually do it. That’s consensus reality and it does not care what The Governor Boyz think about what is real. Gravity doesn’t care if you are strong enough to do something crazy or not. Them boyz ain’t that strong. Greg can say that he has the right to decide that all the women in Texas are his consorts, but that does not make it so. Ron can say that he does not want to be woke and I agree for him to please keep on dreaming. Just because he thinks he can command thought to stop, does not mean that consensus reality is going to suddenly do E.F. Hutton¹, where everyone suddenly stops and listens, just because the dude commands it. Consensus reality does not give a hoot about what Ronnie don’t allow, it gonna consensus anyhow.
I have questions now. How in the name of Sam Hill did we get to a Governor in the United States being perceived by himself, and apparently others, as having the ability and right to dictate what people can think. We might want to take a moment to remember a certain ex-dignitary whom we will for purposes of this discussion call “The Truman Show Remaker”. Mr. Remaker may have gotten lost in his own make believe world of business where he had, according to the script mind you, “staff in waiting” who the “show” called apprentices. Producers scoured New York to find appropriate candidates who would never be able to meet Mr. Remaker Trumanly rules of political and personal correctness. Bowing and scraping was required, and those who did not have the wherewithal to accept the weight of that responsibility were told in plain language that they were fired. This event was to take place after the period of time required to build sympathy in the audience for the victim.
None of this was real; it existed in the consensus reality as a vehicle for the audience to transport themselves into the boss’s office to see the moment he gleefully axed someone who depended on understanding a job just because he could. Mr. Remaker was ideal for the part. Over time he actually believed himself to be none other than the Truman-like persona he portrayed on the TV. Alas, in the transition to the “Post-Truman-esque Imagines Business” world of consensus reality he seems to have forgotten that was all fantasy, and he didn’t really control how anyone thought, because they all pretended to think like he demanded, in order to play their part in the show. Turns out the White House is not a Reality TV show.
The advantage Mr. Remaker had over those who would parrot his apparent success, is that as a child Mr. Remaker had been spoiled rotten as only a nouveau riche New Yorker could. Mr. Remaker senior could hold his own when it came to spoiling children. Ronnie is nearly as spoiled, but the problem for both Ronnie and Greg is that they do not have the fan base that Mr. Remaker had garnered through living in that “Truman” remake they cleverly called The Apprentice.
Now we have a whole host of Mr. Remaker wannabes parading around public places saying offensively provocative things with their bare faces hanging out. But they really are wannabes because they have not been the star of a reality TV show and therefore lack understanding of the moving parts of such a production. They don’t think they will have to pay heavy dues to join the club of people who have success with reality television. Oprah is one. Johnny Carson was one. Ed Sullivan. Snooki. Matt Dillon. Lucile Ball and of course the famous man we are calling Mr. Remaker, because The Apprentice was a remake of The Truman Show.
I, for one, do not despair over the high ratings of a popularity poll. That show will pass just as other shows like swallowing goldfish or having pet rocks or even doing the hip swivel required to manage a hula hoop. This fantasy of everyone thinking they are sitting in an ivory tower somewhere in the greater metropolitan area of any given ‘burg must come to an end. We as a people can afford to dally in our fantasies for a period of time, but sooner or later the real world comes along and reminds us of why we do what we do. Sooner or later, there will be a traffic cop that is a stickler for actually stopping at stop signs, except in California where cops will ticket you for driving too slow. I’m still divided about that being progress. I think I like having to stop at stop signs. There’s less chaos in my life when I stop and look before entering the other roadway.
I think that’s kind of related to why Governors can not dictate what people can think. If anyone is limited in what they can think or what they can talk about then chaos will ensue. The idea of political correctness has become more of a heavy social requirement. For example there are Republicans who may not say that Mr. Remaker is no longer the De Facto leader. Those fellows want everyone to remember to carry their armament to Walmart as a fashion accessory, but they do not fancy people saying how they think about issues that affect their day to day lives. But then does it not stand to reason that if people have the right to carry armament to go grocery shopping, how can they not have the right to live life as they see fit? An AK 47 strapped to some guy’s chest is not at all unnerving when I have to explain that to a 7 year old. I’ll grant you that explaining a couple of guys making out to that same 7 year old is also unnerving, but one thing that AK explanation has that the make out does not, is the AK explanation carries fatal consequences. The make out explanation carries a furtherance of understanding consequence. I don’t think the two are balanced. The AK requires a threat be perceived, while the make out explanation requires that people have the right to live their life as they live it.
References
1. When EF Hutton talks, people listen — ‘Restaurant’ commercial. (2017, March 2). YouTube. Retrieved August 10, 2022, from https://youtu.be/2_ygqPepLjM