The day after the 2024 presidential election I made a pact with myself. No television for four years. Cold turkey. I pulled out my imaginary revolver (unlike Elvis), took aim and fired. Bang!
Why blow a perfect day.
The mere mention of Trump’s name makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. His daily barrage of hate and assaults on our cherished democratic ideals has created an air of complaint and divisiveness that permeates our daily lives.
I have always been a cockeyed optimist. Silver linings. Every day better than the one before. Some say that I’m delusional. Perhaps. But I like it that way. It’s better for my heart, soul, and digestion.
My head isn’t buried in the sand. I cherrypick my news like people from both sides of the aisle: The Economist, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, WBUR, GBH, our Salem News.
Today there’s a fine line between fact and fiction. Between truth and trust. The lines are blurred. The omnipresence of AI has created a false reality. Many use it without even knowing. A new study by Stanford University is exploring interventions that enable individuals to harness it while building the literacy to avoid scams and deception.
During my boycott, I’m happily gravitating toward the stories that lift us. Like those of Steve Hartman’s “On The Road”. From the ridiculous to the sublime. The tales that showcase personal triumph, struggles, resilience, and kindness. Like the one about the a doctor at Children’s Nebraska whose work saving lives isn’t relegated to her day job. Or the high school basketball team manager with autism who suited up for the last game and scored 20 points in 4 minutes as the crowd erupted with every hoop.Then there’s the dog Dexter that adapted to walking on two feet after a near-death experience.
Hartman flipped the script with his recent Oscar-winning documentary short “All the Empty Rooms”, where he examines the vacant bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. The gut-wrenching film takes a necessary look at the devastating lasting emotional toll and collective pain of gun violence to effect change now.
Beyond satire
I used to think that you can laugh at anything. That nothing was off-limits because laughter is the great elixir. National treasure Mel Brooks pulled it off with “The Producers” and “Blazing Saddles” where he parodied the Nazis and racism, holding a mirror up to atrocities and injustice. Weaving comedy and tragedy like Chaplin. These are two movies that couldn’t get made today. In Mel’s autobiography “All About Me” he writes: “The way you bring down Hitler and his ideology is not by getting on a soapbox with him, but if you can reduce him to something laughable, you win.”
James Austin of SNL’s impressions of POTUS are spot-on. The recent New Yorker cover of him as Patton at “War-a-Largo” with his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in the sidecar is a sad send-up on his escalation of the war in Iran.
After the ‘24 election, a headline in satirical newspaper The Onion read: “Trump calls Harris to congratulate himself on winning.” This joke/haikus is nearly perfect except for one thing. I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually happened. That is the challenge for the satirists in Trump’s bizarre world. He’s impossible to mock. Truth is stranger than fiction. Here, reality overtakes satire. Former Onion editor Scott Dikkers recalls how many of the jokes he published in his 2016 book “Trump’s America: The Complete Loser’s Guide” read like real news. For example “Donald Trump’s World Map” shows Canada as the next 50 states.
This is how President Lyndon Johnson responded to the Smothers Brothers political satire: “It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.” There was no fear of retribution here. No threat of FCC license revocation, as is the case today in his battles with Jimmy Kimmel and the major TV networks over Iran coverage.
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your mouth
Blowing down the back roads heading south
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe
~ Bob Dylan
I look forward to the day when I can laugh at and with the president again.
More mettle
After I take out the trash every week I watch and wait for the Can Ladies. They are two enterprising women who collect bottles and cans for cash in our Danvers neighborhood. Like moths to the flame, they flutter for competitive position. Then they strike.
One ripped out the back seat of her jalopy for the sole purpose of fitting more containers. I admire their “can do” pluck. For me they exemplify Bill Belichcik’s “Do Your Job” coaching philosophy. As marketing director at JLL we brought him together with football legend Roger Staubach to speak about this and the parallels between sport and business.
Readers’ response to my previous column ‘Love your brain’:
“I see AI getting more powerful every day. More powerful and accurate.
“That being said, I have great concern for the average worker. I’ve read many reports that predict 50% of all entry level white collar jobs will be eliminated within five years due to the impact of AI. That’s bad for commercial real estate, but it’s worse for the psychological health of our children and grandchildren.”
Dave Martel,
Brookline
“When you got to the part ‘Feed your head’ I knew that it didn’t matter that you are no master when it comes to understanding AI. But one thing is for sure. There is nothing artificial about your love and ‘real’ knowledge of music and many other things.”
Lenny Taylor,
Wayne, N.J.
“Terrific Steve. Yeah it’s a scary AI universe. In the self-publishing world it’s running rampant as well. You can even get it to write the damn book for you. I don’t like it for many of the reasons you broach. I refuse to use it. For better or worse.”
Marc Silver,
Glendale, Calif.
Steve Steinberg lives in Danvers and is an adjunct professor in Endicott College’s Gerrish School of Business Graduate Program. He is a frequent contributor to The Salem News.