By Ron Nilson, TPC Publisher
Watching the most recent Donald Trump "reality show" has brought to mind an all-time favorite sci-fi movie. With a little impish imagination, I can see the drama being played out between Trump and the Republican Party having a marked similarity to the movie plot.
Here's a quick synopsis of Forbidden Planet, the classic from 1956:
In the 23rd century an expedition from earth travels to a distant planet to learn what became of a previous expedition. They find a survivor, a scientist and who tells them about the Krell, a highly evolved race which once inhabited the planet, but had mysteriously disappeared. They learn of an enormous atomic powered machine built by the Krell and capable of materializing anything imagined. Thus, it is possible to form and project matter with the power of thought.
But there's a problem (no doubt). While projections could result from thoughts in the conscious mind, the same could be spawned by the unconscious mind. While the Krell built a culture which on the outside appeared orderly and beneficial, inwardly there was a massive amount of pent up destructive desire which coalesced in the society's collective unconscious to create an "Id Monster", an indestructible energy force which inevitably turned on them and ultimately wiped them out.
Using the film as an analogy, the GOP then represents the Krell and Donald Trump is the Id Monster, the manifestation of the Party's repressed dark side which cannot be contained or controlled. The harder the party has tried to hold it back, the bigger and more powerful it has become, until finally bursting forth with full force. It appeared first in a diffuse state as the Tea Party, and now in the concentrated form of a Presidential candidate.
Just as the Id Monster was created from the Krell's own repressed but powerful desires, Trump is a monster of the Republican Party's own making, created from the energies of it's essential destructive truth, buried beneath the veneer of slick talking points and sound bites. In a public "autopsy" the Party dissected its defeat in the last Presidential election, declaring the cause to be a failure to communicate its commitment to inclusiveness and concern for all Americans. It claimed to have seen the light and promised to correct past mistakes.
But a leopard can't change its spots, and the repressed side of the Republican psyche remained. Behind closed doors, in the belly of the base, the same old GOP lurked, stubbornly unrepentant, hostile toward those who are different, afraid of anything that departs from the "way God intended".
It's here, in the belly, where the party's collective unconscious has coalesced to bring forth its own version of the Id Monster. The Donald has become a force unto himself. He cannot be controlled and all attempts to eliminate him have failed. He has become a poison for which there is no known antidote.
This is reminiscent of another sci-fi classic - Alien. There's a scene where its revealed that Ash, the ship's science officer, is actually a machine which has been instrumental in bringing the creature on board. Before being terminated by the crew, he informs them that the monster they're dealing with is hostile in the extreme and also indestructible. His last bone-chilling words are, "You have my sympathy".
Alas, those same words are now all one has to offer the Republican Party.
Watching the most recent Donald Trump "reality show" has brought to mind an all-time favorite sci-fi movie. With a little impish imagination, I can see the drama being played out between Trump and the Republican Party having a marked similarity to the movie plot.
Here's a quick synopsis of Forbidden Planet, the classic from 1956:
In the 23rd century an expedition from earth travels to a distant planet to learn what became of a previous expedition. They find a survivor, a scientist and who tells them about the Krell, a highly evolved race which once inhabited the planet, but had mysteriously disappeared. They learn of an enormous atomic powered machine built by the Krell and capable of materializing anything imagined. Thus, it is possible to form and project matter with the power of thought.
But there's a problem (no doubt). While projections could result from thoughts in the conscious mind, the same could be spawned by the unconscious mind. While the Krell built a culture which on the outside appeared orderly and beneficial, inwardly there was a massive amount of pent up destructive desire which coalesced in the society's collective unconscious to create an "Id Monster", an indestructible energy force which inevitably turned on them and ultimately wiped them out.
Using the film as an analogy, the GOP then represents the Krell and Donald Trump is the Id Monster, the manifestation of the Party's repressed dark side which cannot be contained or controlled. The harder the party has tried to hold it back, the bigger and more powerful it has become, until finally bursting forth with full force. It appeared first in a diffuse state as the Tea Party, and now in the concentrated form of a Presidential candidate.
Just as the Id Monster was created from the Krell's own repressed but powerful desires, Trump is a monster of the Republican Party's own making, created from the energies of it's essential destructive truth, buried beneath the veneer of slick talking points and sound bites. In a public "autopsy" the Party dissected its defeat in the last Presidential election, declaring the cause to be a failure to communicate its commitment to inclusiveness and concern for all Americans. It claimed to have seen the light and promised to correct past mistakes.
But a leopard can't change its spots, and the repressed side of the Republican psyche remained. Behind closed doors, in the belly of the base, the same old GOP lurked, stubbornly unrepentant, hostile toward those who are different, afraid of anything that departs from the "way God intended".
It's here, in the belly, where the party's collective unconscious has coalesced to bring forth its own version of the Id Monster. The Donald has become a force unto himself. He cannot be controlled and all attempts to eliminate him have failed. He has become a poison for which there is no known antidote.
This is reminiscent of another sci-fi classic - Alien. There's a scene where its revealed that Ash, the ship's science officer, is actually a machine which has been instrumental in bringing the creature on board. Before being terminated by the crew, he informs them that the monster they're dealing with is hostile in the extreme and also indestructible. His last bone-chilling words are, "You have my sympathy".
Alas, those same words are now all one has to offer the Republican Party.
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