I do not believe the Bible is perfect and infallible.

I’ve been a Christian now for just over 50 years and I’ve had quite an interesting walk with Jesus.  And my faith has grown and my understanding has evolved.  I can say that today after the hardest 9 years of my life, I love Jesus more today than ever and am closer to him than I’ve ever been.   He is absolutely necessary for my happiness.   While I know that I’ve been spiritually “rogue” most of my adult life, in years past I now see that I was a Bible thumper on a few issues that I've since repented of and see that I was clearly wrong, bigoted, intolerant, or deceived.   After now being in a place I've not been before, of having lost everything,  I am trying to find a purity in my faith and be a more accurate demonstration to others of the Love that I know Jesus has for me and mankind. By the Grace of God I will overcome and I will be restored.

It is now my belief that the True message of God is not nearly as complicated as the various orthodox churches have made it.  It’s pretty simple.  
Love God, Accept Jesus as your Lord, and Love your neighbor Period.

And I am trying to walk out that simplicity in Love. I miss the mark many times, but that does not mean the Mark is wrong. It has taken me too long to see that every single solution to the problems that beset this world can be solved by me chosing to Love my fellow man and to Love God.

I believe that God Himself understood that the entire issue of Faith in Him was difficult to grasp.  And many other religions offered a god to people that was whatever the priests said that god might be.  In the case though of Christianity, God said, "I'm going to make this easier for you.  I'm going to come to Earth and show you all the Exact Representation of Myself".  And then He did that thru Jesus.

Here is what I have reduced it to as being important and foundational about the bible and the Christian walk.

1.  Millions of Christians today would say they are Bible Believing Christians (BBCs), but I have never met one that actually was.  I would have proclaimed myself as one in years past, but I was a phony in that affirmation.   I am not one of them.  I do believe the Bible is the best, finest, most important, life-changing book ever written and unequaled in its Divine picture of God. It contains many of the words of God Himself from the Father or the Son.   And it has many excellent teachings in it from men/women who had a closer walk with God than myself and therefor are good lessons/mentors to me.   The world and mankind often times (though not always) have been better because of it. In the case of those imperfect rulers and armies who have held it forth as their banner to go and slaughter people it has certainly not been stellar in its motivation.  The Bible, nor God, has ever been on the side of War.  I am a better Christian, man, father, friend and a better person for having it, studying it and holding it dear.   It inspires me.  Gives me Peace in turbulence.  Gives me Hope in distress.  Motivates me.  Assuages my fears.  Refreshes me.   Other times it has beat me into the ground because of me using it as a stick to beat my own self over the head with or worse for others to beat me up with.   I have though been just as inspired, motivated, and refreshed by the gospels of Nicodemus, Mary, and Thomas as I have been by the books in the "authorized" book we call the Bible.  I am also inspired as much by the writing of St. Francis and St. Augustine as I am James' and the other epistles.

2.  I believe that most of what the Bible has accomplished in changing men and women came as a result of the 4 gospels and, as we call them, The Red Letter verses, and that all the other books just add to the Christian's life.  In at least a few cases though, the other books have given them a whole new set of instructions or laws to obey. For many, many of them, they don't just become instructions but have become a whole new law of touch not, taste not that have put “Bible-Believing-Christians” in bondage rather than freedom.    I think the world would have been just as positively impacted if the Bible had been just the 4 gospels, and maybe even better and certainly with fewer divisions. It might have been better with 8 or 9 Gospels?

3.  I believe the messages and words in the Bible are the finest hope for mankind walking toward his eternal life and they are the greatest lifeline to bring back those who have walked away.  But the 4 gospels, or at least their message, are the Only Hope for finding that Eternal life to pursue in the first place.

4.  I believe the Bible, any of them, as written in its wholeness, is a great guide book to speed along the Christian's walk toward maturity.   I also believe a person could achieve just as great, or greater degree of maturity, even if illiterate and never reading a word, but spending their life walking in the shadow of Mother Theresa, my missionary friends in north Africa, or the founder of Waco's mission to the homeless, night and day.  As I've already pointed out, using it as a strict guide book to the letter, it would have also resulted in the body of Christ biologically being eliminated in the first century. It would taken bottles of Pepto Bismal off the shelves of BBC homes and replaced with bottles of Gallo Rose.  We would have our leaders summoning people up before the congregations and speaking them to be cast down dead for not bringing all of their possessions to the church for sharing.  We would each own nothing privately, but all would be held in common.  There would be no rich or poor among the brethen, but all would be equal.  And men would all be marrying young girls of about 12 when they entered womanhood.    Granted these are extreme examples.  But for those who say it is perfect and inerrant, they can't get a "free pass" to say "oh, except that verse".

5.  I believe the words of Jesus in the 4 gospels and Acts were in fact what He said, in more-or-less, the words He said them. It is not important to me that the words be known to be the exact interpretation.    The author/writer may have not gotten the quotes word-for-word, and that's not important.   I believe those are the True, Perfect, Infallible, inerrant, expressions, thoughts, instructions, counsel, admonitions, assurances, and warnings from the Mouth of God Himself.   And He did this because He knew that the concept was just too hard to fully comprehend without Him coming and showing us exactly what God looks like. In our frailty we need a God that can be touched or at least know that someone has touched Him.  Without meaning irreverence, to use a colloquial expression "it came straight from the horse's mouth".  I also believe those 4 gospels were the only ones chosen by a bunch of old men (only) in about 400 AD and not the others because those 4 most exemplified the world view the leaders wanted the sheep to follow and they had a personal agenda that narrowing it to only those 4 gospels promoted.

6.  I can imagine, though not know, that as He was with the disciples, He could very well have spoken to them, like I would to one of my kids and have said "now write this down so you remember it". I doubt though He then said, "and be sure to take them to the synagogue on Saturdays and make sure you read it along with Isaiah and the prophets."   

7.   The Word of God is not printed.  The Gospel of John said: He is the Word become flesh.  But mankind has always needed something to touch and look at to put with their faith.  The Jews coming out of Israel needed the stones.  They needed to be able to look down at their penises and see something tangible and say "ah!   I'm in".    Now we have a book and we can claim that is the way that God has spoken to the church.  We can hold it up as a mark of faith. We can use it to measure our lives up against and still say "I'm in".   Or put a bumper sticker on the car saying 'God said it, I believe it, that settles it"  (at least for the scriptures that they still think apply).  I believe that most of mankind believe they need a book of Absolute Infallible Perfect instructions to put faith in, because they do not want the responsibility of hearing God themselves.   I believe that the orthodoxy of the church denominations today is that we don’t need to hear God ourselves but to come to church and the leaders and teachers will tell us what God says.

8.  Unfortunately with #7, I have seen in my life that mankind is most prone to one of three opinions   I am better than Him, I am Ok, He is better than me.   And the problem with letting the entire book become THE benchmark, it also gives us an opportunity to identify who is out.   I cannot see in Jesus life that He spent much time teaching about who the losers were.   He did announce that there were some losers, but then He focused on how to be a winner and offered us a race that everyone can win.  He basically said "no one has to lose". "Everyone who comes into my House, gets a 1st place trophy".

9.  Even with my narrow focus on what is Infallible (I don't like the word a lot, but it's the best I can think of to make my point), I can still be weak and worldly and once in a while catch myself looking at folks and have an opinion about whether they are "in" or "out".  And I hate myself later for it.   Now for the past few years when I realize I'm doing that I now very quickly repent and repent and repent.  When my children were growing up, I told them often that the easiest way to explain to anyone that their stick was crooked, was to lay a straight stick down next to it.  I am trying as hard as I can, and praying fervently that my straight stick is simply: "do they profess the name of Jesus as Lord and acknowledge Him as "their" Savior?" And if I cannot determine that then I can simply look at their lives and see if they Love others.   I believe it has to be a personal relationship because even Satan knows that Jesus is Lord.  Any person can be “in” regardless of their earthly condition and nothing can separate us once we have made our personal choice.  Nothing.

10.  I'm not suggesting someone do it, because of the spiritual elitism of it, but if there was a bumper sticker that said "Jesus said it.  I believe it" I would think that was something I'd see and say "Amen".   I believe that some of the rest of the NT is for another culture and another time, and may have been written for specific problems that different churches were encountering at the time.  I seriously doubt that Paul or the other writers ever imagined that the church would take those letters and base a dozen dozen dozen different denominations, sects, and factions on them or worse, make a new set of laws from them. 

11.   If Jesus said it, I believe He meant that.   And if He didn't mention something it wasn't worth mentioning. His teachings are timeless.   His teachings and words reflect the Words of God, because He is the Word of God.

12.  Lastly for now, as of 2:45 am, Sunday, October 11, I believe that the life of Jesus as I read it is available for me and each of you, to walk out exactly as He did except greater works could we do.   Any impediment to us walking that walk is on our side of unbelief and not on His part.   He desires for us to do what He did and if it wasn't available to us, He would have just told the disciples to remember Him and his deeds.   The reason the Church is not walking in His complete steps is because the leadership is not walking in it and so they can't disciple others to do so.

a Conspiracy of Illusions

I recently finished watching a series of 5 docudramas entitled Chernobyl.  It was an event from 1986 that I remember when there was an explosion in what is now Ukraine, but at the time was part of the Soviet Union.  I suppose I always just thought it was a problem and it caused a large area to be evacuated and remain evacuated today, but never realized exactly how close a majority of the population of the Soviet Union and Europe came to be wiped out.  It was a thought provoking, profound, and enlightening (albeit sobering) 5 hours. 

There is a quote from one of the main characters, who in the series helps mastermind the solution and cleanup.  I've gone back and listened to it a few times because it's rather profound.

"What is the cost of lies? 

It is not that we will mistake them for the truth. The danger is that if we hear enough lies, that we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then but to abandon the hope for the truth and content ourselves with stories?  In the stories it doesn't matter who the heroes are. All we want to know is who is to blame."

After I finished the series, my friend who had recommended it, suggested I also listen to the NPR Podcast on each one of the series that was an interview with the author/writer/producer.  I did listen.   In retrospect, I wish that I’d listened to the podcast at the end of each movie rather than all at the end.  

Without going into a description of all the narrative, I can say that at the end of the final podcast, the author was asked by the interviewer, what exactly was the one single point that he had learned from the entire experience which he had so carefully researched and documented.   The series covered many things, but the primary was the lies the Soviet Union told the world, themselves, and the people.   The author said that he’d come to see that each of us, whether in the Soviet Union, or today in America, live in a “conspiracy of illusions” and that he said he felt we did so because there were certain truths that men and women just could not accept/tolerate/endure or feel secure with.  And so, we let ourselves believe lies.    That expression stuck with me.

Like you reading this, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that I certainly don’t willingly live my life in lies or illusions.   But then the author gave an example of a green light.   He pointed out that each of us drive through a green light, usually at the normal rate of speed, and “believe” that we are safe because we have the green light.   In fact though, the green light is an illusion to us because it does not guarantee our safety.  It only keeps us safe, as long as the person with the red light stops, either by choice, or not stops by choice, or runs the light involuntarily.    I realized he was exactly correct.

For the past three days, I’ve been examining my own life to see how many illusions I can identify that I choose, consciously or subconsciously to believe, or illusions that I’ve had, but since discovered were not real or true.

My initial list may prompt the reader to examine their own lives.  I’ve also realized many illusions that I see in others, but don’t believe in myself.  I’ve included those as well, as a reminder to myself to not believe something similar.

Tomorrow will be like today.   Just as good, or just as bad. 

Disasters are certainly prone to happen.  But certainly only happen in other places, to other people.

I will be alive tomorrow so there is no urgency for any matter today, that I can wait and do tomorrow.   There will always be tomorrow.  

People who die in traffic accidents probably died because they were careless, drunk, distracted, or bad drivers.  I’m a good and cautious driver and I have no danger of being killed on the road in my life time.

Others should understand any tardiness of mine, because I am a busier person than they are.  

I can text and drive, because I'm really careful about being distracted.

I am safe and secure in my home because it has a locked door.

I am in control of my life and all the decisions I make.

I can rescue my children from their adversities.

Children sent to religious universities will get a better (from my point of view) education because those schools were established on a Christian foundation like Baylor, TCU, SMU.

Raise up a child in the way of the Lord and when they are old they will not depart from it.

If you're suffering hunger, you've probably failed to follow God closely enough to depend on Him for your needs.

I will be loved to the same extent that I love.

The church is a place of safe haven for all in need.

The United States is a morally upright country and only does things that need to be done for good in the world.  The USA is exceptional.

Health food makes me healthier.

I cannot make a difference in the changing the world by my self.

As long as I obey the law, government cannot make me do something I shouldn’t.

If you always do the "right" thing, you'll always come out to the good.

Although with some flaws, the United States is a good and Godly country.

People should be trusted until they show they cannot be trusted.

People with more education than me about a particular subject, are more likely to be right about a question on that subject than I am.

I can pledge my allegiance to a flag and a country.

I have some moral responsibility toward Endangered species to be protected and preserved.

Governments exist to protect me.

God blesses America more than others.

In the same vein as the last, God takes sides in wars.  And if the United States is in a war God is always on our side.

It might be ok to hate your enemies.   

Some people are not worthy of my, or other's, or society's forgiveness.

Being poor is primarily a result of making poor decisions. If you don't have a job it's because you don't want a job.

Being illiterate or uneducated is strictly a result of not taking school serious or paying attention.

Everyone in the USA have the same opportunity for education or success or greatness as anyone else.

White people, or any people, are not privileged.

I am not deceived about anything.

Democracy is the highest ideal of government and we know that everyone else would like it if they had it.   And we're going to show them how good it is, even if we have to kill them or destroy their country.   Sometimes you just have to destroy a village to save it.

Military service equals a status of warrior/protector/saint/admiration

USA Military only makes good decisions for freedom and our liberty.

Most other nations have people who are naturally inferior to Americans.

Because I am alive, I was born with certain rights.

I have a right to happiness, success, or freedom.

If I can't pay for my own healthcare or welfare, someone else should have to.

Demons are only in bad, evil, tormented people.  I have no demons.

Christians cannot have demons and if they did, they would know it.

I am the best judge of my own flaws or short comings.

The Month of March exists to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like.  

I can trust that Fluoride in my drinking water is good for me because the government says it isn’t harmful?

I can believe that food is safe to eat because the government tells me they inspected it.

Government workers are public servants.

Being a veteran gives me some specialness or uniqueness or privilege.

The Brazilian Fisherman reaching success!

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.
As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.
The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

How Christianity Changed the World

The New Hebrides — which is now the nation of Vanuatu — was an area known for infanticide, cannibalism, the sacrifice of the wives after the death of their husbands, violence, murder and theft during the early 1800s when John Geddie arrived as a missionary. After 24 years of devoted service he died. Following his death, a commemorative tablet was placed in his memory: “In memory of John Geddie….When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here, and when he left in 1872, there were no heathen.”

That’s a result of the first Christmas more than 2000 years ago.

R.R. Palmer, a major historian from Yale, wrote, “It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the coming of Christianity. It brought with it, for one thing, an altogether new sense of human life. For the Greeks had shown man his mind; but the Christians showed him his soul. They taught that in the sight of God, all souls were equal, that every human life was sacrosanct and inviolate. Where the Greeks had identified the beautiful and the good, had thought ugliness to be bad, had shrunk from disease and imperfection and from everything misshapen, horrible, and repulsive, the Christian sought out the diseased, the crippled, the mutilated, to give them help. Love, for the ancient Greek, was never quite distinguished from Venus. For the Christians held that God was love, it took on deep overtones of sacrifice and compassion.”

Christmas is obviously more about changing lives (and society) than toys, trees, and tinsel.

Following Constantine’s “conversion” in A.D. 325, the churches especially in the West, built and maintained hospitals, hospices for travelers and houses for orphans, widows and the indigent. The churches were the only group that the poor could look to as the Empire was crumbling. In fact, the Church in Rome supported 1,500 widows and virgins, as well as those ill in inns, prisoners and many of the poor. A number of hospitals were founded by rich Christians in various cities.

At the first ecumenical council at Nicaea in 325, the bishops were told to establish hospices (a place for travelers to rest) in every city that had a cathedral — which was the major town in a parish where the bishop lived and ruled! The first hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea in A.D. 369. Christian hospitals (the only kind) covered all of Europe and even beyond by the Middle Ages. In fact, it is said that Christian hospitals were the world’s first voluntary charitable institutions.

Note that the atheists and agnostics did not build hospitals and other charitable organizations.

Historians note that charitable organizations are almost unknown in the ancient world until after the time of Christ.

Monasteries in the early days of Christianity generated the copying of Scripture and other literature, especially from Greece, and their libraries provided the inspiration for the first universities in the twelfth and thirteenth century.

Kenneth Latourette declared in his classic seven-volume “A History of the Expansion of Christianity”: “After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Church, impelled by its Christian purpose, had become the schoolmaster of Western Europe and the tutor of the barbarian of the North. Under its auspices most of the universities of the Middle Ages had arisen.”

The notion of public education first came from the Protestant Reformers who taught male and female of all classes. In America, the first law to require education of the masses was passed by the Puritans. The law was called The Old Deluder Satan Act. Furthermore, the rise of the modern university is largely the result of Christian educational endeavors. And in 1910, America had 403 educational institutions of college grade under Protestant or Baptist sponsorship. All but one of the first 123 colleges in colonial America were Christian institutions. America’s university system emerged from the American seminaries: Princeton headed by John Witherspoon and Yale headed by Timothy Dwight.

Christianity changed the rules of behavior and produced a middle class not known to mankind. It had always been the rich and poor, the elite and the serfs. But with Christ who was a carpenter and Paul who was a tent maker, physical labor was now respectable and no longer limited to slaves and serfs. There was honor in all work and workers were to be treated fairly. All ethnic groups would be respected since all people were created by God. Laziness and idleness were seen as sinful. “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” was an admonition by the Apostle Paul. Thus, work was seen as an honorable and God-given calling. That helped produce a vibrant middle class.

The free world owes much to nonconformist Christianity with its emphasis on freedom of thought and liberty for everyone. It taught people to question the established church and legal systems. One of the first mass leaders of men was John Ball, a free preacher without a parish or pulpit but with plenty of pull. He was the first leader of a mass revolt in 1381 and had great influence preaching the doctrines of Bible translator John Wycliffe.

John Wesley (died 1790) was not only a great Methodist preacher but fought against bribery, smuggling, the plundering of wrecked vessels and general corruption of politics. He worked hard to relieve poverty and started missions to prisoners. He was a pioneer in prison reform. Before 1500, very few had attempted any prison reform. He was called “the best loved man in England.”

James Oglethorpe, John Howard, Robert Raikes, John Oberlin, William Wilberforce and scores of other Christian leaders made an astounding impact on Europe and the world.

Without a doubt, this carpenter from a hick town in Galilee changed the world as no other person who ever lived.

He also changed me.

Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives and writes columns for USA Today and authored 17 books.

Group Psychology: Manipulating the Masses

The question each man or woman should consider, but seldom will, is "are they part of the herd or an individual.  Most think they go thru life as independent creatures making their own decision, when in fact they are just part of various groups and allowing others to shape and influence almost every thing they do.

From the 1929 Book Propaganda, by Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud.

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.  Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of socieity constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.  We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of . .  .in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . .who understand the mental processess and social patterns of the masses.  It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world."

For a more detailed look at this manipulation, in a wonderfully edited 11 minute and 50 second video, I'd recommend the Academy of Ideas on Group Psychology.  The Academy is neither right nor left, Dem or GOP, conservative or liberal.  It is a group of "free" thinkers that present the very most balanced perspectives on hundreds of different topics.

My advice to all:   Be the Stallion and not part of the herd.  If you're not the lead dog in the pack, your scenery in life never changes.

Pas de deux. The artistry of canned feces?

to my daughter,

We both have much trouble understanding how/why anyone can still be supporting DT?

I found this article interesting in its insights about the ability of people to be deceived. And more than be deceived, appear to think its the norm.   Sort of like "the Emperor has no clothes".

There are two great life lessons here.   1.  We are deceived because we want to be deceived.  and 2.   We don't know we are deceived (otherwise we wouldn't be).

The article below reminded me of seeing the Oscars several years ago and Bob Dylan was on the stage singing some song that he'd written for a movie that was nominated.   He came on stage in a hat and clothes that looked like he'd 1. dug out of dumpster 2. had slept in for the past week, and 3. were a hodgepodge of style.

Plus . . . he was totally and completely stoned or inebriated or whatever, beyond understanding.   He appeared on stage and began singing/slurring/mumbling words that were almost completely beyond understanding.   He was absolutely pathetic.   If he was an animal you would have wanted to shoot him and put him out of his misery.

Stevie Wonder could have done a better job at being an air traffic controller. 

  

But as he sang, rather than focusing the cameras on his incoherent babbling, I guess the producers/director decided it would be better to break away and shoot photos of the audience's attention to the performance.  I would have expected smirks or frowns or downcast heads of embarrassment at what was happening on stage.   But alas . .  .what I saw in everyone of the Hollywood artist-elite-cognoscenti faces was awe and amazement and apparent adoration.   Go figure? 

And the two that were most in "awe" were Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones.   In fact they were in such awe in their front row seats, that the camera went back and forth to them.   Dylan's voice became almost background sound and the director's efforts worked.  The viewer's attention was focused away from the dribble of this poetic-drooling-idiot-"artist" on stage and instead was directed to the famous-people who apparently showed that they could appreciate such avant-garde artistic endeavor and the artist himself. 
"heaven's no Catherine. He's not drooling saliva.   Why dear, can't you see that is sweat from putting such heart and soul into his singing!"

   

And then . . . finally the misery was over, and Dylan finished.   And with the camera focused on Michael Douglas and his wife . . .they were the first to do what I could not imagine.    The two of them were the first to stand, and then the entire auditorium stood, and clapped long and hard for this "genius".    The camera briefly returned to Dylan but then cut away quick, I would assume to keep from showing him stumble off the stage or perhaps be carried.   I was grateful that Dylan must have been so wiped out that he was not able to come back out for an encore. Or . . perhaps he did want to go back out to the adoration of his smiling fans?    (I could imagine in my mind the director running and scrambling back stage . . . . yelling "hell no, double hell no.  don't let that imbecile back out!. Break to commercial" and fearing he would try to go back out, and yelling for someone to try and restrain him with the temptation of another syringe in hand or saying "oh no, no Bob.  Here's a pipe. toke up pal and keep the edge off)

from the National Review online. 
Saturday May 13

The Campaign Is Over

 . . . . . . . . but there’s another form of the campaign mentality that is keeping people from thinking clearly now. Say what you will about Trump’s thyroidal tweeting and aphasic outbursts, it worked for him.

Trump’s approach was so unfathomably strange, so otherworldly in the realm of Earth logic, that his biggest fans had to believe it was all part of some grand strategy. This is a natural human response. When something or someone is so incomprehensibly strange and yet successful, we often assume there’s a genius at work that is just beyond our ability to grasp. Bernie Madoff bilked billions from people who just couldn’t bring themselves to argue with success.

I’ve always thought that some modern artists are also con artists. They create something so strange, so aesthetically alien, that insecure rich people assume it must be a work of a genius, so they’re willing to spend vast sums to convince other people that a) they can afford to indulge in it, and b) they’re members of the cognoscenti, too. The greatest example of this is probably Piero Manzoni’s Merda d’artista. In 1961, Manzoni literally crapped in a can — 90 tins to be exact. He printed out labels for the cans that read:

Artist’s Shit
Contents 30 gr net
Freshly preserved
Produced and tinned
in May 1961

In a touch that no novelist would dare attempt, Manzoni’s father, who actually owned a cannery, told his son: “Your work is sh**.”

It was a pas de deux of taking something both literally and seriously.

Last August, Manzoni’s canned feces sold at auction for 275,000 euros.

The Art of the Can

Much has been written about how Donald Trump became a billionaire by being, if not an outright con artist, then certainly a kind of performance artist. He sold an image, a lifestyle, a brand. “I play to people’s fantasies,” Trump “wrote” in The Art of the Deal. “I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion.”

And, again, it worked for him. I don’t think Trump is as rich as he claims, but so what? He’s rich enough and he’s famous and, now, he’s president.

But what so many people can’t — or won’t — contemplate is that what worked for Trump in business, self-promotion, and even the presidential election may not transfer to the presidency itself.

This is a staggeringly obvious insight that many people are contorting themselves not to see. Sometimes skills don’t transfer. Piero Manzoni was arguably the most successful canner of feces in human history. I am happy to acknowledge that. But if I were wheeled on a gurney into an operating room, I would not take much solace from that fact if he were my heart surgeon.

Don’t worry Mr. Goldberg, I made a fortune spackling sh** into a can. You’ll be fine. Nurse, hand me that sharp thing.

Michael Jordan was a kind of artistic genius at basketball. Do I really have to belabor the point that those skills don’t necessarily translate into being a successful president?

I am shocked, daily, by the number of people who cannot let go of the idea — the article of faith, really — that Donald Trump has his opponents right where he wants them. The logical upshot of this is that he somehow meant to have historically craptacular poll numbers. I mean if he can execute his will and play ten moves ahead of the rest of us, then this must be part of his plan, right?