In one of those serendipitous moments I treasure, such as when a book that contains much of what I need to know about a topic practically falls off the library shelves into my lap without me consciously looking for it, the new President of the United States was elected around the same time as the release of the latest Star Wars movie, Rogue One. This co-incidence provoked a popular association of Trump with the leader of the dark side in that epic cosmic narrative, Darth Vader.
One of the problems for me in this analogy (and there are several, not least of which is that Vader has a presence Trump could never in a million light years muster) is that Darth Vader, like Lucifer, was once an angel, or as we Star Wars aficionados like to call such beings, a Jedi knight. Vader lost his way and chose the dark side, a decision that precipitated him right out of the good graces of heaven, or, if you’d rather, the select community of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Force.
In other words, Vader began his career as a good guy and stumbled. I can find no evidence anywhere of Donald Trump ever having been a good guy, or ever having been in a state of grace from which to fall.
There are early signs that the Force is beginning to rebel against the evil Trumpian empire in the form of the US judiciary. On Friday judges in two states, Washington and California, issued temporary restraining orders against the continuing enactment of Trump’s Executive Orders on immigration, otherwise known as the “Muslim ban.” Here is the text of one of those orders. Quite a startling read: how often is one likely to see restraining orders against the President of the United States? Perhaps frequently, in this administration.
Oh, my lord. Serendipity (or the Force) strikes again. My auto correct changed the United States into the Untied States. WTAF.
Trump has responded relatively mildly on Twitter, which is where presidential business, foreign and domestic, is conducted in these times:
We quite rightly mocked former President George W Bush for reducing complex affairs to a simplistic binary of good and evil. We argued for nuance, for the moral significance of detail, and against the immature demands of “you’re either with us, or against us.” Back then in the good old days, the Force still had wriggle room.
However, one of the more unfortunate changes rung by the ascension to power of Empire Trump is the successful diminishment of nuance to the status of complete irrelevance, rendering useless our arguments against simplistic perspectives. Nobody in power gives a wookie’s butt about the details of anything, and nuance is for losers:
Trump has (temporarily one hopes) achieved Bush’s goal: to divide the world into those for us and those against us, and to embed those divisions into implacable concepts of good and evil. We are now living in a Star Wars movie. The Empire has struck back, and it has knocked us silly.
The other disturbing difference between Vader and Trump is that in Vader one always senses the possibility, however small, of redemption. One senses no such possibility in Trump.
There’s a scarcity of Jedi knights, the Force is fading, and I can’t find my light sabres. (This is not a metaphor. There were two in this house, and they’ve vanished.) A woman’s place is in the Resistance, and the Princess’s words resonate as never before:
Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!
No Place For Sheep 
A good case for: Resistance is NOT futile – and in this, instance, constant attrition may wear the Trumplet’s power base down – turbulent times ahead, hoping for strength to the remaining Jedi knights, “may the force be”, out there!
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Indeed! May Trump be inundated with restraining orders and other instruments of the law.
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Oh Yes! “Instruments of the law”, hounding him on steroids.
*Rubbing hands with glee* Yes, yes, yes! No impotent anger – just, ‘just deserts’ and having faith in people standing up to, and resisting, tyranny, strategically – and, there will be many in various positions of power, great and small
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Your impotent anger makes Trump stronger!
How he must love seeing useless squeaky wheel Leftist idiots rioting in the streets, repeatedly confirming the opinion of normal productive citizens.
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I think you are giving him credit for far more sophistication & intelligence than he has, havana. He’s incapable of taking that stance, as he sees every objection to him as a personal insult to which he has to react.
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He reckoned Turnbull for what he is, in just a few short minutes on the phone.
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This takes no talent. Trumble is transparent.
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Ah, yes from his failure in 1999 spearheading the Republic movement, his implementation of toxic and dim lightbulbs, his failure as opposition leader up to losing the job in 2009, his two years of undermining his PM when Comms Minister, to his less than stellar “explainer-in-chief-supergenius-almost-lost-government-terrified-of-western-suburbs-voters (anyone west of Double Bay) – but all the while the ABC and Fairfax and any Leftist nitwit plugging him as an urbane genius, and “the kind of Liberal we could like (but never vote for)”.
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And yet your side elected him as leader for a second time?
Took his money, are beholden to him?
What a fucking idiot you are.
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What was sillier – electing Turnbull as leader twice, or Rudd as leader twice? Peas in a pod.
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Your argument wasn’t about what was sillier but:
“but all the while the ABC and Fairfax and any Leftist nitwit plugging him as an urbane genius, and “the kind of Liberal we could like (but never vote for)”.
So either you are referring to those within the Liberal Parliamentary party or to those that have no ability to change the leaders of the Liberal party.
Explain to me how the ABC can be so influential, when on the other hand the Conservatives continually berate the ABC for being elitist and a complete failure in attracting viewers in sufficient numbers compared to the Commercial stations.
Or that the Fairfax press is more influential among the electorate than the juggernaut of the Murdoch press’ Herald Sun and Telegraph?
I can’t stand the fucker Turnbull, how lame he is, which is only an indication of how absolutely fucking useless the big eared one that preceded him must have been to have been so quickly replaced by MT or as Credlin prefers to call him Mr. Harbourside Mansions.
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At least Rudd gave a $thousand to pensioners instead of ripping them off what appears to a similar amount when averaged out.
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Yes, there were certainly many commentators who should have known better expressing gratitude for the replacement of Abbott with Trumble.
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Yes, there were commentators who believed Trumble would make everything great again when he replaced Abbott.
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I’ve never been able to forgive him for the lightbulbs. Nor the ABC, or NBN.
I dont forging him for fellating Trump regardless of the damage likely done this nation either.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/05/donald-trump-lies-belief-totalitarianism
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The farce is with us.
Trump is rather more like Jabba the Hutt, but without the subtlety.
Trump, after PM Trumble’s telephone call.
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I think even Jabba has more depth & substance, DQ
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But Trump and his supporters see him and themselves as Luke Skywalkers or Han Solos or Princess Leia, pure and exceptional resistors fighting for purity against people they have been taught are Starship Troopers, or Evil (liberal in the american sense) Emperors or Darth Vaders like Obama.
I start to think of a world that is a hologram in the mind of Pat Robertson, some thing perhaps more properly out of the world of Dune or the medieval philosophers but I’m also in the midst of this Dream, like Arthur Dent from Hitch hikers Guide and wondering also from what rain cloud I have fallen as the dream turns weird.
Stars Wars is a bit mid western Oklahoma or Kansas Manichean, a bit like Judy Garland’s world of Oz and it is a dream we increasingly yearn to escape from, but it seems we are like the people who woke up in 1944 and found themselves in Normandy pinned down by German machine gun fire as reality callously intruded on some thing so odd it had seemed to be an unfolding fantasy.
I wili conclude on this cheery note.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/arkansas-abortion-law-that-will-let-rapists-sue-victims-husbands-second-trimester-a7561066.html
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This sounds like a Louis Borges short story
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One of my brighter students.
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You’ve tweaked a nerve, however.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exactitude_in_Science
At the dawning of a Trumble and Trump era, he might break a certain psychological log jam that’s developed over the last year.
As it says briefly in “Stairway to Heaven”, “my spirit is crying for leaving”, had enough of reality.
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PW, we have to think of ways to survive populism and publish them on Sheep.
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Jennifer, you might have to define “populism” first so we can get our bearings, it’s sticky I think, like goo.
Are you hedging your bets in wanting to survive it instead of opposing it?
Defining populism is like tar and feathering yourself with inklings, sage nods, nose taps with fingers, all round agreement and high fives, till you take a closer look at the feathers (like snowflakes, all different) and the varying viscosity of the tar.
I never got into the Star Wars thing, so I don’t understand the specific references but I get the gist of your piece, I like the way you write.
As I understand it Star Wars is a hugely popular box office commercial franchise with its own cognoscenti that resurrected Hollywood at a vital time and provided a model for international success for other film makers to imitate. It also sounded the death knell for independent film makers and made it increasingly difficult for less formulaic film makers to make films.
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Allthumbs, when did survival and opposition become incompatible goals?
Populism I define as the practice of a politics designed to attract votes without regard for the interests and well-being of all (or any) levels of community. It appeals to those who respond to slogans and bigotry and does not require any consideration of consequences.
As for Star Wars, I’m sure your last para is accurate. You have now ruined the last bit of child like entertainment left in my life.
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Your first point is a shot in the arm Jennifer.
I would never want to diminish the child in anyone, that was not my aim. But populism comes in all sorts of forms, and it serves different purposes for different masters to different ends. But given time the most superficial of messages gains depth, poignancy and profundity and finally legitimacy.
For instance, the TPP, an inordinately labyrinthine and complex document thousands of pages long was negotiated over eight years much of it in complete secrecy that involved the necessity to legislate new laws across an international forum for the cause of free trade. Because “free trade is good”, free trade is good for everyone”. Slogans and bigotry?
The TPP is the “practice of a politics designed to attract votes without regard for the interests and well-being of all (or any) levels of community. It appeals to those who respond to slogans and bigotry and does not require any consideration of consequences.”
The TPP negotiated by both left and right and rammed down the throats of the electorate, dressed itself in reasoned arguments, by seemingly reasonable people who found it necessary to keep the details from the people it was supposed to benefit.
But the politically uninformed knew it was a crock of nonsense and I would posit that the “uninformed” electorate has used Trump as much as Trump has used them.
Populism is a two edged sword.
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Yes, I agree allthumbs, and what isn’t a “two-edged sword” the the dark side is present within every bit of light, or as the late great Leonard Cohen sang, there’s a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.
I think that observation originated not with Cohen but Thoreau, or Emerson, not sure.
The difference between the uninformed electorate and the uninformed Trump is that he has the nuclear codes. Which, should he choose to let loose, makes everything else irrelevant.
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Thanks, Jennifer. You’ve always read me well.
allthumbs, no doubt Jennifer Wilson is referring to the sort of populism of people like Abbott, Trump, Howard, Trumble and his welfare-bashing, Morrison and Hanson that derives its support from the politically uninformed populace through dog whistle appeals to prejudices, in obtaining power for anti social purposes.
It is the opposite sort of politics to the politics that appeals through reasoned argument as carefully outlined rather than obscured policy with the general benefit in mind.
Many people have identified Bernie Sanders or, say Anthony Albanese to a lesser extent, as “populist”, but these people reveal through their willingness to argue rationally, the significant difference between them and the politicians mentioned earlier, who appeal to emotion above reason, this second type may also be persuasive communicators but communicators with motives diametrically different to those of hard right types drawn from a different view of human nature and society and the purposes of these.
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Yes, well said PW.
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Your post reminded me of the Borges short story in which a man dreamed himself dreaming himself, I can’t remember the name.
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So far, I’m enjoying the ‘The Golden Age of Trump’ as it will soon be known. The age of Glitz, Bling and Flash! If I had a son, I’d call him “Donald, The Magnificent One” and have him spray-painted orange. Such is my joy.
Forget Star Wars. It’s for girls. I’ve never gotten into it and try to avoid watching any sequel related to that infantile product.
Every week heralds new insights about the Great Man Donald. After eight years of Trump I’m going to be walking around with a perpetual hard-on such is my heightened sense of exultation.
So much winning and making old white men feel good about themselves, is too much to take – Donald is better than Viagra – it’s not bloody funny.
More Winning Today, Cory Bernardi will be unleashing The Australian Conservatives, a party I can be proud of once again. He’s going to Make Australia Great Again! So of course, I’m feeling extra bullish and somewhat brazen as I strut around the house in my straining shorts.
The humiliation of that leftist cuck Turnbull shows once more, that it’s definitely never been a more exciting time to be alive. And to see him lose his investment of $1.75 million on a vanity project – his purchase of the once great Liberal Party rebranded as his own and soon to be ripped to shreds by the voter gives me a sense of great Karmic delight.
Slightly better than Trump ripping his balls off and handing them back to him.
But I get ahead of myself. So much Winning!
And more winning today with the Patriots and Tom Brady, a Trump supporter, winning the Super Bowl. The last time a champion was 18 points in the lead like the Atlanta Falcons were and then lost in the last closing minutes of the game was when Hillary was in the lead and um, lost to …well, you get the idea!
Winners are Grinners. Expect to see more boasting from Frank very soon…Fuck! I forgot to mention Tony Abbott. He’ll be feeling like a Winner too.
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Melania at sometime will break, her growing repulsion of the orange one being anywhere within 500 miles of her will surface by way of a public tirade in fluent Slovenian enumerating a number of the strange practices of Trump.
WikiLeaks is always even handed and I expect a number of revelations in the not too distant future concerning your friend and mine.
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I’m deeply impressed that Frank the Magnificent One will be able to walk around with a hard on for eight years.
Winners certainly are grinners, but Frank, the only thing you need to avoid is one of these pesky women coming along to defellate, er sorry, deflate you after seven or eight years, for that would be a case of pain with no gain, perhaps?
Since Melania can’t or wont be living with the Donald for reasons I can’t begin to imagine, am interested to know if other readers think Frank might be in trouble should Melania, ( out of boredom?), visit here to discover if the truth about Frank’s long-standing record is not just a pipe-dream, given the Donald seemingly being remiss in the performance of his marital duties and if readers can speculate on exactly what Frank might have deflated were Melania’s visit to occur.
Woman reader’s contributions would be particularly appreciated…are they responsive to Frank’s hard on (story) and how would they assist him in the pursuit of his goal.
Dq, your assessment, also…
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I suspect Nurse mixed up the medications and gave Frank 10 times the dose of Viagra, intended for her boyfriend. He should have got the antipsychotics, same dose as the Donald.
Use a pooper scooper on his posts, Paul.
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Yes. I can’t believe that walking around for eight years is going to be good for a prostate.
Wear and tear and the trousers, that could be expensive also.
Frank will be in strife if Wilson holds to her threat to revisit him come autumn.
That’s particularly if she hasn’t had a tub by then.
Still, the course of true love never did run true..
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A tub, PW? I do actually clean up every day, often more than once, even though there’s little point as one is drenched in sweat again five minutes later.
Now we have no kitchen at our house, it is being pulled apart there are great holes in the wall and lots of workmen.
Fortunately friends round the corner have gone away and are letting us live in their house while our is uninhabitable.
Anyways what kind of a man can’t cope with the erotic scents of a woman’s sweat?
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Would not you rather be primped and virginal, ready for the great honour of being presented before Frank the Magnificent one?
Tingling with anticipation, desperate to do any thing that would improve the Godhead’s impression; ensure the immanent transporting privilege?
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Ummmm………..no
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“Star Wars is for girls”
I could tear that statement to suppurating shreds if I wasn’t three quarters dead from heat and humidity. I’ll get back to you in autumn, Frank.
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Same advice as for Paul: use a pooper scooper on his posts.
🙂
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“Trump Botoxes prostate!!”
http://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/potential-side-effects-of-the-drug-trump-reportedly-takes-for-hair-loss/ar-AAmGooO?li=AA4RDf&ocid=spartanntp
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