General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen I was involved in literature and drama eons ago,
the one group of authors and playwrights I was not particularly fond of was the absurdists such as Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, and Cocteau. I was involved in several dramatic productions and readings of these authors, and I was never thrilled but I certainly understood their significance in the literary pantheon.
The one thing I never considered would be that I would be living in an absurdist existence in which up is down, in is out, small crowds are large crowds, adultery, thievery, bribery , and extortion are admired, and the protagonist, the star, paints himself orange for the cameras.
And nobody whose words might set this situation right says a fucking thing. The response of the media, of law enforcement, of intelligence agencies has been as surreal as the play itself. It is as though a reviewer for the New York Times attended a Broadway production of a surreal drama and reviewed it utilizing word salad.
The entire society has lost its collective mind. Yes
we are all now insanely driven in one direction or another. Half the nation wakes up asking Is he dead yet? And the other half or one-third or whatever pledges their fealty to what might possibly be the most bizarre individual who is not presently incarcerated in the US of A.
Years of collective therapy awaits us all after this utter disaster.
John1956PA
(5,042 posts)John1956PA
(5,042 posts)
usonian
(26,013 posts)John1956PA
(5,042 posts)It was one of the few entries in which the Stooges' respective characters were not acquainted with one another.
I think Larry portrayed a drunkard, but I am not sure.
The part which freaked me out the most was the bird doing a bit of a dance and flapping its wings.
The Stooges' shorts arrived TV syndication in the late 1950s, I think.
If would be safe to assume that Trump, in his youth, was familiar with the Stooges' two-reelers.
Response to PCIntern (Original post)
sop This message was self-deleted by its author.
Kid Berwyn
(24,761 posts)
NJCher
(43,334 posts)On everyones faces.
Then look at Maxwell Stupid.
Haggard Celine
(17,869 posts)We can't agree on reality anymore, and that causes some absurd situations. People believe proven liars over truth-tellers, just because the liar tells them what they want to hear. People who want to destroy the government get elected to government offices. The most religious people in the country support the most evil man to ever be President. The absurdities are endless. And it feels like we're at the end of the line. What can follow times like these? Will we start sharing a common reality again after the Trump era? It just all seems so broken right now.
nuxvomica
(14,152 posts)Last edited Fri Apr 24, 2026, 12:07 PM - Edit history (1)
You can look at it that way.
erronis
(24,170 posts)I would agree with your feelings about being in a performance of many of these. Only sat through Waiting for Godot once.
NJCher
(43,334 posts)Show this post to a literature class at some point.
PCIntern
(28,477 posts)Escape
(496 posts)Only the Republicans can save us, but those in power appear to be feverishly dedicated to Trump's Fascist doctrine.
Across the country, the tide seems to be turning, but Republicans in the House and Senate and those in Trump's Circus Cabinet are working day and night on ways and means to steal the approaching elections.
bigtree
(94,467 posts)...countless times.
I think it's more interesting how all of this flailing around about someone confronting Trump has occurred while Trump is being confronted. The airwaves and print are packed with resistance.
What's missing is a defining election; an inflection point for Americans to weigh in with a significant effect. In fact, that's the ONLY limiter to our advocacy and opposition; the fact that we haven't yet had another defining vote that would restore some of the balance of power.
We're operating in a period where all sorts gaslighting is advantaged while our democracy gives heed and ability to republicans behind the last defining election's results.
I think thie energy in this angst can be better focused on the next election where we should see the true measure of whether most of us have lost our collective minds; this opportunity coming after most of us lost our collective will to materially confront republicans last election.
PCIntern
(28,477 posts)The Republicans used it as jiu-jitsu to permit the explosion of expressed racism and hate of all types, just as they stated with extreme falsity and hypocrisy that we were now living in a post-racial era.
All this with a complicit media which in the end was guilty of both-siderism in extremis.
bigtree
(94,467 posts)...as many of us are desperately defending what's left of the Democratic legislative progress that's defined our nation's progress for decades before republicans let Trump run roughshod over them.
Too many got caught up in their game of defining those advancements by the denigrations they make about our political leaders. Maybe we can get on with standing those back up and moving forward again.
ChazInAz
(3,024 posts)Ubu Roi.
"Merdre!"
Mme. Defarge
(9,035 posts)Crowd: But he doesnt need one!
The Leader by Eugene Ionesco is a production I was part of back when I was a student of French as an undergraduate. The crowd waits for hours for the Leader to appear, and when he does, well
usonian
(26,013 posts)With some Star Trek thrown in.
I eagerly await Trump being served.

Got some others on the disk drives.
Jean Genie
(548 posts)I hear you, my friend!
WestMichRad
(3,329 posts)Poignant essay.
Fil1957
(770 posts)premise of your post is correct.
PCIntern
(28,477 posts)Either youre with these motherfuckers or youre spending a fair percentage of your time agitated, hostile, on edge, dealing with sequelae of their policies, or scared for the Nation. Thats not a state of mind which stability and sanity necessarily prevails.
Fil1957
(770 posts)is a perfectly sane reaction to current events. I also said the basic premise of your post is correct. But I don't believe "the entire society has lost its collective mind", although large segments definitely have.
PCIntern
(28,477 posts)my contention is that all of us have been warped by this awful 12 year turn of events and will never be able to respond the same way we used to again. Im not saying that its an insanity but that we have all had our psyches altered, and not necessarily for the better.
Fil1957
(770 posts)Response to PCIntern (Original post)
jfz9580m This message was self-deleted by its author.
jfz9580m
(17,473 posts)Thanks to noise polluting creeps on the street outside.
Absurdism is on my mind a lot PCIntern. As I return from an induced state of mechanical, zombified thought to normal human ones.