Unprecedented would be a fair characterization of this election season, with events unfolding as if directly teleported from a fantastical movie or a gripping television show. In the meandering mindscape of Oscar Wilde, there’s an essay, a play of Platonic dialogue, titled ‘The Decay of Lying.’ It professes the demand for aestheticism over realism in literature, hoping for a reduction in our grotesque worship of reality. Here’s a translation in a language Donald Trump is fluent in: revere the unadorned truth; render deception as pompous fiction again. And just like that, a recollection is triggered of seven instances when life merrily decided to masquerade as the arts.
The dramatic exit of President Joe Biden from the electoral race, and the consequent elevation of his sidekick, Kamala Harris, could just be straight out of an HBO series. Remember Veep, when vice president Selina Meyer bestowed upon her assistant the enamoring revelation? ‘The man on the throne…he isn’t going to vie for another term. And guess who is running next? Me!’ But don’t we live vicarious realities through such shows, only to recognize them play out in our political theatres, sometimes to our disappointment!
Laura Loomer took a detour from sanity by sampling canine cuisine. Quite reminiscent of a scene from Paddington 2, where Hugh Grant essays the role of a narcissistic actor slaving through commercial gigs, fantasizing of a life devoid of ‘canine-meal days.’ He assumes the role of a large-eared hound and extols the virtues of ‘Harley’s Gourmet Din Dins,’ all while gulping down a spoonful of it. And here we have Loomer, who somehow thought it was suitable to mirror such an experience in real life.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is an unnerving echo of dystopian novels like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale. This political game plan, ready to plunge our future into bleakness, talks about decimated reproductive rights, rampant deportations, and an unhealthy increase in presidential powers. Can’t say we didn’t see the resemblances and the chilling implications it might have.
Donald Trump’s larger-than-life presidential term and Kamala Harris’s sartorial picks made us revisit The Simpsons, which has often strangely predicted the future. In ‘Bart to the Future,’ an episode that aired way back in March 2000, newly-minted president Lisa Simpson ruminates on the budget mess she inherited from a certain former president Trump. We couldn’t help but draw parallels to the real world when Kamala Harris donned her purple outfit and pearl accessories to take her oath of office as Vice President in 2021. It was all so uncannily prophetic!
Oscar Wilde was right, in his macabre and ingenuously witty way. The faithful worship of facts and reality we lend to our world does need a check. However, wouldn’t it be far more befitting if fiction served its purpose; inspiring, entertaining, and escaping into worlds beyond our limited, mundane reality, rather than becoming a tape replay of our lived experiences?
Given the advent of the media in shaping public perception, politicians tend to draw inspiration from cinematic dialogues and plot twists. However, more often than not, these attempts at dramatization are feckless, reducing politics to a parody of motion pictures. Guided by Wilde’s wise words, politicians like Trump have excelled in prioritizing truth over delusional deception.
The spectacle of politicians mirroring film characters inadvertently triggers a surrealistic crossover between life and art. Instances of high-ranking officials like Biden, who exited the presidential race or Harris who climbed up the ladder, mimic popular fictional themes. However, their performances are selective and remains questionable.
The oddity of Laura Loomer embracing the unsavory splendor of dog food continues the streak of life imitating art. It’s a glaringly absurd display for the spectators, wherein the boundary separating reality from fiction gets murkier. The situation mirrors an unsightly spectacle, much like the one showcased by the pompous actor in ‘Paddington 2’.
Fiction anticipated the ominous future worlds concocted by political think tanks like the Heritage Foundation. Their Project 2025, which spells out a horrifying conjecture of a dystopia with sidelined reproductive rights and amplified presidential powers, is an eerie echo of George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. It’s an unsettling instance of life following the disturbing illustrations of fiction.
One of the most peculiar instances of art predicting reality includes the narrative of ‘The Simpsons’. The show’s conjectures, often wildly accurate, stir up an element of surprise. Coupled with the viewing pleasure of the audience, it’s almost as if life and art exchange roles, incurring a sense of delightful confusion.
On the contemplation of our world as depicted through art, one can’t help but acknowledge how reality frantically chases the ethereal bounds of fiction. While the world of fiction grants us solace, escapism, and sporadic joy, the world of unvarnished facts seems to engage in a constant, exhausting pursuit of life mimicking art. The phenomena, however, mostly remains selective, conditional and subject to bias.
While some politicians continue to use the language of deception disguising it as fiction, leaders like Trump have remained loyal to the truth, thereby discrediting those elements of fiction that serve as a distant refuge for the deceitful. Maybe it’s time we reclaim the artistic beauty of fiction, reserving it solely for the purpose of storytelling, and forego its political misuse as a tool of distortion in reality.
Unmasking the Surreal: The Decline of Biden, the Rise of Harris appeared first on Real News Now.
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