Pulling Some Fast Ones

by Richard Reeve on February 22, 2009

in @CCSeed

2009 Five Presidents, President George W. Bush...
Image by BL1961 via Flickr

This week in archetypal review…

#1.  Stimulus Bill Signed By Obama:  Mythologically what we see unfolding has everything to do with the new king needing to end the drought, to bring the rains,tobring bounty again to his people.  But lets link this to the death of the previous King.  My thoughts are wandering back to the lineage of Presidents since Kennedy.  That’s why I choose the photo from last month’s meeting.  It’s so telling that the only hand off that wasn’t really an over through of the predecessor was from Reagan to Bush I.  Johnson was bogged in war;  Nixon leaves in disgrace;  Ford’s short term tied to Nixon;  Carter mired in hostage contraversy;  Bush I, it’s the economy stupid;  Clinton, the lurid affairs;  Bush II, the economic collapse.  The question: how does the unconscious mythological motif of supplainting the King play into this dynamic?

#2. Starting to pull the plug on analog TV:  Amazing volume of calls for help flooded the FCC as 4.2 million remain on lists waiting for analog to digital converter boxes.  Some 1000 calls for help per minute.  Turning off the juice, the cultural lifeline for those bound to this outdated system is a risky maneuver.  Imagine how the 5 million social media folks would feel if tonight they lost access.  The issue is cultural transition, of one mode replacing another.  And yet, it’s a government problem.  Big brother cut the juice.   There’s an image of infants at the breast of the beast hidden in here, and yes it’s relevant to those of us hip enough to be plugged into the digital landscape.

#3.  A-Roid:  Another fallen hero in professional sports as Alex Rodreguiz exposes his steroid use.  The point of the hero, as Jung has pointed out, is they display a “whole-hearted yearning that strives towards the treasure hard to attain,…perhaps unattainable.”  A-Rod has been hailed as one of the most gifted players to walk on the field in many generations.  That image now forever tarnished as it was attained in part through manipulation and deciet.  The ambition of MacBeth can appear in all sorts of uniforms.

And in other news, two obscure stories, one screaming, the other laughing, jumping from the archetypal realm…

The Bid to Stop the Killing of Albinos

Dressing Up and Leading the Wooping Cranes On

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  • Basball is broken. They should just strike the set, and start over. Fire ALL of the players, ALL of the managers, etc. and start from scratch.

    Part of the problem is that we forget that these players are human. We allow them to be paid extravagant salaries, and have them compete so fiercly over their spots. In the 60's, players played because they loved the game. Now, in the 00's, players play for the money.

    But like I said, we have lost hold of a time when little kids would get to meet their favorite baseball players and get an autograph. We have lost hold of a time when a sunny day, a hot dog, and a beer is a simple pleasure. Now it's half of your paycheck! We have lost hold of a time when we could follow Baseball for it's own merits. Now, we have to have someone chasing a world record in order to be interested!

    As for the analog television issue, I happen to work at a TV station, and we got screwed royally when congress extended the deadline, because now we have to broadcast on analog a lot longer than we had anticipated. We invested a lot of money into going digital, and then had to make a backup plan to extend our analog services. People aren't going to be ready in June, because they had OVER a year to get ready for the switch to DTV. What's 4 more months?

    <abbr>Trey - Swollen Thumb Entertainment´s last blog post..The Definition of “Artist”</abbr>
  • Hello Trey,
    What has happened in baseball seems an apt analogy for the larger mess we find ourselves in.

    Couldn't agree more that the extra four months was a strange maneuver by the government: that's why the analogy of the baby and the bottle. Thanks for your comment.
  • That's absolutely fascinating Sid.
  • More than other years, this election seemed archtypical. The need for renewal made us cheer for the new king; few morned the death (fall into obscurity) of the old. A-Rod's fall like that of the economy is Faustian--a devil's deal that had an end to the contract. Virginia Wolfe said that sometime around 1910 time changed. 2008 may the real beginning of the 21st century

    <abbr>Sid Parham´s last blog post..Stories and Children</abbr>
  • There is so much to assimilate from all levels. I am of the opinion that as a culture, we are in dire need of re-sculpting our values and take back the purity of our hearts; and collectively focus on God-given abundance!

    "You only miss the rainbow if you are color-blind!" ~Henie~

    <abbr>Henie´s last blog post..Sempiternal Glow</abbr>
  • Jay
    Being a Red Sox fan, I will comment on A-Roid. My question is: as a culture we look up to heroes and try our best to emulate them (ie- our obsession with celebrities), why is it that when they fall, we seem to get a certain gleam in our eyes, a small smirk forms, and we have an extra skip in our step. Do we want the heroes to fail- does that somehow help our outlook on life to know that the people we worship fail too?

    <abbr>Jay´s last blog post..The Sunday Ponder</abbr>
  • Hey Jay,
    I think it very much is an archetypal issue. By identifying with the hero archetype, or by having it projected onto you, either way, you no longer are simply human. You have taken on a supra-human quality which the masses both worship and resent. It's a very mixed blessing indeed, so when someone falls from that pedestal, it is common for the crowd to go into a bacchanal like frenzy to tear the offender to pieces, metaphorically speaking.
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