"If you don’t make an effort to put the white hat on every day, then eventually you wear the black hat without even realizing it."
I often fail at doing this--usually out of anger at the other side--and I can *feel* my goodness slipping away when I get that way. Maybe I'll never be that kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi figure who always wields the …
"If you don’t make an effort to put the white hat on every day, then eventually you wear the black hat without even realizing it."
I often fail at doing this--usually out of anger at the other side--and I can *feel* my goodness slipping away when I get that way. Maybe I'll never be that kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi figure who always wields the ability to resist the dark side. Maybe I'll just end up on the Walter White/Daenerys Targaryen path of starting off with good white hat intentions and then character arcing into a black hat. Or maybe I'll end up being more like Jamie Lannister. Bad at times, but good when it really counts when the chips are down. Maybe that's why I always appreciated Game of Thrones. It embraced the full spectrum of all of its characters rather than the binary "white hat or black hat" types. The world is complicated, and so are people (and nations), and everyone ultimately has a decision as to where they want their character (or country) arc to end up, and it's not always so cut and dry.
The US did a whole lot of awful shit on the road to defeating Hitler and Tojo in WWII, but we're roundly seen as being the good guys in that conflict by mere comparison. FDR's administration put Japanese-Americans into internment camps, turned away Jewish asylum-seekers from Germany that ultimately sent them to their deaths (including Anne Frank's family), and authorized the firebombing and burning down of over half of close to 70 cities in Japan (in addition to Dresden). As I said, the world is complicated and so are people and nations. Some days those white hats get tinges of black on them, and some days those black hats get tinges of white on them. The world and man are very very grey in the final cut of history when it comes to most cases of characters and nations. There are a whole lot of grey hats out there, and maybe that's closer to where the US is as a whole given our recent past in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
White hats and black hats often get interchanged depending on the chapter of the story. Even the Joker killed off the Russian and Italian Mafias of Gotham now didn't he? Commissioner Gordan had to maintain a lie to keep Harvey Dent's public image clean after his death. Peter Foley still showed up to face down Bane's army after his initial cowardice.
Batman (Bruce Wayne) was a billionaire who could have alleviated lots of Gotham's social issues that propped up its criminal elements with his decadent wealth, but instead he liked his penthouse suites/mansions and wanted to be the "hero" who fought against crime personally via his personal nepo-baby hold over Wayne Corp's R&D division as a majority shareholder. That's more narcissistic anti-hero than white hat in my book. He'd rather dress up in high-tech spandex and punch clowns in the middle of the night than fix Gotham's poverty and corrupt police force that came out of low pay for the police (probably because people like Bruce weren't paying enough in taxes to properly pay the cops taking on villains like the mob who then corrupted GPD as an institution).
I'm just saying, even in the world of the *Dark* Knight things aren't so cut and dry. Sometimes--like with Pete Foley's character--you live long enough as a coward to die a hero.
One of my personal ethics is that I will not wish for someone to die. It's not that I think I have the power to cause it with my mind, just that it feels deeply Bad to me.
DJT is the only person who has ever caused me to break my own ethic.
Personally, while it would be mucho convenient to the world for someone to take him out... My wish for Trump is not a quick death. I just wish he gets what he deserves as a result of natural consequences.. and get to suffer with it for another decade. Kind of like his Dad. Let him gradually drown in his own body fluids , shuffle with Parkinsons or suffer the indignity of hemiplegia and aphasia.
Same. Although my daughter says that when the person is really terrible and the world would be better off without them, karma won't try to get you back...
I stopped wishing for certain black hats to die when I realized that they would simply be replaced by other black hats and not much would change--if only on the margins, and sometimes for the worse. I once wished very hard that Osama Bin Laden would die. Then he eventually did, and was replaced by ISIS, whom now even other black hats like the Taliban and Putin are having a hard time dealing with.
This is why I tend to lean toward the "trends and forces" theory of the world rather than the "great man" theory of it. Even if Trump died tomorrow, would Trumpism go away? I don't imagine it would, so be careful of what you wish for with respect to the untimely demise of the black hats. The black hat you know is sometimes better than the black hat you don't. It's not always "meet the new black hat, same as the old black hat" after all.
Pretty much where you are Travis. Black hats are easily replaced by other black hats....and this flagged me to wonder who would replace Trump if he isn't the nominee and it looks like the money is starting to rally around JD Vance. That would be bad, very bad.
And unlike Trump, Vance is both intellectual and authentic when it comes to a back-story that actually upholds a populist persona. I'd rather have a Joffrey than a Ramsey--to use more GoT comparisons--just like I'd rather have a clown with a flamethrower than a Putin. Vance could indeed be much worse than Trump in the long arc of the GOP's populism.
Vance could end up being kind of a black hat version of Ned Stark in the sense that he has true populist roots but acts more out of self-advancement than honor. Balish *did* have that rags-to-riches story and advanced himself through self-interest, so maybe you're right there and Vance is closer to Balish. McConnell was the GOP's Tywin Lannister. If Joffrey and Tywin weren't blood relations then maybe Joffrey would have pushed Tywin out over time like Trump did to McConnell. That would have made a very different show haha.
I subscribed to the theory that Tyrion was the Mad King's son by rape. That he was rejected by Tywin not because he was a dwarf per se, but because he didn't have a drop of Lannister blood. He was by far my favorite character....a little bit black, and little bit white, a whole lot of grey matter.
“I drink and I know things.” One of my favorite characters as well. I wish JVL would cave and finally watch the show at some point because he’s missing a truly great story.
"If you don’t make an effort to put the white hat on every day, then eventually you wear the black hat without even realizing it."
I often fail at doing this--usually out of anger at the other side--and I can *feel* my goodness slipping away when I get that way. Maybe I'll never be that kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi figure who always wields the ability to resist the dark side. Maybe I'll just end up on the Walter White/Daenerys Targaryen path of starting off with good white hat intentions and then character arcing into a black hat. Or maybe I'll end up being more like Jamie Lannister. Bad at times, but good when it really counts when the chips are down. Maybe that's why I always appreciated Game of Thrones. It embraced the full spectrum of all of its characters rather than the binary "white hat or black hat" types. The world is complicated, and so are people (and nations), and everyone ultimately has a decision as to where they want their character (or country) arc to end up, and it's not always so cut and dry.
The US did a whole lot of awful shit on the road to defeating Hitler and Tojo in WWII, but we're roundly seen as being the good guys in that conflict by mere comparison. FDR's administration put Japanese-Americans into internment camps, turned away Jewish asylum-seekers from Germany that ultimately sent them to their deaths (including Anne Frank's family), and authorized the firebombing and burning down of over half of close to 70 cities in Japan (in addition to Dresden). As I said, the world is complicated and so are people and nations. Some days those white hats get tinges of black on them, and some days those black hats get tinges of white on them. The world and man are very very grey in the final cut of history when it comes to most cases of characters and nations. There are a whole lot of grey hats out there, and maybe that's closer to where the US is as a whole given our recent past in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain?
White hats and black hats often get interchanged depending on the chapter of the story. Even the Joker killed off the Russian and Italian Mafias of Gotham now didn't he? Commissioner Gordan had to maintain a lie to keep Harvey Dent's public image clean after his death. Peter Foley still showed up to face down Bane's army after his initial cowardice.
Batman (Bruce Wayne) was a billionaire who could have alleviated lots of Gotham's social issues that propped up its criminal elements with his decadent wealth, but instead he liked his penthouse suites/mansions and wanted to be the "hero" who fought against crime personally via his personal nepo-baby hold over Wayne Corp's R&D division as a majority shareholder. That's more narcissistic anti-hero than white hat in my book. He'd rather dress up in high-tech spandex and punch clowns in the middle of the night than fix Gotham's poverty and corrupt police force that came out of low pay for the police (probably because people like Bruce weren't paying enough in taxes to properly pay the cops taking on villains like the mob who then corrupted GPD as an institution).
I'm just saying, even in the world of the *Dark* Knight things aren't so cut and dry. Sometimes--like with Pete Foley's character--you live long enough as a coward to die a hero.
One of my personal ethics is that I will not wish for someone to die. It's not that I think I have the power to cause it with my mind, just that it feels deeply Bad to me.
DJT is the only person who has ever caused me to break my own ethic.
Personally, while it would be mucho convenient to the world for someone to take him out... My wish for Trump is not a quick death. I just wish he gets what he deserves as a result of natural consequences.. and get to suffer with it for another decade. Kind of like his Dad. Let him gradually drown in his own body fluids , shuffle with Parkinsons or suffer the indignity of hemiplegia and aphasia.
One of mine, too. That I've broken 💔
Same. Although my daughter says that when the person is really terrible and the world would be better off without them, karma won't try to get you back...
It's another example of how everything Trump touches dies. He's corrupted me, just in a different direction than his toadies.
I stopped wishing for certain black hats to die when I realized that they would simply be replaced by other black hats and not much would change--if only on the margins, and sometimes for the worse. I once wished very hard that Osama Bin Laden would die. Then he eventually did, and was replaced by ISIS, whom now even other black hats like the Taliban and Putin are having a hard time dealing with.
This is why I tend to lean toward the "trends and forces" theory of the world rather than the "great man" theory of it. Even if Trump died tomorrow, would Trumpism go away? I don't imagine it would, so be careful of what you wish for with respect to the untimely demise of the black hats. The black hat you know is sometimes better than the black hat you don't. It's not always "meet the new black hat, same as the old black hat" after all.
Pretty much where you are Travis. Black hats are easily replaced by other black hats....and this flagged me to wonder who would replace Trump if he isn't the nominee and it looks like the money is starting to rally around JD Vance. That would be bad, very bad.
And unlike Trump, Vance is both intellectual and authentic when it comes to a back-story that actually upholds a populist persona. I'd rather have a Joffrey than a Ramsey--to use more GoT comparisons--just like I'd rather have a clown with a flamethrower than a Putin. Vance could indeed be much worse than Trump in the long arc of the GOP's populism.
both Joffrey and Ramsey were sadists. Peas in a pod. Vance lacks charisma and sounds like a loon.
JD Vance is kind of a Petyr Balish figure for me in comparison to Joffrey and Ramsey.
Vance could end up being kind of a black hat version of Ned Stark in the sense that he has true populist roots but acts more out of self-advancement than honor. Balish *did* have that rags-to-riches story and advanced himself through self-interest, so maybe you're right there and Vance is closer to Balish. McConnell was the GOP's Tywin Lannister. If Joffrey and Tywin weren't blood relations then maybe Joffrey would have pushed Tywin out over time like Trump did to McConnell. That would have made a very different show haha.
I subscribed to the theory that Tyrion was the Mad King's son by rape. That he was rejected by Tywin not because he was a dwarf per se, but because he didn't have a drop of Lannister blood. He was by far my favorite character....a little bit black, and little bit white, a whole lot of grey matter.
“I drink and I know things.” One of my favorite characters as well. I wish JVL would cave and finally watch the show at some point because he’s missing a truly great story.