Since I am still making photographs with film it probably is not surprising that I am also still watching over-the-air television broadcasts. That becomes problematic during the Summer when all the series go on hold until the Fall and there are only reruns to see. That seems a little puzzling at first glance because the network's decision to go to reruns must cause the loss of some viewers for the duration and presumably some income as well.
Giving some thought to the rerun phenomenon I speculate that the production costs are lowered, while at the same time many viewers are driven to cable offerings which are costly. That likely does little damage to the broadcasters' bottom line if they are also owners of the cable networks, which seems highly likely. So that is my economic conspiracy theory for the day. I welcome opposing speculation.
In any case, Americans are clearly very tolerant of reruns. Just look at this year's election, which is a rerun of 2020. And, it is not unlikely as well that we will see a rerun of the Trump presidency.
My answer to the rerun conundrum on Wednesday night was to retreat to my computer to troll through my link list of web sites featuring political commentary. When I got to the blog of Yanis Varoufakis I found a link to an hour-long conversation video between Varoufakis and Naomi Klein. Both talked about their recently published books which take a close look at the current world-wide swing toward neo-fascism and its historical origins. They also spent some time examining Klein's jewish cultural roots and the task of coming to grips with the Holocaust and genocide in Gaza.
While the topics have the potential for a descent into despair, the sparkling conversation between two such charming and articulate historians and activists really made for an enjoyable and instructive hour. Their out-of-the-box thinking brought a good amount of clarity to the the current state of politics here and around the world.
Varoufakis pointed out that there is a subtle misapprehension is linking Trump to Hitler's rise in the 1930s and '40s. He said that it was much more worthwhile to look at the writings of Joseph Goebbels in the 1920s well before he became the minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich. At that point in time, the Nazi party was still struggling to gain a firm foothold, but Goebbels cleverly identified the real economic angst of those difficult years and coupled them to lies about causes, including a malign influence of Jewish migration to western Europe. Fast-forward to 2024 and Trump's comments about migrants corrupting the blood of the country.
Another topic central to the conversation was the similarities between the policies of Trump and Biden. Both cater to the gut feelings of their constituents while offering no reforms of substance that would lead to an alteration of the fundamental economic inequalities which are quite accurately identified by both ends of the political spectrum.
Perhaps the highlight of the conversation was the observation that Biden and Trump each owe a lot to the other. Trump would not have gained his initial moment in the Sun without the country's experience with the Obama-Biden team. Biden quite likely would not have made it to the Presidency without the presence of Trump in 2020 and, given his abysmal approval ratings now, he certainly would not have topped the 2024 primaries without the threat of another Trump win.
In a final gesture toward optimism Klein pointed out that movements toward substantive reforms have only came about in the past in the midst of moments of great peril. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl caused immense suffering and were followed by World War, but the U.S. eventually got to things like rural electrification and Social Security. No guarantees then or now, but the message is that it is still worth staying in the fight.
