The End of Ideology

The geopolitics du jour is power grabbing. Putin naturally didn’t start a protocol that goes by to Alexander the Great, but civilization was supposed to have evolved before the resurgence of the current Neanderthal mentality. In the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall technology, for one, held the promise of what Bob Marley called “One love…” Daniel Bell wrote The End of Ideology (1960).InThe End of Ideology and the Last Man (1992) Francis Fukuyama held out a hope that in fact had already been dashed earlier by the author's own mentor, Samuel D Huntington who underscored the draw of tribalism. Now Trump extracts the leader of Venezuela, putting him in The Metropolitan Detention Center while preparing to dispatch Marco to take over Cuba. The Rules of the Game (1939) is the name of the Renoir classic. What about the fate of Taiwan and what about North Korea, the pit bull of international relations? The current sortie into Iran is not liberating anything. Millions of people are filling the main squares in Teheran and Isfahan. The only result of the bombings is to destroy infrastructure, turning Iran into a fourth world country--another Sudan or Somalia.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

 

Getting High

The Matterhorn (photo: Rafał Raczyński)

The problem with all highs is their evanescence. So what constitutes the thrill that makes both addicts and normal people want to come back for more. Is it simply a matter of serotonin running across the synapses of the brain? For example love is a high that produces effects characteristic of drugs—in particular a euphoria that is whet the moment a stimulation is removed then returned. Yet people do, in fact, find each other and continue on after the initial flame has died. The evolution of emotions is the bedrock of enduring. The initial thrill kindled by the imminence of loss leads to a host of states. Flatlining is death, but the learning to navigate a level playing field and tolerate emotions which are unlikely to produce endorphins is a form of sustenance found in marathoners who depend on steadiness more than exhilaration to keep themselves in the race.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Bushel of Therapists

A flock CPTs were honking as they passed.  You see a lot of these old guys, the Reichians lugging their orgone boxes on trolleys and the schools of psychoanalysts stepping off the stage of the Ancient Greek theater where a certain play referring to a certain complex is being played. Lacananians wearing their Persistence of Memory tee shirts and then the Kohutians who starred in Tarkovsky's Solaris. Naturally Gilles Deleuze and Guattari at the protest with their "Anti-Oedipus" signs. Everyone knows psychopharmacologists are the closest thing to AI. All they do is sit around and write prescriptions. The regular  therapists, the ones you used to go to for advice, are shivering on the crosstown bus. You feel like advising them to cover-up a Come in From the Cold. 

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

You Only Live Twice

Should one be surprised You Only Live Twice (1967) is a font of grotesque invention with its script by Roald Dahl who wrote the story on which a famous Alfred Hitchcock Presents was based. You may recall a ship's lottery based on how many nautical miles are achieved by a certain time. The plan of the ill- fated grifter goes awry when the woman he's talking to before he jumps overboard is blind. It’s a little like what happens to the ghoulish Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) head of Spectre whose plan is to foil American astronauts by creating a death ship, with an open mouth that literally swallows them up. One of the most glorious creations is a tank of piranhas into which a fetching succubus amongst others is tossed. Just a wish bone remains in one case.There’s the pool filled with sharks in Thunderball but this is the coup de grâce.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

4:35AM

photo: Francis Levy

Civilization is coming to an end. In response to a brutal assault by Hamas, the Israelis flattened Gaza. Ayatollah Khamenei was a horrific and dangerous man who was the modus state behind October 7th and innumerable acts of terror. Now right before the eyes of world, there's Trump using America’s military might to flatten a country of 80 million people.Trump's a name that might have been used by a Restoration Playwright--where soubriquets have an onomatopoeic effect. Think of the cast of characters in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove besides the lead, Merkin Muffley, Gen. Buck Turgidson, Jack D. Ripper. Just say “Trump" aloud. Listen to it. Let it roll off your tongue. “Trump” is a good word for what is happening to the world. Will the president fill the broken landscape of Iran with Trump Towers. Will Trump put his face in the Iranian Rial? Will there be Trump tampons? Will American cheese be renamed? Hegseth is another name that totally fits the clowning of this satiric  and rowdy band of latter day Merry Pranksters, out to murder the world. The current offensive is working like clockwork, Clockwork Orange that is, with its Droogs led by yet another great name Alex DeLarge. How about Trump Aces of Spades and, of course, the famous bridge bid "3 no Trump!"

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Philanthropy

Philanthropy is not unconditional love. You give ostensibly to help but the act is also supposed to make you feel good. If you can’t give it away you can’t get it goes the old saw. If you traffic in spirituality it's a no brainer but on an everyday basis many people like being praised for their generosity and don't want to be criticized for being parsimonious tightwads. Conversely, one can feel blackmailed. There's something superficial about all these people who make big contributions so their names can decorate a bench in some park. If you don't give to the homeless person then you're a heartless miser--especially if you're affluent. What then about the anonymous donation? Knowing one is being altruistic is a reward in itself (don't forget the deduction if you're giving to a 501c3).The only problem then are the whisperers, the accusers who are wondering why you're cheap?

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Unrenowned

"Unrenowned" is not a word that's usually attached to someone. You don't usually say "Bob is unrenowned in his field." If you were trying to describe Bob's modest accomplishments, you might say what Bob did. Bob was a poet who specialized in sonnets. The fact you are not labeling Bob as an expert in a Petrarchian or Shakespearean form of the sonnet means that they have not distinguished themselves from the huge mass of sonneteers whose hands are risen in supplication say to the Poetry Foundation who received a $100 million dollar endowment form Ruth Lily in 2003. Bob has not and will not be published by the arm of the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Magazine and obviously he's not going to be able to buy his way in. Of course there are lots of arenas in which one can be undistinguished or undistinguishable from others of equally limited talents. Writing is just one area. All of art, science, mathematics, diplomacy and, of course, the law are comprised of practitioners who you have never heard of. Take the book Amino Acid and Peptide Synthesis by John Jones. You probably haven't heard of the title and what can one say about the author? There are a lot of John Joneses in the world. The author's first and last names are so recognizable, they ultimately don't describe anyone. But just listen to the name Laszlo Krasznahorkai. You may throw your hands up and say sure with a name like that you're going to be distinguishable, if not downright distinguished. You're right. Krasznahorkai, whose novels were the basis for several films by Bela Tarr (a filmmaker you probably don't know), won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2025.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star