Is it really a Wonderful Life? Or a Wonderful Lie?

I love you truly, truly dear

Life with its shadows, life with its fears

He really has two choices.

• He can go mad, descending into a pit of alcoholism and drug addiction as he seeks to escape from the cold, hard world which he finally sees…
• Or he can go full Potter.

The thing is, George Bailey has seen two different realities. And the horrible realization is that they are actually the same reality.

Oh, in the one he in which he lives, things are inherently nicer — for him. Sure, his niceness has created a bubble of goodwill, charity and Christmas cheer. But take one step outside of Bedford Falls…and it’s Pottersville.

Sam Wainwright, the plastics millionaire lives in POttersville. He is betrothed to Mary but actually has a piece on the side the whole time, as evidenced by the fur-clad bimbo massaging him while he coos at his naive, small-town girlfriend and barks at his so-called best friend, George Bailey, a big-eared sucker whose physical appearance and inherent ‘’goodness”— read “stupid naivete” causes Sam to mock him with a vicious hee-haw, because in Sam Wainwright’s eyes, George Bailey may be lovable…but he’s basically just a jackass.

What about Uncle Billy? An alcoholic nincompoop employed only because George is too soft to throw him out on the streets, a man who uses George and joyfully allows him to go to prison for a crime he commits.

And don’t get me started on Nick, the cheerful manager of Martini’s bar. An ethnic man who exemplifies the working class spirit of the immigrant class, a ccharming example of the Melting Pot of America in one reality; but change a few things and he becomes a vicious violent asshole who literally sprays water or rum or something in an old homeless drunk’s face and then has him thrown out face first into the snow, basically condemning him to death by frostbite and hypothermia.

What about his brother, Harry Bailey, the handsome war hero? A man who gleefully uses his inherent privelage to sexually harass and abuse their African American maid? George turned a blind eye to that all his life.

And Violet? He sees her as little more than a glorified prostitute: a human one with a heart of gold in his reality; an angry fucked up borderline personality in the reality without him.

Mr. Gower. Was it really an accident that he put poison in the diphtheria medicine? Or was it the raging, senselessly vengeful act of a man driven half-mad by grief for the son taken away by influenza? This is a man who fucking beats his own twelve year old employee in his already deaf ear,drawing blood fromit. Of course he comes to his senses, later, once the booze has worn off. But this shit happened in the REAL world, not the world in which George didn’t exist.

What about the affable, jovial Ernie and Bert? A cop and a cab driver, singing in two part harmony:

I love you truly, truly dear

Life with it’s shadows, life with it’s fear

In this seemingly innocent couplet, we see the two warring notions of It’s a Wonderful Life brought to life: and we see the cab-driver, who moments before demanded a tip for his service and was rewarded with water from Bailey’s fedora, a metaphor for the bourgeousie pissing on the proletariat if I’ve ever seen one. Overcome with sentiment he kisses the horny brow of the cop; and the cop responds with fiery violence. Again, the strange dual theme of love vs violence and fear. (There are other homophobic nods in the movie too, most notably the referal to George and Clarence as ‘pixies’ by the thuggish goombah Nick.)

But in the other reality, we have Ernie, the cab driver, the angry working class prole, whose wife “took the kid and ran off”, willing to use the strong arm of the law to beat down a man whose only crime is recognizing him!

Bert, a police officer so enraged by a blow to the face that he shoots his fucking gun into a crowd of innocent bystanders, heedless of the consequences!

And, really, the working class poor George supports with his housing projects are good people. He makes them so with the conviction of his charitous, ultimately Christian belief. He wills their goodness into existence and uses his own financial capital to make it so…because he can’t really bear to be the big business mogul ‘with a harem of wives’ that he always dreamed of being.

But what about the other denizens of Bedford Falls? The man who knocks him out for berating his wife, who George blames for his daughter’s head cold — where does he fit in in the happy utopia of small-town America that Bedford Falls exemplifies?

With this man — the teacher’s husband —we see that not everything in Bedford Falls is a Christmas postcard of a bygone era. There is an anger underneath the surface. There is an inhuman machine of the War effort, where people are separated into soldiers sent off to die on a distant sea; there is the Great Depression, a bank that goes under, robbing most of its patrons of their savings? You don’t even have to step outside of Bedford Falls to see ugliness and brutality, viciousness and inhuman suffering. 90 percent of the town is Pottersville. The ten percent which isn’t isn’t only by the grace of George Bailey, who literally sacrifices his dreams and ambitions to make it so. Only to see it all go away in a horrifying movement of fate which enables Potter, the lord of the town ‘the King’, as Clarence puts it to rob him of his firm’s money and thus, his entire life. In one fell swoop, Potter is able to absolutely destroy a man with a large and loving family and wipe out the lifestyle of an entire class of human beings who are just trying to get by. And that is the world that George sees when he decides to commit suicide.

Certainly, George Bailey is special. He does do good for people. He believes in people and it is his belief that makes his life bearable. But he has, unconsciously, constructed a bubble. The ‘good’ bubble he lives in is by no means defining. There is a whole world out there, a world of suffering and pain and hunger and utter human-on-human savagery.

Maybe this is the positive message. WE humans create, through charity and goodwill our own reality, as George does. But most people are not like George. Most people are like, well, Ernie, Bert, Nick. Prisoners of fear, of shadows: in thrall to their context.

So when George accepts the money from his ‘people’ does he sign his soul over to the devil, even as he gives an angel his wings?

For what is he doing but accepting his proper fealty from his own peasantry, a populace to dumb to realize that they create their own reality? A peasantry he now knows is ‘good’ only because George Bailey has the power and financial resources that allow him to will it to be so.

A few economic tweaks and you get broken homes, violence, horrific deaths.

This is a man who has been driven to commit suicide. What is left for him but endless depression as his illusion of a good and gentle world is completely shattered? Only the comfort of Mr. Gower, the comfort of the bottle, of the syringe…or the comfort of material possession.

Or he can accept the world as it is and use it to his advantage.

The money George Bailey receives is more than just salvation. It is the seed money for his own cruel aristocratic business empire. And the new Bailey will weave his webs like a scurvy little spider just like the Old Potter did. 

Because the Wonderful life he has carefully, if unconsciously constructed may actually be...a Wonderful Lie.

But maybe there is a third path he takes. Maybe, in realizing that he is actually the creator of the goodness in his world, he decides to continue to do that. Perhaps he goes into politics to create greater, larger ‘good’ realities.

If so, how does he fend off the temptations of corruption, when he realizes that inherent good does not really exist and is in fact self created?

What do you think of the new smoking ban passed by Parliament, but not yet passed into law in the Czech Republic?

As a non-smoker, I actually don't care about smoke in pubs. I don't go out that often but when I do I don't mind a properly ventilated but slightly smokey pub. 

I remember when I first came here everything was shockingly different from how it was in the USA. Fashion, the food people ate, the fact that in a crowd of humans there was real body odor; mullets were still prevalent and proudly worn, due to the popularity of ice hockey player/superstar Jaromir Jagr, while the grunge era in the early nineties had ruthlessly put that hairstyle to  death as far back as the early nineties in the USA. My first boss, Lenka came to work wearing THICK wollen socks with sandals...Wow! My jaw dropped. 

There were still some holdover pubs from the old days that were completely devoid of mood lighting or decoration: just a white floor with basic tables and chairs, no pictures, no music no frills; just a bar and a pool table or a fussball table. Dudes listened to old-school heavy metal like Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and the beautiful women listened to Abba and disco. 

You'd go to the swimming pools and all the men wore speedos...regardless of fitness or aesthetic considerations. 

You'd go to the disco and see these delightfully cheesy guys dancing with each other with joyous abandon;  in the USA they'd either be being gay or deliberately provocative. Here it was just FUN. 

Cars drove way too fast down the road and if a kid climbed a tree and happened to fall out of it, his parents didn't threaten to sue. Corporate visitors to local companies were cheerfully chaperoned to pubs and even brothels and it was all appropriate: the Germans came here for that kind of thing and looked forward to it.

People watched ancient shows from the seventies and eighties; Columbo and M*A*S*H were all the rage in 2003. 

And all this was a decade after the Revolution, when things were really nuts. I just caught the tail end of it all(which was, in fact, why I came when I came: when I heard that the Czech Republic had voted to join the EU in 2003 I instinctively knew that something was going to be lost.

It wasn't all roses, of course.Hookers lined the roads of the German/Czech borders; sexual harassment was legal and labor rights were often abused. 

But the thing is it's different. It's all respectable now. Or at least a little more so. There was something charmingly unironic and uncool about Central Europe that is fast disappearing. Czech people chortle about the socks-n-sandals thing like everybody else in the Western world; people are more perfumed and groomed; there is hardly a mullet to be seen. Nowadays everybody all over the world watches Game of Thrones on Sunday or MOnday evening and talks about it all over the place. 

The culture, which was once a perfect balance between the free chaos of the East and the ordered glossy over-regulated West has gone all but completely German. It's been ordered all to fuck and back. The one hold out, besides the politics and dodgy roads in some parts of the country, is the gloriously unkempt look of the public spaces. I expect that to change too. Of course if the EU/NATO fails, which is looking more and more possible and the Czech Republic decides to re-enter the Russian orbit rather than the German orbit, things will go back again, I guess. But there was something perfectly balanced about things then. It's all frightfully Western now.

So when I hear about the ban on smoking that the Czech Parliament voted in today, one of the last countries in Europe to do so I can't help but feel a little nostalgic. I don't really care one way or the other to be honest.  

Jana, who has never smoked doesn't like it either; she prefers that pubs be non-smoking out of choice; and in the light of the new EET regulation, which the common person has been totally fooled into thinking will be good for the country when really it will only be good for Agrofert and Ondrej Babis, that there are just too many regulations and blanket bans on things nowadays.

But you know, as for me, the issue is more personal and deeper: it's simply that I kind of like my foreign countries to be...y'know, foreign.

Do you think America falling apart?

I’m only asking because the last few years has been chaotic in America. The country seems like its divided with all the racism and hatred. TBH, I’m American myself and use to love it. But now I look at it and I may never go back due to all the racism and hatred in that country. (I’m in Canada now)

The questioner is an expat in Canada. As a long-term expat, myself, I think it is helpful to remember that viewing the USA solely through the eyes of the media(US media, Canadian media, or whatever) always leads to a rather warped impression of what is happening on the ground in America. Media is there to SELL a narrative. Often when an American visits the USA from abroad it’s shocking how…less insane the country seems. Because outside it seems completely insane, but it always has.

I don’t think that the USA is falling apart. I think the whole world is falling apart.

In the USA I see several problems that are alarming.

1. A rise in hate-related crimes and scapegoating of minorities.
2. An increasing divide in factions, with a real lack of communication and dialogue. This leads to the following of two separate ‘Truths’ and the blind belief in propaganda(while labeling the other side’s Truth propaganda.) It’s not only a war of competing narratives: it’s a war of outlooks, of philosophy. People confronting truths outside their echosphere are reacting with rage and hatred: which is how people react when their vision of reality is shown to be faulty.
   
   People like to claim this is regional but red areas have blue people and vice versa.
   
   In my opinion, people are not talking enough to each other, the people they know who disagree with them.
3. America is clearly very very ill-served by the traditional two-party system, which I defended for years. But now I really think that attitudes are such that many, many people are not satisfied. This is leading to problems beyond the realm of the political. It’s becoming a societal problem where people are being pushed into two different camps. (Not literal camps—yet.)
4. I have a very serious fear that Trump, who EVERYBODY underestimates, is going to have a historic lack of checks and balances to the kleptocracy he is instituting. Congress are useless. Almost all of them fallen to their knees and will be giving abject tribute to Trump, mark my word. HIs think skinnedness might lead him to actions which Congress could stop. But I am pessimistic that they will. And he’ll pack the court, of course, if he gets the opportunity.
5. In general there is something in American discourse that ignores things that it doesn’t want to see. One side of this is ‘political correctness’(a term ridiculously overused by the Right but not necessarily a useless one); The Right has it’s own version of turning a blind eye to things, too though. It has it’s own set of taboo beliefs that can not be uttered. There just isn’t a readily available term for it, like PC.
6. When Trump does not—cannot—deliver on his problems to revive the white working class, there will be scapegoating and nobody —NOBODY — in American political history plays the media as adeptly as Trump. He is a goddamn virtuoso, which is why I don’t get why people keep saying he is an idiot.

The internet is bringing a lot of social problems to the fore that have hitherto been unknown or ignored, which has created movements like Black Lives Matter. BLM though is not tearing the country apart, in my opinion, though they might have their extremist members too. It’s the reaction to their message that is threatening. White people are basically afraid of black people in America, in my opinion. Especially, and tellingly, in areas or sectors or classes where they know very few minorities.

Again, I think that dialogue is needed. It is the answer to all these problems. I don’’ mean serious talking about issues. I mean just hanging out with other people who disagree with you and finding things in common. For example, it’s much harder to hate a man you work with compared with hating a mythical creature peddled to you by racist propagandists.

I do fear that history is moving and that the world is falling under dark times. There are many pressures facing the entire world and the USA, big and insular and semi-isolated as the society is, is not immune to these changes.

• Warming temperatures is helping to create political friction in the Middle East and displacing people (refugees)
• Western countries which have been centers for wealth for a long time are feeling pressure from refugees.
• Western populations are aging and heading for uncharted territories because of this.
• The Internet is changing the way humans interact and look at the world and we really haven’t learned how to handle it yet.
• Robots (and eventually AI) are increasingly doing the work of human beings and leaving workers hanging. This is increasing instability and class divisions. And ultimately it might mean that no one buys the products that the robots make because no one can afford to.

The whole world is falling apart right now and America along with it. History is moving and there are going to be changes and they are going to happen quicker than anyone expects. The bubble has popped.

What are you banned from?

I am banned from singing at the Mercury Cafe in Denver.

Back in 2000 I formed a songwriting duo with a friend of mine, Micah. During that time we wrote about 30 or 40 songs in a short time, and a half dozen or so were actually pretty good. He was a great rhythm guitarist who know a lot of chords and who came up with pretty cool, logical progressions. (That perhaps were a bit over my more punk/country oriented head.)

We performed them at a few open mike nights around Denver, and we were generally well-received.

We were excited to play the Mercury Cafe open mike night, as Mercury Cafe was known as a centre of artistic activity: I had read poetry there many times; there were punk rock shows upstairs. It prided itself on being one of the only venues that would host the Dead Kennedy’s back in the eighties and it still had a reputation as an artistic institution in 2000 — probably still does.

To our disappointment, the snowy night we played there, no one came. We were the only performers in the house and there were no patrons there but us and the runner o the open mike night.

So we decided to just turn it into a rehearsal and we performed all of our songs including a few ribald ones that weren’t really finished. One of them did have some lyrics with sexually frank lyrics, but I thought I had heard and read much worse than that there.

The next time we came we were told that we were not allowed to play there, as our lyrics were ‘obscene.’ I was surprised —shocked, in fact, that this bastion of artistic expression….did not allow us to play our songs. We left the joint. And I never went back.

Soon after that me and my friend’s songwriting partnership ended.

Written November 15

ASOIAF/GOT: Did Tywin love Jaime in anyway?

I think that he was proud of Jaime’s prowess as a swordsman, his good looks and basically anything he did that added glory to the Lannister name.

But I don’t know if that is love.

We are moved to please them, to make their lives happy. At the same time, we are also compelled by life to teach them lessons that benefit them in life. Therefore, every parent has to strike a balance between ‘love’ and ‘authoritarianism’.

Some parents stray way too much on the ‘love’ side. These children grow up spoiled and unable to deal with the blows that life throws at them.

Some parents stray too much on the ‘authority’side.

Such was Tywin. He definitely wants Jaime to rule the Westerlands as his heir when he dies. He definitely wants him to carry on the family name.

But if he had a side that loved Jaime…it’s tricky to say. I’d say the evidence for or against is not really there.

I like to think he did, though showing love is something he might not have been comfortable with.

All of his children seem to fear him more than love him. Cersei reflects to herself that the only person who ever saw Tywin smile was her.

If you can’t smile at your own son…can you love him? Serious question.

Written November 4

ASOIAF: Are there any valid theories as to how the 'unkiss' will affect events in future books of A Song of Ice and Fire?

Not only the unreliable narrator aspect, but especially the comments by George R.R. Martin that it will eventually mean something and that it is a much more important lapse in memory than an earlier one of Sansa's.

I have my own theory/prediction but you are not going to like it.

This is going to be unpopular — but remember, this is only MY theory: the question asks for predictions and theories.

And the answer is YES there are some.

Here is one. Whether it’s ‘valid’ or not…(shrug) I haven’t had it officially approved by the Offically Authorized Theory Validators or anything. Until GRRM writes it, it is pretty much my own story. I think it would make a good one.

Anyway, I developed this theory because a couple of years ago I asked myself the very question that the question here is posing…and this is just the narrative I came up with. I haven’t come up with another. Maybe someone else has.

Sansa and the Hound and the Unkiss that Binds Them Theory

1. WE know the Hound is on the Quiet Isle. I mean, we knew already, but Season 6 has confirmed it for the few stubborn hold outs there were.
2. I believe that the Elder Brother might have been one of the three knights that met with Littlefinger in A Feast for Crows. (One of them, if you remember, was Shadrich, who we know is searching for Sansa for Varys. Another one of them, though, physically kind of matches the Elder Brother— though he had a stubbled head, not a bald head. Fun fact: when you stop shaving your head, you develop stubble.
3. Whether the above be true or not, I firmly believe that Sandor Clegane will attempt to rescue Sansa. He loves her in a way; and he will be looking for his own redemption. And I think there is some Beauty and the Beast tale that GRRM is playing with with Sandor and Sansa…but, you know, subverted.
4. Here is the catch: Sandor Clegane’s rescue attempt will not succeed. Because of Sansa, perhaps: because she is mooning over Harry the Heir, or maybe because she will have just been Stockholm Syndrome-d by Littlefinger..
5. Sansa is going to remember something that didn’t happen. But it is not going to be a kiss. Her false memory will have blossomed.
6. It’s going to be a rape she remembers. Maybe it will be planted there by LIttlefinger…maybe it will come up on its own.

And there will be fall out…for the Hound, certainly. And I think ultimately this is going to somehow lead to Sansa’s doom.

(Then the Hound will be sent in chains to King’s Landing. For Cleganebowl, of course.)

The memory is false of course: Clegane says to Arya I should have fucked her bloody! Implying that he didn’t.

It may be that the idea will be suggested to Sansa by one of her captors…and her fertile imagination will take over from there.

But who are the nobles of the Vale going to believe? A vicious monstrous thug? Or a traumatized beautiful little girl with tears in her eyes, the descendant of kings, the distant relative of the Royces and Lysa Arryn’s own niece?

My theory is that the unkiss shows that Sansa is becoming a little unhinged due to the massive, long-term stress she is under; and her all-too-willing eagerness to disassociate with reality sometimes.

Now I love Sansa, as my many posts in support of her indicate. I hope that she ends up the badass Queen with a heart of gold that some of us root for. But her story may not be the triumphant one we wish it to be.

Written November 9