Today this appeared in my Facebook feed…
Then, after some mindless scrolling, it struck me: the above is an accurate rendering of our galaxy. It’s a clowny-clown clown clown clown world and the evidence abounds. Exhibit A:
Last month, while Canadians were applying for bank loans to buy butter and eggs, our Transport Minister and his deputies were giggling and teetering around a boardroom table in pink high heels–a gesture of fealty toward an emergency shelter for abused women.
Judging by the scorching ratio to Alghabra’s tweet, it was the public that was left feeling abused: +9 million views, only 1,541 likes and over 2,700 mostly negative quotes. A recurring theme in the replies was “is this real or parody?” In Clown World, it’s always a challenge to tell the difference. There was also a generalized feeling that Trudeau’s government was once again getting international attention for all the wrong reasons. Nobody seemed delighted with the choice of “gender-stereotyped footwear.”
There was also this…
It’s as though nobody is in the mood for taxpayer-funded theatrics–not even these guys…
I’m sensing a whiff of ‘hostage video’ behind those gritted-tooth, forced-fun smiles; a premonition that this won’t land well. Also, I’m reminded of those Milgram experiment test subjects: Please… PLEASE don’t make me inflict pain on these nice people!
Speaking of inflicting pain…
This is Edward Degas’ Little Dancer Aged 14, on display at Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art in DC. Lovely, isn’t it?
Well, look again. Sculptural masterpieces might be nice to gaze at but this is Clown World. We’re not allowed nice things…
ICYMI, two self-satisfied narcissists activists smeared finger paint all over the sculpture’s protective glass casing to draw attention to the climate crisis. They are members of Declare Emergency, an anti-oil protest group demanding Joe Biden declare a climate emergency.
Apparently vandalizing great works of art is a thing now. Last year, among other incidents, two members of UK-based Just Stop Oil defaced Van Gogh’s priceless masterpiece Sunflowers. Declare Emergency and Just Stop Oil–both bankrolled by heirs to the Getty and Rockefeller fortunes–believe disruptive acts of civil disobedience will stop the oceans from rising. When not defacing the fruits of Western civilization, the latter enjoy clogging up London’s roadways at rush hour, infuriating commuters with actual jobs to get to.
Nobody likes this. In fact, these stunts are so reviled, there’s a conspiracy theory floating around TikTok that Big Oil is organizing them in order to turn the public against climate activists. If true, mission accomplished! One Twitter commenter demanded these protestors be covered in honey and subjected to swarms of fire ants. Others expressed a sudden impulse to fire up a gas-guzzling F150 and keep it idling indefinitely. Another tweeted: “Whatever they are protesting against, I am for.”
More than anger, there’s confusion. What do great works of art have to do with climate change? Picking up on the tenuousness of the connection, Just Stop Oil soup-thrower Phoebe Plummer–who attended the posh St. Mary’s of Ascot boarding school–conflated the climate crisis with the inflation crisis. “Families can't even afford a can of soup!” she declared, right after she’d yeeted a perfectly good can of soup on a painting by an impoverished outcast who struggled just to stay alive.
Meanwhile, in Clownywood, actor John Cusack tweeted out this …
Linked in the tweet was a video snapshot of the apocalyptic levels of the human tragedy unfolding daily on LA streets.
Sigh. So, so much to unpack here! **Removes drugstore readers. Rubs eyes.**
Generously, I’ll set aside the trivial parts (grammatical errors–it’s Twitter, not the New Yorker; California, like every state in the Union, has a minimum wage). But in what world is Elon “mush” (*groan, eye roll*) a pandemic-profiteering oligarch? As we well know, Musk is a clean-energy-public-subsidy-profiteering oligarch. He makes Teslas and rockets. I’m old enough to remember when Hollywood applauded him for this.
I realize I should ignore the Wild Turkey and Ambien-fuelled ramblings of a used-to-be famous brat-packer. But I’ve been optimistic that just one high-profile celebrity would exercise his influence and speak up about LA’s terminal decline. Sadly, this is Tinsel Town, land of rampant enclavism, where the rich and powerful roar past the trash and despair-ridden tent encampments in Range Rovers, blinders on, hoping to hit the Starbucks drive-through en route to pilates.
Whatever you think of Musk, LA’s lurch into a dystopian hellscape is so patently not his fault. But easier to blame someone outside your progressive political tribe than the real culprits: the entrenched ruling class that created a Homeless Industrial Complex which, without homelessness, wouldn’t exist. Otherwise, you might be labeled **gasp!** a ‘conservative.’
Why take the chance? Hollywood careers are precarious enough.
…
That’s sufficient Clown World for one day. No doubt there’s more where that came from. See you next week!
If life imitates art, perhaps the paint defacing on the protective glass should be left on as a representation of false virtue and the scapegoating of every malady resulting from the panic-demic de jour ... “climate”.
Great piece Liz.
Those guys in "signature pink heels" elicited a much more sinister image than that of solidarity with "violence against women." Because there are far too many guys wobbling in heels and women's swim suits that represent genuine violence against women; in fact, threatening our very existence. And, BTW, who's footing the bill for those pink heels? More tax dollar$?