The scene that made me pause the film “The Life Of Brian” this morning occurs at 56:14, to be precise. Needing a bit of laughter, I hadn’t watched the Monty Python classic in a while and there seemed to be some elements in it that I needed - maybe a lot of people needed - to see.
While it might be asking a lot, I wish that there was some way to take those next few minutes of the film and insist that all those MAGA folk out there sitting on pins and needles for tonight’s debate, waiting breathlessly for November or the next court case or the next witness they want to intimidate, could watch it. And see if they - like me - made a connection. A hot connection.
Pursued by a mob that think he’s the messiah, Brian loses a sandal, which prompts the mob to lose a sandal, too, in their devotion. “It is a sign,” they say.
If you’ve never seen the film, Monty Python’s “The Life Of Brian” is a satirical tale about a Brian Cohen, who happened to share the very same birthday with another Bethlehem December 25 birth. It’s about many things, religion, politics, grammar.
At this point in the film, Brian is pursued by the Romans and to elude them, he poses, along with other whackos, as some sort of soothsayer/prognosticator/seer in the marketplace. He doesn’t get to finish his extemporaneous sermon - “to them only shall be given…” and it’s vague enough to pique the mob’s curiosity. They think he has THE SECRET and begin to chase him as if he were The Messiah. And in his haste to escape the mob, Brian loses a sandal.
That’s at the 56:14 mark. And when the mob arrives at the discarded sandal, they stop in awe. “He has given us a sign.” “He has given us his shoe.” “Let us follow his example. Let us, like him, hold up one shoe and let the other be upon our foot for this is his sign that all who follow him shall do likewise.”
In a comic way, this was Monty Python’s way of showing us how a cult is formed. Wrong-headed, ridiculous, unquestioning devotion to someone or thing, even when there’s absolutely NO evidence of what they’re claiming. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
One of the strongest bits of political writing I’ve read lately came from Peter Wehner, who writes for The Atlantic. What I didn’t know or understand until today was that Wehner was formerly a Republican speechwriter. You could never tell that from what he wrote.
“Motivated ignorance refers to willfully blinding oneself to facts,” Wehner writes. “It’s choosing not to know. In many cases, for many people, knowing the truth is simply too costly, too psychologically painful, too threatening to their core identity… people actively decide to remain in a state of ignorance. If they are presented with strong arguments against a position they hold, or compelling evidence that disproves the narrative they embrace, they will reject them. Doing so fends off the psychological distress of the realization that they’ve been lying to themselves and to others.”
We’re not just talking about The Big Lie here. We’re talking about using bleach to cure COVID, Revolutionary soldiers guarding the airports(?), Frederick Douglas “doing a helluva job” (impressive for a guy who died in 1895), sharks and electricity and on and on and on. And still, nobody backs off.
“In the case of MAGA world, the lies that Trump supporters believe, or say they believe, are obviously untrue and obviously destructive,” Wehner continues. “Since 2016 there’s been a ratchet effect, each conspiracy theory getting more preposterous and more malicious. Things that Trump supporters wouldn’t believe or accept in the past have since become loyalty tests. Election denialism is one example. The claim that Trump is the target of “lawfare,” victim to the weaponization of the justice system, is another.”
It may have started, almost harmlessly, with Kellyanne Conway’s asinine “alternate facts” comment on January 22, 2017 after a dispute about the crowd size at the Inauguration of Donald Trump. But it has gotten out of control. Dangerously so. Which is what Wehner’s point is.
“Some of them are cynical and know better,” he adds. “Others are blind to the cultlike world to which they belong. Still others have convinced themselves that Trump, although flawed, is the best of bad options. It’s a “binary choice,” they say, and so they have talked themselves into supporting arguably the most comprehensively corrupt man in the history of American politics, certainly in presidential politics.”
“The most comprehensively corrupt man in the history of American politics.” Pretty strong statement from a Republican speechwriter. And that’s with the Mar-A-Lago case held up thanks to the constant misfires of the weakest Cannon in the lower 48, the delays in the Georgia corruption case - “I need you to find 11,780 votes” held up for other spurious reasons, the immunity case with the Supremes still on hold, Trump continuing to talk about freeing “the hostages” - all those insurrectionists now in jail, the ones that stormed the Capitol on the day the vote of the people was handed down, trying to stop it to reappoint their cult leader king.
In 1979, the British comedy group Monty Python came up with an idea for a film, couldn’t find anyone to fund it so Beatle George Harrison mortgaged his house to give them the money to make the film.
You’d have to say Harrison, who was later stabbed by a fan, some time after his other Beatle bandmate John Lennon had been shot and killed by a fan, knew a bit about cults. You wish more people across this country, especially in the red states, did, too.
“A generation from now, and probably sooner,” Wehner wrote, concluding his article. “it will be obvious to everyone that Trump supporters can’t claim they didn’t know.”
Excellent!
🤗👍🦉
❤️❤️❤️