Paul's Passing Thoughts

I think it was Francis Schaeffer who said that artists are culture’s little prophets. I wouldn’t swear to my recollection of the source but the point is correct. Artists are both a reflector of cultural values and a compass of cultural direction. After a fashion; artists show us the future.

I can think of two examples.

Sharon Stone’s movie, Basic Instinct: In 1992 Sharon sat in a police interrogation room, turned toward the camera crossing and uncrossing her legs, flashing everyone on the big screen. It was maybe 15 seconds of titillating video but in 1992 that was as close as anyone got to frontal nudity so everyone flocked to the cinema to check out the original Brazilian. Of course, the religious right had a collectivist fit because people were doing bad things with body parts and every Christian who knows anything about sin knows that all sin is equal before God except sex sins. Sex sins are particularly sinful . . . uh . . . er . . . something like that. Anyway, the counter criticism was that the religious right was a bunch of prudes bla bla bla.

Fast forward to 2006: Because Hollywood has run out of ideas, Sharon Stone did Basic Instinct 2 with more nudity of the 50 year old actress. No one went to see it. I mean, Sharon is my idol. I hope I look that good at 50 . . . well, ok so I’m already there, but I’m just saying.

Of course, the director rehashed and redoubled his 1992 criticism—the reason his movie was a flop was the fault of all those religious nuts. And the director was profoundly wrong. The first movie is the reason the second movie flopped. In 1992 Basic Instinct was almost considered soft core porn. By contrast; in 2006, TNT, AMC, USA, HBO, Starz, and a boat load of other networks show more skin every hour than Basic Instinct 1 and 2 combined. In 2006 KIDS were getting more nudity in sex education class. And here is the truth: Basic Instinct 1 set the new standard on sexual “edginess” and so today, nudity on pretty much any media outlet is fair game. It wasn’t because America was too prudish that caused the 2006 failure. It was because America is unrestrained: a movie with a naked 50 year old woman? Yawn . . .

The second example is the Mapplethorpe “art” display from roughly 25 years ago. Beyond the correct outrage over taxpayer dollars being used to subsidize the “arts” more outrage boiled to the surface over the Mapplethorpe content: a bottle of urine filled with a crucifix, men with bullwhips sticking out of their back side, and other sundry vulgarities. Of course the New York liberal wine and cheese crowd lauded the display as visionary, and after a fashion they were paraphrasing the Francis Schaeffer quote: it was a vision . . . of what was to come.

Now, media, in almost all forms, is a cesspool of vulgarity. Not that my sensibilities are delicate. As I have admitted in other places, I can drop the F bomb with the best of them and am perfectly comfortable in company cracking very politically incorrect jokes. But I am also very aware that cultural America has trended to an endless embrace of the twisted, the warped, and the reprobate. Television and movies are little more than circus freak shows. American heroes are at best comic book characters, and at worst people offered up to us as heroes are heroic because they are twisted; e. g., Bruce Jenner.

And here is the point: In each example the artist tried to capture/reflect the “ideal” in cultural values thus setting the compass to cultural direction.

So now we get to Kathy Griffin and the Donald Trump severed head.

Comedians are a special kind of artist; they hold a unique place in culture because they talk about the things that everyone “knows” we are not supposed to talk about. Comedy is a cultural release valve which also implies it is an indicator of cultural pressure.

I won’t dig too deep into the psychology of comedians except to notice the following: when Ms. Griffin was doing her bit, it is very apparent she saw nothing abnormal, nothing strange, nothing repulsive in her comedy. She was performing for an audience that she absolutely assumed would see the “humor.” She fully believed she was capturing/reflecting a cultural ideal (you can’t crack a joke unless the audience has a reference to the punch line). Notice that when called to account her first reaction was to tweet defiance. And then she was obviously bewildered, unable to understand the fuss; it was just “edgy” comedy. 24 hours into the back lash, after sponsors stopped paying money and comedy gigs were canceled, America was treated to her tearful plea for forgiveness as if that was supposed to end the dealeo.

By the way, the Hollywood left’s sobbing beggary for forgiveness is yet one more cultural example of the rot created by historic Christian doctrine. Heinous people do evil things and everyone else has to write a moral blank check. Big fat crocodile tears obligate everyone to bequeath absolution. But for the “grace of God” we would all be holding up bloody presidential heads in the name of art, right?

Of course, Kathy played everyone for suckers because hours later she was in front of the mic alternately belligerent that it was her divine right to perform “edgy” comedy and weeping that Donald Trump “broke her”; she is nothing but a victim of a rich white man’s conspiracy to destroy her career.

My prediction: In three months Hollywood will create a severed head Oscar and turn Kathy Griffin into a hero. Michael Moore will make a movie about the Trump conspiracy to plant a bloody severed head in Kathy’s hand and Al Franken will demand a Senatorial investigation into Russian collusion—those damned Russians twisted the American public mind to be against yet one more innocent woman!

And you think I’m being absurd to make a point?
Snort!

So dear reader Pop Quiz:

Ready? This is a tough one.

Who else cuts off people’s heads?

Why does this group of people use this kind of atrocity?

Give up?

The answer: Islamic Jihadists cut off heads as a political statement of social dictatorial dominance.

Cutting off a head and holding them high for everyone to see, has always been, at the root, a political statement.

Dead is dead, right?

Shoot someone in the chest with a bullet, stab them with a spear, blow them apart with a bomb, and drown them in water. The end is the same: dead is dead. Maybe some methods are fast and maybe some are slow, but . . . dead is dead.

From John the Baptist, to Marie Antoinette, to Robespierre and the guillotine, to ISIS, to the Queen of Hearts, “Off with his head” has always meant social dictatorial dominance.

And this is exactly the point of Kathy Griffin’s “edgy” comedy.

Beheading the President of the United States is by proxy is an overt political statement of social dictatorial dominance. As an “artist” Kathy Griffin was happy to reflect the political left’s cultural values. Make no mistake: what Kathy Griffin did is a snapshot of the political leftist endgame. The beheading of Donald Trump is a metaphor for the rage the political left feels for the American electorate. The only reason the political left hasn’t built the French Revolution guillotine in Time Square, and frog marched POTUS and everyone who voted for him to the platform is because the political left knows we still have our guns.

Kathy Griffin fully believes she captured/reflected a cultural ideal.

Kathy Griffin’s “edgy comedy” is a compass pointing to the direction of American politics.

Kathy Griffin is a little prophet, because after a fashion, she is showing us the future.

John Immel

Christ's death "reconciled" all people 2 God resulting in the call 2 all men. The calling of God and His offer of reconciliation go together

— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 4, 2017

Sin has one weapon left against the believer; to “deceive” into thinking the law still condemns. Viz, Protestantism is a co-laborer with sin

— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 4, 2017

Introduction revised, edited and annotated:

Follow-up live streaming link: Sunday 6.4.2017 @ 10am

Those who claim the “law[s]” in Romans 7
are realms ect not God’s written law must explain Paul’s use of divorce law in
his explanation.

— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 3, 2017