[Originally written in August 2016, and intended as a review of the film Suicide Squad; presented here in edited form].
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." I posted this quote, alongside a screenshot of Frank Sinatra performing in the 1970s, to my Facebook page on the morning following Bernie Sanders' submission at the Democratic National Convention. I was feeling disheartened and ornery and hungover, and intentionally misattributed the quote-- the final line from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming"-- to The Chairman of the Board. Nobody commented; nobody cared. I corrected myself two days later, not willing to be complicit in the charade-- but we have become so. The Democratic National Convention had been, by many accounts, a tumultuous event, riddled by scandals sprung from multiple email leaks that proved Bernie Sanders never have a chance. Some have alleged that the Democratic party conspired against the popular Socialist-turned-Democrat; others interpreted the emails to reveal a nefarious and corrupt political machine, one whose influence reaches into the operations of the federal government. By the time Sanders called for a vote by acclimation from the floor of the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the email leaks were making for bold headlines coast-to-coast-- not for their content, but for their alleged ties to Russian hackers (and perhaps had something to do with the Republican frontrunner's allegedly cozy relationship with the Russian President).
As Bernie spoke that night, this country kicked off a new era of politics: one in which we can expect not just the active participation and manipulation of the media by political groups, but intentional deception. Paid online trolls to riddle the opposition's Facebook group pages with provocative and fictional facts. Elected representatives speak so deceptively as to require "fact checking." Within two weeks of the close of the Convention, the Democratic nominee was applauded-- loudly-- by a gathering of the Washington press, at her first "press conference" in hundreds of days. All question as to the tactics that got her there had clearly evaporated: she was and is an alternative to the GOP nominee, always has been. Lauded by the Fourth Estate, the democratic process limps forward, almost mocking itself, as only one real candidate appears to have long been the plan. Formerly-passionate Facebook friends of mine declare their willing ignorance and resignation to all things political. This morning among my friends a link is spreading that explains how people's minds aren't changed because of what they may read online, and that commenting on politics on Facebook is useless. We seem to be beginning to live in a world that truly accepts when the ends justify the means-- and we seem to be more willing to look the other way, when the ends seem to match up with our own.
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." I posted this quote, alongside a screenshot of Frank Sinatra performing in the 1970s, to my Facebook page on the morning following Bernie Sanders' submission at the Democratic National Convention. I was feeling disheartened and ornery and hungover, and intentionally misattributed the quote-- the final line from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming"-- to The Chairman of the Board. Nobody commented; nobody cared. I corrected myself two days later, not willing to be complicit in the charade-- but we have become so. The Democratic National Convention had been, by many accounts, a tumultuous event, riddled by scandals sprung from multiple email leaks that proved Bernie Sanders never have a chance. Some have alleged that the Democratic party conspired against the popular Socialist-turned-Democrat; others interpreted the emails to reveal a nefarious and corrupt political machine, one whose influence reaches into the operations of the federal government. By the time Sanders called for a vote by acclimation from the floor of the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the email leaks were making for bold headlines coast-to-coast-- not for their content, but for their alleged ties to Russian hackers (and perhaps had something to do with the Republican frontrunner's allegedly cozy relationship with the Russian President).
As Bernie spoke that night, this country kicked off a new era of politics: one in which we can expect not just the active participation and manipulation of the media by political groups, but intentional deception. Paid online trolls to riddle the opposition's Facebook group pages with provocative and fictional facts. Elected representatives speak so deceptively as to require "fact checking." Within two weeks of the close of the Convention, the Democratic nominee was applauded-- loudly-- by a gathering of the Washington press, at her first "press conference" in hundreds of days. All question as to the tactics that got her there had clearly evaporated: she was and is an alternative to the GOP nominee, always has been. Lauded by the Fourth Estate, the democratic process limps forward, almost mocking itself, as only one real candidate appears to have long been the plan. Formerly-passionate Facebook friends of mine declare their willing ignorance and resignation to all things political. This morning among my friends a link is spreading that explains how people's minds aren't changed because of what they may read online, and that commenting on politics on Facebook is useless. We seem to be beginning to live in a world that truly accepts when the ends justify the means-- and we seem to be more willing to look the other way, when the ends seem to match up with our own.
Into this ethically nebulous space enters the Warner Brothers film Suicide Squad, which opened nationwide on the first weekend of August and promptly set a record for box office revenue. Suicide Squad is less of a vehicle for any specific star, and more of DC's answer to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: a collection of morally questionable misfits band together to save the world. Unlike Marvel's cutesy and glitzy box office mechanism, DC's Suicide Squad is explicit in its politics: Amanda Waller (played well by Viola Davis, though I kept imagining Robin Quivers in the role) is a calculating official operating on behalf of the federal government and in the name of national and global security, assembles a team of ethically nebulous superhumans. Waller's practices are unorthodox, and may be perhaps more reprehensible than any individual member of the gang she assembles-- but she is in it because she sees the future of the country at stake. It is politics by any means necessary.
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| A real-life Amanda Waller? |
I won't unpack the symbolism of each member of the Suicide Squad (is there any?), but will draw attention to the timing of the movie's release: filling summertime theaters just as Bernie Sanders, who somehow motivated millions politically, called for a vote by acclimation from the floor of the Democratic National Convention. His concession came amid scandal that would, in months hence, become thunderous, ominous. By the time the foliage was in full bloom in his (and my) home state of Vermont, Bernie Sanders' name had become synonymous not with his political platform or stance on a given issue, but rather a symbol of the documented corruption within the Democratic Party. Sanders never had a chance. His only hope was to play it by the rules that were handed him: join the team and be given an important but not ultimate role, one that will look and feel like power. Sanders joined something like the Suicide Squad on that afternoon in Philadelphia, knowing his work would continue to have meaning as long as he was willing to fit into somebody else's larger scheme. "Ignore everything I've been saying for the past nine months," the memes would say. Who among us will continue to lack all intention? And will the passionate intensity of this election subside in early November-- or is concession the only hope?
