Politics

I must have pressed something somewhere on my computer since I now receive a couple of weekly briefings from the Brookings Institute alongside something every couple of days it seems from a online magazine called The Week and constant notices of short essays from something called the Kos.  I must have assented to these, just don't know how or where or . . . .I have never been all that much interested in politics having cut my teeth on the subject reading Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" in the original Greek and the Roman historian Tacitus' account of the reigns of various of the emperors, especially the hilarious--in a mordant sort of way--story of Nero and his mother.  With that as a background I tend to take a dim view of the possibility of truth being reached in any account.  I guess that is why I tend to favor Herodotos whose story telling technique is first rate, and who, it seems to me, understands that the minute you starting shaping your facts in obedience to abstract ideas you are straying from what might be called "reality."  Professional ancient historians always favor Thucydides but I think he really does just that.  In any case, these latter day commentators make no bones about partiality, although of course the Republican candidate does, it seems to me, lay himself open to almost parody at every turn.  I was told to watch an interview with Roger Stone, the Republican strategist speaking to Charlie Rose, and his straight faced endorsement of all the tics of Mr. Trump's personality and style made me wonder if we were operating in the same universe. But this is just to say that there are days when I suffer from an overload of political analysis, too many pundits, too many theories tossed at facts, too many statistics quoted, and I really do believe that I am growing suffocated.  Was it ever thus?  I have never paid attention to the details of an election before, or that is how I remember it.  Of course, we have never had in my memory two candidates so starkly opposed in personality or ideology.  I cannot imagine how my brain would be fried if I had to add television into the mix.  I see it enough three morning a week when I am on the treadmill at the gym, lucky if someone has not already set the channel to Fox News and we are watching one of the more neutral channels.  Why are the men in suits? and the women in long, long hair dos.  Thank God for Rachel Madoff who looks like she is operating with brains.  As I may have mentioned before, an old friend who has spent time on the White House staff says "Veep" is the most realistic representation of what goes on in there.  It is satisfying to think that this might be the case, because then one is relieved of the obligation of trying to make sense.