Pygmalion 2016
The British playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote a biting comedy in 1913 with the title Pygmalion. In 1956, the work was adapted into a very successful Broadway musical and subsequently an Oscar winning film named MY FAIR LADY. The plot of the play and musical centered around turning a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a person who could pass for a duchess.
I believe we are entering the present day version of this plot by the turning of playboy , TV personality and billionaire Donald Trump into President of The United States of America and leader of the free world. In Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, Henry Higgins, a speech professor, is the person to whom this make-over job falls. In this year’s version. Of Pygmalion, The task of changing a bouffant hair dude playboy businessman into the leader of the Free World is assumed by the USA MEDIA.
In he last six months, the MEDIA, consisting mainly of CNN, MSNBC and FOX, thanks to all the free publicity they have given Trump, this transformation is well on its way. Mr. T’s is already the Republican’s nominee for president . This is the modern Pygmalion miracle we are witnessing and many are applauding.
Professor Higgins had Eliza to repeat such silly sayings like “The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains.” She did this over and over until she began losing her low-class accent. This attention he showered on Eliza was pro bono, or for free. He was just trying to win a bet that he could turn her into something she wasn’t. Higgins believed that if you repeated something long enough, it would soon sound right.
The MEDIA let Trump take over for free at least 40 minutes of every hour of their cable news shows for the last six months. They let Trump and his surrogates say any inane thing they wanted and repeat it as many times as they liked until it became the truth to the listeners. Rarely did any pundit question him or his surrogates on the truth of what they were saying. They didn’t dare. Some fact checking organizations claimed that up to 87 per cent of what Trump said was only partially true or totally untrue. The name “Donald Trump” got mentioned at least 500 times a day on the media outlets. Trump believed what Lenin once said, “Tell a lie often enough and it soon becomes the truth.” Via the MEDIA’s generosity, Trump became so successful that before long he was heard to say, “I cold kill somebody in Times Square and it would only make my ratings go up.”
Professor Higgins bullied Eliza but in this year’s Pygmalion, Donald has turned everything topsy-turvy. Via the art of bullying, he has truly turned his atomic-cloud hairdo into acceptability with all the rough-necks in The United States. He has even made the Republican Party eat crow and be hornswoggled by his bullying techniques. Most of his fellow party members appease him and don’t stand up to him just to keep from rocking the good ship Titanic.
Eliza wasn’t really alone in her new disguise. Professor Higgins’ sidekick Colonel Pickering, Freddy Eynsford-Hill, and the servants and housekeeper of Henry’s household felt sorry for her. They were her surrogates.
In the present day version of My Fair Donald , Trump has surrogates coming on the different media shows to brag on him. These mouth pieces can say any outrageous or scurrilous thing they want and NEVER be challenged by any news pundit. AND the media never ask them to back up their statements. The media are just totally fascinated with “Doolittle” Donald. Now that it is sure to them that he will be president, they are smug and justly proud of having. created and encouraged such a Pygmalion.
Eliza went to the Embassy ball and fooled everybody into thinking she was a duchess, even professional linguist experts.
In Pigstrompian 2016, “The Donald”goes to The Republican Convention in Cleveland and is treated like a crowned prince by one and all in his party. The MEDIA smile on the whole scene due to their having created this particular moment in American History. Donald speaks to the attendees and they scream their adoration of him. He has truly fooled each and every one of them, just as Eliza did at The Embassy Ball in Pygmalion 1913.
After the Embassy Ball, Eliza is unsure of how her life will be in the future. She has become a fabulous fake but has no experience or talent for being anything but a flower girl.
Prince Donald, after being nominated and cheered, faces the possibility of being President of The United States of American and Leader of The Free World. He has no idea of what to do next. He has been extremely clever in fooling everybody and now it’s time to pay the Piper, so to speak. So, here we have Peter Pan, the guy who never grew up, trying to run all the adults in the world. His total narcissism keeps him from being scared even though world leaders, statesmen and global politicians are mightily afraid. Those who have given their minds to this braggadocios playboy laugh and clap at his vulgarities as though they were witnessing some sort of special intelligence that only the truly biased can appreciate.
As for THE MEDIA who created this entire spectacle, they will be wallowing in money for passing entertainment off as news and popsicle minds as intelligence. They have certainly accomplished those quests in authoring “My Fair Donald.”
Pygmalion 1913 was a biting comedy on class warfare in Britain. Pogmalion 2016 is a biting horror story on present class warfare here in The USA. The heterosexual, religious, white male really has a grudge against Blacks, Latinos, GLBTs and, yes, even women who think they’re equal to them. Their problem for the last few years is that they couldn’t openly express their disdain for these people. All of a sudden, they have a spokesperson in Donald Trump, who thinks nothing of lambasting any of these people. The “take back America” crowd eats it up.
With THE MEDIA’s help, we may just set on the world stage a new phenomenon—American Fascism. You can close this show before it opens—but it’s truly up to you. When we don’t think and we let the media or a bully do our thinking for us, then we are putting ourselves and our neighbors in peril.
