A description of the relationship that exists between art
and real life can never overestimate the complexity and closeness of that
kinship. However, whereas it can be said that art imitates life and in turn
life imitates art, it cannot be said that the imitation is so exact, the two
can be interchanged.
Let me give you an example. Watch a movie and write down a
synopsis of the story. Watch the movie again twice in a row … five times in a
row … a dozen times in a row … any number of times. What you'll see is that the
movie has played itself in the exact same manner each time. Now go back and,
once again, write the synopsis of what you saw. Compare this piece of writing
with the first synopsis and you'll see a difference between the two. Whereas
the art, once expressed remained constant, you've established that the repeated
expression of it will repeatedly change. And that's what separates art from
real life.
You conclude that whereas art remains static even when the
subject it was expressing has evolved into something different, life is so
dynamic, it changes constantly and goes its own way after imitating art. For
this reason, it is better to think of the relationship between life and art as
one of resemblance rather than imitation, let alone an exact imitation.
This brings us to the column that Clifford D. May wrote
under the title: “Trump's bunker buster video blockbuster,” published on June
19, 2018 in The Washington Times. Reading it, you establish that Clifford May
is saying the short video clip, which Trump has shown to Kim Jong-un, reflected
the American President's manner by which he communicates with others. That is,
with the use of the video clip, Trump has promised the North Korean leader “fire
and fury” if he will not cooperate to make their meeting a success.
What happened after the meeting was that Trump described Kim
Jong-un in terms that were so glowing, you would think a supernova exploded in
the firmament not of outer space but here on Earth, and you didn't need a
Hubble telescope to see it. So the question: What did happen during the meeting
of the two leaders? Well, the best way to make sense of all that, is to recall
the difference that exists between the static expression of life and the
dynamic reality of the thing.
Clifford May, who did not attend the meeting, wrote a column
in which he described not the North Korean leader that Trump saw in flesh and
blood, but the fake static portrait of him that was reproduced from imagination
over and over again in America. That's the artistic part, and here is how May
reproduced it with words:
“The tyrants who rule North Korea developed the means to
incinerate American cities … The mass-murdering, 30-something despot. We don't
know much about Mr. Kim's psyche. Does he want to pass on the prison camp that
is North Korea to a fourth generation? Does he ever suffer pangs of guilt about
all the blood he has shed and all the lives he has ruined?”
Because the North Koreans knew about the propaganda that was
perpetrated against them in America, they must have prepared themselves to
respond to it the moment it was decided that the two leaders were going to
meet. And it should not be too difficult for someone that's not Clifford May to
imagine what the North Korean must have said to his American counterpart. It
would have been the expression of a real life that refused to imitate art. And
here is how Kim Jong-un might have sounded expressing it:
“We developed neither tyranny nor the means to incinerate American
cities. Mass-murder was inflicted on us by foreign despots that destroyed many
of our cities in the 1950s and blockaded our country thereafter to starve our
people. If it were not for the Chinese and the Russians, we would all be dead
by now. Unlike many in America, my psyche has not been damaged by Hollywood
fantasies, and my wish is to pass on to the next generation a triumphant North
Korea. We did better than the Vietnamese who also triumphed over you, but we
checkmated you and brought you to the negotiating table without killing 60,000
of yours or injuring a quarter of a million of them. We accomplished all this
despite the pain you were able to inflict on us. No, we do not suffer pangs of
guilt because we did nothing to feel guilty about. It is you who should feel
guilty about the blood you caused us to shed, and the lives of our people you
ruined”.
In his column, Clifford May spoke of strategic
communication, defining it as, “understanding that you persuade people based on
their values and interests –– values and interests that may be quite different
from yours and those of your friends.” Spot on, Cliff!
It appears that Kim Jong-un has persuaded Donald Trump that
North Korea's values and interests are so noble, they stand head and shoulder
above those of the America-Israel axis of terrorist threats, genocide and
murderous adventurism.
It also appears that Trump has embraced the Korean values
and interests … if only temporarily. Still, feeling superior to the likes of
Clifford May, he did not bother explaining what it's like to climb to the top
of the mountain, look down at the empty souls down below, and feel pity for
them, unable to help them rise to a higher level.