What's Worse Than A Short Attention Span? Fixated-On-The-Meaningless Attention Span.

             Taken with a Nikon D70, 300mm lens, from a distance of 100 yards or so

So, I'm watching this old Frank Capra movie, "You Can't Take It With You", and one of the characters (the Patriarch of the Vanderhof's) says:

Lincoln said, "With malice toward none, with charity to all." Nowadays they say "Think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights outta you."

Which hit me two ways. First, I realised that all Lincoln did was paraphrase "Peace on earth, good will towards men.", so yeah, everybody plagiarizes, and second, being as how the movie was made pre-WWII but well after WWI (1938, based on the play of the same name that debuted in 1936), who was doing the bombing of whom?

The play the movie was based on was written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, two extremely talented American playwrights of Jewish heritage. I mention their Jewish heritage only because at the time the play was written, Fascism was on the rise in Europe, as was the virulent anti-Semitism that led up to the Holocaust.

Knowing this I thought maybe the "Think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights outta you." line might be alluding to what was going on in Europe at the time.

Of course I got on my phone and did a bit of research. I soon discovered that the political philosophy of Fascism had existed for about 20 years when the play was written. Fascism, as most people with a bit of education are aware, is an authoritarian ideology that espouses a single-party state that represses any and all opposition to state ideals, and actively persecutes enemies of the state, whether they be individuals or entire populations deemed to be "undesirable."

The thing is, the history books don't show a lot of actual bombing of people who wouldn't toe the Fascist line at the time (at least in Italy and Germany, the two countries recognised as Fascist in Europe at the time), and though there was a lot of racially-motivated violence in those countries, the infamous Kristallnacht was more than two years in the future when Kaufman and Hart wrote the play, and in fact, the film based on the play was released a full three months before Kristallnacht.

Add to that the fact that the line is not a statement declaring that people of different ethnic, racial, or other such biologically determined classification are in for a bombing - it is clearly a statement demanding a shared ideology, political and the like, or else.

Is it possible "Think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights outta you." as used in the play/movie over 75 years ago could have been inspired as much by the storm clouds forming over Europe as by the actions of the Anarchist and Communist zealots who were actively sowing dissension and promoting the more violent interpretation of the "Propaganda of the deed," in order to promote their specific political philosophy? Were they the subtle target of Messrs. Kaufman and Hart?

I wrestled with that question for awhile, then I turned the TV off. The movie had been over for awhile and due to my preoccupation with that one line of dialogue, I had missed what the heck was actually going on in the film.

Which is a drag, because I really like Capra films. Oh sure, they tend to lean towards the sappy, but they are entertaining.

I really need to learn to shut off the ol' phone and it's access to the internet once in awhile. It's affecting my ability to just relax and enjoy a show.