If you can't dance a step, you can't teach it

Had an amazing dream last night, and a lot of things really became clear. Sometimes I really loathe my subconscious, but other times it sifts through the detritus and comes up with an amazing metaphor. So, I'm going to drift wildly off topic, toss in a film that I don't think a lot of people have seen or remember and have a little fun, because lord knows we can use it.

This divide in the political party of the Democrats is nearly identical to the plot of the 1992 Australian film Strictly Ballroom.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIzqZwDHis4]

It's a classic story. Underdog challenges the establishment. No real surprise there. The big thing about that film is how petty and obvious the establishment is about rigging things, behaving idiotically and generally acting like the slime everybody knows they are, but THINKS they have no option to avoid. It all comes down in the end to what people are willing to do for money. The dancers are so obsessed with losing out on the money they would get from instruction that they fail to see the bigger picture of an enjoyable and unique subculture crumbling under an obsession with the traditions and dogma of the past. In a way it isn't even the true embrace of the past. It's a mockery that looks completely ridiculous when compared with the real thing.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meJ-nxkVPl8]

I don't even think I need to point out the parallels. On the internet, on the campaign trail, pretty much everywhere. We've got people who are doing things just because it is the WAY things have always been done. Changing things up is taking a risk. Can't do that. Must do things the way they need to be. Stay the course, vote for who we say, etc... etc...

So, I'm going to just point out the main point of the film, one that I adore and really drives home a great message.

Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias!

Or, A life Lived in Fear, is a Life Half Lived

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Pat K California's picture

Can't tell you how many times I've watched "Strictly Ballroom". And I never fail to feel better about just about everything when it is all over!

Oh, the intense frustration of not being able to break free and "dance your own steps" in a society that insists upon "locksteps" ... or else. Or else you won't "make money". Or else you will be ridiculed. Or else your life will be OVER.

Nuts to that. Life is too short ...

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"Long term: first the rich get mean, then the poor get mean, and the rest is history." My brother Rob.

detroitmechworks's picture

If you ever got a chance to read his published diary, he often talks about how much he loved this film.

IMHO, it has the same kind of feel as his old comedies, which are sadly in short supply these days.

But maybe that's just me getting old. Smile

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

darkmatter's picture

The past few months during the primary had me often thinking about that great final scene of The Bridge on the River Kwai, when Alec Guinness, in a hypnotic daze, attempts to undo the daring plan of his own colleagues. I kept waiting for people on the HRC side to say, like AG does at the very end, "What have I done?" But that moment never came....

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRHVMi3LxZE]

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detroitmechworks's picture

I follow a lot of people who worked with him on twitter, and they always state what a rare privilege it was to work with him.

Apparently despite all his upper class roles, he truly was a working stiff at heart, and took great delight in making workdays bearable.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.