When a person or coterie has unchecked access to heaps of wealth and power, what happens to them? They go bananas! Of course, some of them already were that way; money and power merely lets them go public, the genie uncorked.
You've got the business model -- Howard Hughes, the Koch brothers, Ross Perot, Donald Trump.
You've got the pop artist model -- Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, Michael Jackson.
You've got the business-demagogue model -- Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.
You've got the religious prophet model -- Jim Jones, Ted Haggard, Eddie Long.
And you've got the dictator model -- Idi Amin, Bébé Doc Duvalier, Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi / Qaddafi / Khaddafi (pictured above with his "bodyguards," who are looking suspiciously like Janet Jackson in Rhythm Nation mode), and let's not forget Kim Jong-il, Supreme Leader of the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea."
They all fall on a continuum spectrum, those committing real atrocities on the most depraved and socially damaging end, those who simply get drunk, pop pills and mouth off on the garden variety end. The moral: having tons of money and unchecked power does no good for anyone.
Janet Jackson is rich and silly, but seems harmless enough.
Michael Jackson was certainly bananas, living in Neverland in more ways than one.
Woody Allen spoofed "banana republic" dictators and revolutionary upheavals in 1971. Now one can shop for clothes at Banana Republic, a chain formed in 1978 and snapped up by The Gap (between rich and poor?) in 1983. And the rest is . . . history.
Andy Warhol became wealthy with iconic Pop Art such as the Banana album cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967). Long before he died, he accrued considerable riches. The cult of celebrity is not confined to artists and the rest of the above -- let's not forget sports figures, "regular" politicians and so on.
Finally, The Dickies' cover of the Banana Splits theme song will drive this Bananas post to its final conclusion:
Today's Rune: Warrior.
5 comments:
that picture of his "too live crew" is truly worth many thousands of words. Egads.
Loony tunes ;->
"Four banana, three banana, two banana, one
All bananas playing in the bright blue sun!
Flipping like a pancake, popping like a cork,
Fleagle, Bingo, Drooper and, Snork!"
Truer words were never expressed . . .
Payback for making me see all this
WM -- thanks, man -- just relayed it via Facebook :->
Reminds me of Charlie the Tuna trying to get himself eaten -- totally weird.
Erik, you nailed this one in such a cute way! We do 'the banana' in my boxing class as a stretching exercise!
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