320 Years of History
Gold Member
Perhaps you enjoy watching television dramas. If so, House of Cards may be among the shows you enjoy. I have never seen the show, but I've heard of it. In the process of researching a thread topic I aim to introduce soon, I stumbled across a senior thesis, "The World According to Frank Underwood: Politics and Power in House of Cards written by Lindsey E. Davidson.
The paper is a thoroughly fascinating and quick/easy read; however, Chapter II of it is what inspired this thread. Read that chapter and share your thoughts that result from having synthesized the ideas expressed there and the reality that has been unfolding before us during the 2016 Presidential electoral process.
P.S.
Okay, so I realize that for the most part, I'm not the type to engage much in discussions having anything to do with pop culture, except, of course, in an intellectual context pertaining to sociology, psychology, business, or soemthing of that nature. That's just me. I rarely will share a thought merely because it popped into my head and I just feel obligated to tell "everyone" about it "because it makes so much sense." I'd do that when I was high on weed in college -- LOL -- but those days are gone.
This thread is my "compromise" to folks who prefer lighter subjects and subjects that don't require one to perform master's thesis levels of rigor to have a competent discussion about the topic. When I choose to post later in the thread, I still won't be "tweeting," but at least the topic itself is lighter than are "the usual suspects."
The paper is a thoroughly fascinating and quick/easy read; however, Chapter II of it is what inspired this thread. Read that chapter and share your thoughts that result from having synthesized the ideas expressed there and the reality that has been unfolding before us during the 2016 Presidential electoral process.
- Does the show's protagonist's mentality, motivations and methods (as described in the paper, not as you interpret them if you watch the show) remind you of either (or both) Presidential candidate?
- If so how so? How are they materially different and how are they materially similar?
- Given the show's having come to be well before the 2016 election cycle, do you think either Presidential candidate, or even lower level office holders or aspirants, have modeled their political methodology on that manifested by Underwood?
- Other:
- If you are instead a Scandal viewer, compare and contrast Olivia and/or Rowan Pope with either of the 2016 Presidential candidates and remark also upon whether either strikes you as a model for an important figure in the 2016 election cycle.
P.S.
Okay, so I realize that for the most part, I'm not the type to engage much in discussions having anything to do with pop culture, except, of course, in an intellectual context pertaining to sociology, psychology, business, or soemthing of that nature. That's just me. I rarely will share a thought merely because it popped into my head and I just feel obligated to tell "everyone" about it "because it makes so much sense." I'd do that when I was high on weed in college -- LOL -- but those days are gone.
This thread is my "compromise" to folks who prefer lighter subjects and subjects that don't require one to perform master's thesis levels of rigor to have a competent discussion about the topic. When I choose to post later in the thread, I still won't be "tweeting," but at least the topic itself is lighter than are "the usual suspects."
