Week 6: Last Week Tonight with Emily

Happy 38th of March everyone. 

Here’s a quick TL;DR of what I did this week!

– Current news research (esp surrounding Trump’s bonds, religion, Ukraine, and Switzerland) 

– Historical research (the history behind the personality cult/political religion) 

– Drafted new short work 

Last Week Tonight

The final idea I settled on for this week was a piece that took the mick out of Trump’s deification by himself and his fans. The easiest example is, of course, the fact that he has just promoted the “God Bless the USA” bible and it’s unclear where the profits of the book go to. 

Note: (CIC Ventures, which is connected to trump, has been listed as recipients of some of the cash)

Picking out the hypocrisies (cough- church and state separation) in his ad was not the tricky part; Making them more absurd than they already were was difficult. I was giggling throughout the whole three minutes… Obviously, a difficult comedic bar to get above. 

That’s when the other outside research came in. I heavily relied on Anita Pisch’s The phenomenon of the personality cult — a historical perspective for my academic research. She’s a great writer and gave tons of definitions for political religions. Here are a couple of good ones:

– Historian Jan Plamper “god-like glorification of a modern political leader with mass media techniques, and excessive glorification of this leader”

– Political scientist Pao-min Chang, “the artificial elevation of the status and authority of one man… through the deliberate creation, projection and propagation of a godlike image”

Essentially, a personality cult/political religion is the moniker ascribed by historians to political ideologies that become a little too all encompassing. When the line between appreciation and veneration of the leader becomes blurred. Personality cults have existed throughout human history- they are not just a modern phenomena- Alexander the Great, Maximilian I, Napoleon, Stalin, and Hitler have all been leaders that fell into this category. 

I think it’s always difficult to call out contemporary politicians for being of that ilk (because their followers are alive and kicking), but being aware of the attributes is nonetheless important. 

Next Week… uhh Tomorrow

I have two main goals:

1. Finish up the Trump & Religion work from this week 

2. Find better ways to distribute my writing 

The Trump & Religion piece is meant to be part of the “larger work” that I mentioned in my prospectus. It’s done in an epistolary style (written as a letter), so hopefully I can write a few more in that same format and compile them. 

I decided against writing one massive story because honestly I won’t have the time. I have been able to stick to ~1 article per week, but any more than that is tough!! 

As for the second: The point of my project is to educate and entertain people which is a little difficult when you only have had ten people read your work haha. I’m still a student, with limited resources and time but getting a few more readers would be fabulous. Otherwise, the stats I present at the end will be a little silly. 

(That being said, if anyone has actually read this far please feel free to share my Medium Acct!! https://medium.com/@emily_73725/asinine-antics-special-report-on-trumps-entrance-into-evening-math-classes-9078e53e7661 )

Adieu everyone :)!