We'll always have Baltimore
If the events of November 22nd, 1963 had never happened, as they haven’t in Byers’ dream in the teaser for ‘Three of a Kind’, then he wouldn’t be John Fitzgerald Byers. He’d be Bernard. And his life wouldn’t have been the one he has led, the life we know him to have led. He wouldn’t be one of The Lone Gunmen, for like his, it is a name that wouldn’t exist. And he would never have met Suzanne Modeski.
Life is a string of what might have beens. Has there ever been a human being without regrets for choices made or roads not taken? Byers’ dream is a beautiful one, one we could all hope to be real. It remains a dream. For only in dreams can we hope to experience something so romantic and innocent. Life will certainly never allow it to be real.
It is more than fashionable to diss Freud; it’s an industry. But, of course, those who lack the genius to be original must climb to fame over the backs of others. Lee Harvey Oswald, if he was indeed the shooter on the 22nd of November, 1963, would be as good an example as any of the kind of person who must take down another as the only way to achieve any kind of prominence in a world not willing to give what they lack the initiative to create. So, Freud must suffer his reputation besmirched by those who can only criticize their way to publication.
Freud discussed two instincts towards life: Eros and Thanatos. These drives are contradictory, about as contradictory as it’s possible to be. Eros is the drive towards life, the inspiration behind Byers’ dream. Thanatos is a drive we would prefer not to admit to. So bad is Thanatos that even his fellow gods hated him. Hesiod mentions him in lines 211-2 of his ‘Theogony’:
Well, according to Freud, however much we might not want to admit it, more of us than you might expect.
Byers can only dream his perfect world because we could never allow it to be real. Nearly two thousand years after Jesus’ crucifixion we’re still trying to persuade people to be good. In 1921, Adolf Hitler was named leader of the Nazi Party. Only twelve years later, Dachau, the first of the concentration camps, opened. If the gods hated Thanatos it was likely out of jealousy, for they knew that we instinctively adhere to Death in a way we could never embrace life.
As much as we may now talk of values and ways of life, and rile against those who seem to advocate hate and division, we, deep down, must know that it is no one person who creates the modern climate, for there is nothing modern about it. It is just who we are.
In Byers’ dream, his “fellow citizens trust their elected officials”, never having “been betrayed by them”. But, on an obvious level, there’s a glaring similarity between JFK and Donald Trump. Just as there is as obvious a difference. For all his sabre rattling, the current POTUS has not yet sanctioned an invasion of another country. The simple fact is, Byers’ dream is actually delusion. A willingness to believe something that never was. There is probably enough historical evidence to prove that Government corruption didn’t begin after November 22, 1963.
We all have regrets because we live a life dedicated to Thanatos. But, just as Rick and Ilsa will always have Paris, Byers and Suzanne will always have Baltimore.
Life is a string of what might have beens. Has there ever been a human being without regrets for choices made or roads not taken? Byers’ dream is a beautiful one, one we could all hope to be real. It remains a dream. For only in dreams can we hope to experience something so romantic and innocent. Life will certainly never allow it to be real.
It is more than fashionable to diss Freud; it’s an industry. But, of course, those who lack the genius to be original must climb to fame over the backs of others. Lee Harvey Oswald, if he was indeed the shooter on the 22nd of November, 1963, would be as good an example as any of the kind of person who must take down another as the only way to achieve any kind of prominence in a world not willing to give what they lack the initiative to create. So, Freud must suffer his reputation besmirched by those who can only criticize their way to publication.
Freud discussed two instincts towards life: Eros and Thanatos. These drives are contradictory, about as contradictory as it’s possible to be. Eros is the drive towards life, the inspiration behind Byers’ dream. Thanatos is a drive we would prefer not to admit to. So bad is Thanatos that even his fellow gods hated him. Hesiod mentions him in lines 211-2 of his ‘Theogony’:
Night gave birth to hideous Moros and black Ker
and then to Death and Sleep and to the brood of Dreams
He is also mentioned by Homer in the ‘Iliad’ and by Euripides in ‘Alcestis’ but otherwise he loses out to Hades, god of the underworld. It is understandable that Thanatos would be so disregarded, for who wants to invite in Death himself?Well, according to Freud, however much we might not want to admit it, more of us than you might expect.
Byers can only dream his perfect world because we could never allow it to be real. Nearly two thousand years after Jesus’ crucifixion we’re still trying to persuade people to be good. In 1921, Adolf Hitler was named leader of the Nazi Party. Only twelve years later, Dachau, the first of the concentration camps, opened. If the gods hated Thanatos it was likely out of jealousy, for they knew that we instinctively adhere to Death in a way we could never embrace life.
As much as we may now talk of values and ways of life, and rile against those who seem to advocate hate and division, we, deep down, must know that it is no one person who creates the modern climate, for there is nothing modern about it. It is just who we are.
In Byers’ dream, his “fellow citizens trust their elected officials”, never having “been betrayed by them”. But, on an obvious level, there’s a glaring similarity between JFK and Donald Trump. Just as there is as obvious a difference. For all his sabre rattling, the current POTUS has not yet sanctioned an invasion of another country. The simple fact is, Byers’ dream is actually delusion. A willingness to believe something that never was. There is probably enough historical evidence to prove that Government corruption didn’t begin after November 22, 1963.
We all have regrets because we live a life dedicated to Thanatos. But, just as Rick and Ilsa will always have Paris, Byers and Suzanne will always have Baltimore.
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