All the world’s a stage?
Some of the most high-profile figures on the world stage are, quite literally, actors
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
Further to this recent post…
I thought it worth highlighting that some of the most high-profile figures on the world stage are, quite literally, actors.
As I noted here in the Updates (Nov 2024) post, it’s worth remembering that, whatever else you think about Donald Trump, he is, quite literally, an actor. Here is his Internet Movie Database (IMDb) profile:
He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
Trump is of course not the first actor-turned-president.
I wonder who the next president will be…
Here is the IMDb profile of the new vice president J. D. Vance:
It’s not just Americans though.
Here is the IMDb profile of Javier Milei, elected as president of Argentina in 2023:
And here is the IMDb profile of Volodymyr Zelenskyy:
Anyone can watch the Ukrainian actor-turned-president playing the piano — with his penis — here on YouTube:
(I really don’t know what I’d have said if you’d told me five years ago that I’d one day be writing that last sentence...)
I am reminded of Bob Moran’s “World Stage” cartoon from early 2022:
As to Zelenskyy, he seems well-connected.
Here he is with actor Sean Penn:
Which is perhaps understandable in the context of this 2023 film written by (and starring) Zelenskyy, which was directed by Penn:
But Penn’s visit is no isolated example. Zelenskyy also met with Ben Stiller and Michael Douglas.
And it was not only Americans visiting Ukraine’s war president. Here is a link for Orlando Bloom.
And here is Zelenskyy with Stephen Fry:
How much precedent is there for this sort of thing in wartime?
If you click on “Why you can trust Sky News”, you get information about Sky being part of The Trust Project, which to me sounds a bit like the The Trusted News Initiative.
Hmm. I tend to judge people — and news organisations — more by how they behave than by what they say about themselves.
More broadly, I am increasingly inclined to think that whenever we are told in some way or other that someone is an actor, or that they used to be an actor, even a child actor, we should at least consider the possibility that they might now be acting a part on the world’s stage.
And that we should also allow for the possibility that others in the public eye — and particularly those featured in sensational news stories — might also be actors.
It is increasingly important to question the extent to which what we are told through the media is real, as noted in this post:
And also to get into the habit of asking why any given story might be being given the profile that it is, and why it is being presented as it is.
I am reminded of these words attributed to Denis Healey, former UK Defence Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer:1
World events do not occur by accident. They are made to happen, whether it is to do with national issues or commerce; and most of them are staged and managed by those who hold the purse strings.
Only connect.
Related:
Dear Church Leaders most-read articles
Some posts, including a version of this one, can also be found on Unexpected Turns
The Big Reveal: Christianity carefully considered as the solution to a problem
Healey was a member of the Executive Committee of the Fabian Society and a founding member of the Bilderberg Group. See also this 2001 Guardian article.