In promoting this eight-part series CNN proclaims that ”a city is only as strong as its leaders.” It’s a facile and, to my mind, arguable claim. This is a Robert Redford film. I haven’t seen it. I look forward to it. I deeply admire Redford. But I do want to point out that this facile statement is testament to a bogus press world view in which people who have by hook or crook risen to the top are to be admired and celebrated while the faceless masses are just so many numbers, so much data. I gather the series takes an admiring view toward Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor and Barack Obama’s former chief of staff. When I think of Emanuel I think of a man who set his city’s militarized cops on lawful dissenters, the Occupy movement, instead of going into the streets and talking to them. Other mayors, like Michael Bloomberg and Jean Quan in Oakland, took part in that disgrace. I hope these filmmakers have found more to admire in Emanuel. But it’s mostly that claim that people on top count. Sure they do, but no more than the homeless veteran, the teamster, the seaman, the street cleaner, the artist. I rather think the poet Carl Sandburg, who is often quoted where Chicago is concerned, might agree with me. Its people make a city great. I don’t know Chicago well, but I know New York very well. It’s not Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg and Jamie Dimon that make it strong, it’s not The New York Times; it’s its eccentric, vibrant, tolerant, energetic people. CNN’s promotional statement is right out of Ayn Rand’s handbook. insidetv.ew/2013/05/08/chicagoland-tv-series/
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 18:33:54 +0000
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