I am now answering the following questions…
- What do you think is going to happen on Inauguration Day?
- What do you think Donald Trump is going to do before or after Inauguration Day?
- And when do you think America will be somewhat back-to-normal after COVID?
…with the same reply: "I don't know and neither does anyone else." And I mean that. I don't think even Donald Trump has a solid idea about what Donald Trump is going to do. Advance planning — or even doing what he said he was going to do — have never been his strong points. (He has about 72 hours to unveil that wonderful, terrific, cheaper Obamacare replacement he said he'd put in place right after he was elected.)
There are times in our lives when I don't know what's going to happen but I think it's good to have a plan if "A" happens, a plan for if "B" happens, a plan or if it's "C," etc. And if I were in charge of security at any government facility this week, I think I'd have them for every letter of the English and Greek alphabets. But as a spectator from afar, it's sometimes more comfy not to make plans when you don't have a clue what problems you'll have to solve with them.
Meanwhile, Marty Golia wrote to ask me…
I was wondering if you were aware of and/or had any thoughts on the reaction on various FB groups when people shared Neal Kirby's statement on what Jack would've thought about the insurrectionists dressing as Captain America. Some — even in groups about Kirby — felt it shouldn't be shared in a "politics-free zone." Others felt they had to stand up to (paraphrasing) "people telling others what Jack would have though when they don't really know." At least one group splintered. Others took down posts as soon as they went up.
Well, first of all, I think it's fine for anyone who sets up a discussion forum to declare that certain topics are off-limits…and if you don't like that rule, there are only about eleventy-trillion other places on the Internet where you can post what you like. Secondly, most (not all but most) of the "politics-free zones" I've seen on the 'net are really "No posting of things I disagree with or which might invite rebuttals that I don't like" zones.
Jack was pretty consistently anti-bully, anti-Nazi and anti-deifying charismatic leaders in his work and in interviews and conversations. His wife Roz said he voted the straight Democratic ticket all his life. Whenever he didn't like the Dem nominee, he liked the G.O.P. one less.
Might he have changed his worldview if he'd lived to today? I dunno. If he were alive today at the spry old age of 210, Abe Lincoln might have decided that "freeing the slaves" jazz was a huge mistake…but I don't think speculation of that sort leads to any sort of answers about anything. It's just a way of trying to dismiss powerful lessons and statements of the past. ("Yes, I know what God said about coveting thy neighbor's house or wife or anything but I'm sure He'd grant me an exception if he saw Harry's girl friend and his new Lamborghini.")
On the other hand, I think if anyone has the insight and right to say what Jack Kirby would have felt about matters today, it's a child of Jack Kirby.
If you don't want to listen to him, fine. But don't pretend that your speculation is just as good as his. I'm pretty sure your parents would be horrified if they caught you doing that and I know (or knew) them much, much better than you do or did.