I get e-mails all the time asking me for more or less political content on this blog. Many of them argue that I'd get more or less hits if I wrote more about Donald Trump or less about Donald Trump. I'm sure some of you are right but I'm not about to spend any time figuring out which of you that might be. I discovered after the first few years of this blog that for me, it was important to not care how many hits I get. A lot of things in life are more fun if you don't attach your income or reputation to them.
The amount of time I spend here writing about Trump — or any topic really — has nothing to do with clickbait, everything to do with what I spend time thinking about within this silly head of mine. And at times, I find the need to prioritize what goes on in there.
Back when it looked like O.J. Simpson might stand trial for two murders, I looked at that situation and thought, "Hmm…this could occupy an awful lot of time that would be better spent working on scripts." I think I even thought the "hmm" part. So I didn't pay much attention to that case until it was getting close to a conclusion…and then, as I expected, it took up way too much of my time and attention. It simply became impossible to look away and I was glad I hadn't started following it sooner.
I'm trying to do that to some extent with the current Writers Strike. I have no predictions about how or when it will end other than that it will…somehow and someday. Perhaps the predictions of those actually involved in the negotiations might (note the might) have some merit but I'm even skeptical about that. Nevertheless, yesterday at the Burny Mattinson memorial, I had the following exchange with a friend who I ran into there…
FRIEND I RAN INTO THERE: I'd like to get your take on the strike. How do you see it playing out?
ME: I have no predictions about the strike and no faith in anyone else's.
FRIEND I RAN INTO THERE: I know that. You keep saying that on your blog. But if you did have a prediction, what would it be?
This attitude is not unlike another one I'm encountering more and more these days. It's when someone asks you a question that surely has an honest-to-God factual answer somewhere, you tell them you have no idea what it is, and they press you to guess anyway. The premise here is that a wrong answer is better than no answer at all. No, it isn't.
I keep thinking of a time many years ago when I was walking down a street and a car pulled over — two older people seeking directions. They asked me if I knew how to get to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Projecting (I'm certain) a great sense of confidence, I told them, "Sure" and I proceeded to give them detailed, definite instructions on how to get there. They repeated them back, I told them they had it down and they thanked me and drove off as instructed…
…at which point, I realized I'd just given them detailed, definite instructions on how to get to the Beverly Hilton.
This was thirty years in the past and for all I know, they're still driving around, unable to find it and saying, "But that nice young man told us we have to turn left on Wilshire…"
The wrong answer is not better than no answer and a prediction when you don't know enough — or don't think the matter is predictable at all — is not better than no prediction.
I don't think the next Presidential Election is at all predictable. I mean, I'm prescient enough about it to bet money that I will not be the winner and — don't take this the wrong way — you won't be, either. But beyond that, who the hell knows? We don't even know whether the Republican nominee will be in prison or well on his way there…and it's not like we can look at past elections when that's been the case and try to determine some sort of trend in that situation.
I have a too-vague-to-really-mention-but-I-will-here-as-an-example hunch that Joe Biden will step aside for health reasons — and that reason might even be true. But since I haven't given the man a physical lately, there's no reason to give that hunch any weight at all.
So I'm kind of trying to maintain a controlled attention to the next presidential election and also to the strike. I don't want to think about these things more than I want to think about these things…which is enough to stay reasonably well-informed but not to become too obsessed. I have more important things to do including…well, just about everything else.