Trump’s candidacy is in free fall. The video that broke the camel’s back is the “locker room” banter between Trump and Billy Bush circa 2005.
Google, Apple and Facebook have given us the tools to digitize and organize our lives. As facial and voice recognition improves, meta-tags are going to provide magically search and retrieval of our memories.
The implications on our privacy are profound. For now, non-celebrities need not worry about public exposure of their private lives, but the 2016 election is an ominous foreshadowing of the impact of the ubiquity of technology in our lives.
Politicians like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are under the microscope, and the microscope records. When every citizen can be a papparazi, audio engineer, whitsle-blower, journalist and film-maker; the line between our public and private lives begins to shatter. The fuel of the “Black Lives Matter” campaign are the mobile phone audio, video and photos of deadly police interactions.
With transparancy, deception and bad behavior is curbed. That is good. Yet the fear that Big Brother may be watching is disconcerting. When all the world is stage, can we be genuine? When our lives can be Tivo’d, our past errors and indiscretions can follow us to our graves. We are going to have to come to terms with this heightened level of scrutiny of our public figures.
Who amongst us has not sinned?
There are no angels, only flawed humans with good intentions. When we learn about Hillary’s hidden emails or Trump’s (insert embarrasing Trump revelation here), we immediately express our indignation and disgust. We ignore our own imperfections as we cast our stones. The fact that someone famous is caught misbehaving should not be a hanging offense. The larger questions is the intentionality and the remorse for the damages caused by the missteps.
Damage control required
Sooner or later, heroes will fall. It is unrealistic to expect perfection from our leaders. History has shown otherwise. Ego, greed, lust, revenge, jealousy and fear have marred the records of the greatest figures in history. The question then becomes not if someone will fail, but how they respond once their failings become know.
Hillary’s apologies for the email scandal are thin. She is fortunate. Her counterpart has responded far worse when called out. Trump has shown definance and arrogance in the face of criticism. The voting public is voicing their disapproval of not only his past actions, but also his defense of his actions. Although Hillary may not serve as the “how to” template for damage control, Trump can serve as the “don’t do this” case study.
Digression: The camera is more powerful than the pen
The Access Hollywood video has proved far more damning to Trump, than the Wikileaks revalations of the content of Hillary’s emails and fund-raising speeches. Seeing is believing. Videos provide visual and auditory content that simulates our real-world experience in a way that text cannot capture. Moral of the story, don’t bring a document to a video fight.
