Commedia dell'arte: Mea Culpa Act 1 Scenes 1 and 2
Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are behavioral disturbances
in which a person fails to resist the drive to behave in ways that result in
distress or impaired social and occupational functioning. In Parkinson's disease
(PD), ICDs most commonly include pathological gambling, excessive spending and
hypersexuality.
I’ve never been particularly impulsive. Oh I can be
inspired to spontaneity sure. But I have always been more of a goal-oriented,
planner type who might come up with an interesting idea then think pros and
cons and logistics (as my friend
Astarte says of me) before hitting the road. Bring on the next challenge I
shout! then analyze it before taking action.
Nor have I ever been known for
having a temper.
Nevertheless…
Lack of Impulse Control Act I Scene I
One day last year in Senegal he had so outraged me that when we met head on at the junction of
the balcony, the stairs down, and the pool below, the Pro-Con function reached
a conclusion before I even knew we were making a decision.
- - I could throw myself off the balcony into the pool.
- - I could push him down the stairs.
- - I could grab the cocky rose coloured sun glasses off his head and toss them into the pool.
Fortunately the glasses were tossed – though to
my annoyance, he was able to fish them out (free of scratches) without even
getting wet!
Lack of Impulse Control Act I Scene 2
Then today, waking to a sensitive friend’s text message
about another’s Facebook post, I jumped right into the pool feet first, brain
way behind. I leapt to a false conclusion and threw my friend down the stairs without
even seeing what she’d actually
posted for what it actually was. Then I tried to blame it on not yet having had
my coffee (I drink decaf); on having
a lousy computer screen and needing reading glasses (the latter are true).
I succeeded in hurting my fb-posting friend (and being
publically and privately trashed by her friends)
and I failed to defend the feelings of my texting friend or to make my point regarding
cultural appropriation, adaptation, accommodation in art and life.
(Update)
Let me say that leaving Commedia dell'arte aside, underlying the posting was
the issue of how “blackface” and the portrayals of black people in American culture
most significantly, give rise to many feelings of repression, ridicule etc in
the equating of Black with Evil:
From the Jim Crow Museum - Reddit Blackface Conversation http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/nov13/index.htm
And
Every Time I Turn Around: Rite,
Reversal, and the end of blackface minstrelsy
and finally,
BBC Trending ;Southern US strawberry festival sparks a race row
 |
| A poster for a Louisiana strawberry festival showing two faceless black children has prompted sharply split online opinion over whether it is offensive and racist. 24 March 2015 |
