Yesterday I watched Rocky. It had been quite a while since I viewed this movie, perhaps decades, to be honest. And, to be even more forthcoming, I have lost a bit of admiration for Sylvester Stallone, although certainly admire his tenacity and persistence in creating, not only the Rocky character, but his other successful iconic characters.
It has been calculated that with a $1 million budget, the original Rocky movie grossed $225 million worldwide in box office revenue. A rags to riches story about a boxer conceived by a rags to riches actor/neighborhood club fighter. It is no wonder that his statue stands proudly on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, and that his famous run up those steps is reenacted, probably daily, by tourists, native Philadelphians, and Americans from around the country.
Coincidentally, Rocky was released fifty years ago. I say coincidentally, because 1976 was also the year I graduated high school.
I remember seeing the movie that year, tearing up when he finally made it to the top of the Art Museum steps, feeling every hit as Apollo Creed relentlessly pummeled him, then cheering when he came to his feet after being knocked down in the 14th round. It all came back to me as I watched again yesterday, especially his calls to Adrian as he awaited the decision, a decision, it seemed to me as I experienced the film all these years later, that didn't really matter to him. Even though he had admitted that he didn't think he could win, and that he just wanted to last fifteen rounds, I guess I missed that part when I first watched the movie. I expect I was disappointed when he didn't win in 1976, but understood far better in 2026 why it didn't matter.
Why he was a winner none the less.
I mentioned in my last post that I often wonder how much of my waning optimism in America is related to my own personal aging. Certainly in 1976, having my whole life ahead of me, I was far more optimistic about my future, far more likely to identify with a rags to riches story and the idea that something similar could happen to me. Whether that is also part and parcel to my reduced hopefulness, that, in fact, nothing similar has occurred in my life, at least not in terms of recognition on a large scale, is debatable, and not entirely unlikely.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, America was the underdog of the world, taking on the biggest, most powerful military of the day. It is easy to understand why we identify with characters like Rocky as we see our own national origin story as a rags to riches epic journey.
Which makes it all the more sad that America has become the bully that we always cheered against in movies, and life.
Don't get me wrong, even in 1976 when I was in the full bloom of my youth, America had already belittled the accomplishment of defeating Hitler's attempt to rule by intimidation and violence, when we secretly but actively deposed the leaders of other countries, in addition to actually invading foreign lands, Korea and Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, to mention the worst debacles.
But now we have a leader who not only stands with bullies like Putin and Netanyahu, but has remade America into a country that has no qualms about invading another nation to take its resources, oil in this case. At least now we know that all that talk about drugs was just a line of bullshit, oil being the ultimate goal all along.
What makes me laugh, truly, in spite of the decline that this invasion marks, is that we have thrown away our reputation for decency, for democracy, and especially for being a Christian nation, for a natural resource that represents the past, not the future.
No surprise considering that our president wishes to return America to the Gilded Age, but you would think that the masses, the people who do all the work, all the living and dying in this country (to quote "It's a Wonderful Life") would turn their collective backs on the outdated concept that fossil fuel extraction is our future.
They say that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. For a man who has criticized our history of foreign entanglements, you would think that he would know that invading another country, generally unites that country against the invader, and rarely leads to the population of said country lining the streets in gratitude.
If Afghanistan didn't teach us just that one lesson after both Russia and the United States invaded it, the two most powerful nations in the past 75 years, trying, and failing, then I guess we deserve whatever comes from this atrocity.
Somehow Trump thinks that he "holds all the cards" as he is prone to tell Zelensky when using Putin's talking points to convince him to give up parts of his country to an invading force.
He has learned nothing from the past even though he lives there.
Venezuela's recent leaders have done a piss poor job of running that country, as is reflected by the contested elections in the last decade, and the failing economy. But nothing unites a country quicker that an invading force. Just as the colonies were able to put aside their differences, differences that simmered below the surface and eventually exploded into the Civil War, it should come as no surprise if the Venezuelan people reject our notion of who should run their country, just as the majority of peoples do when invaded by a hostile enemy.
Bullies do well, sometimes for quite a while. But eventually, a bigger bully comes along, or perhaps tens of thousands of regular people who band together to fight, as occurred 250 years ago.
Perhaps when the first American soldier, or construction worker, or oil executive is killed on Venezuelan soil, the American voter might look up from their 72" TV's and their cell phones, and realize that we are just another bad guy country, no longer the underdog to be proud of and to cheer for. Maybe...
And so the decline continues.
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