Pawlenty video: No facts, logic, argument or analysis

Near quitting time yesterday, I saw the video that I embedded in the post below promoting Tim Pawlenty as the savior of American freedom.

I was struck dumb, so I just shared it without comment and appreciate those of you who offered your take.

Thinking about the video overnight, it brought me back to one of my favorite books, “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman, which explored the impact of America’s transition from a words-and-text-based communication culture to a culture in which the dominant medium of communication was television — flickering images accompanied by mood music and laugh tracks.

In general, communication — especially political communication — via the printed word is under some pressure to be about something that can be supported by facts or rebutted by others, analyzed rationally and tested logically. With text, you can slow down to read something carefully and think about it as you do. And, Postman argued (and I bought it) that information that comes into the body through typography is much more of a brain exercise, compared to images and sounds that work in unseen ways on your emotions.

(I know, I’m hopelessly stuck in the previous century, or maybe the one before that. By the time I finish my days in the Old Pundits Home, I’ll be convinced that I covered the Lincoln-Douglas debates.)

But, for the purpose of selling a product, or a candidate, in the age of flickering images, facts, logic, argument, analysis are diminished until we get a little film like this one. It has no facts, no argument more concrete than “if freedom were easy, everyone would be free. But we can do it, because we’re America.” But even that is Aristotelian compared to the main “message,” which is carried by the images.

I spent the last hour or so trying to break the film down shot by shot. I’m sure I missed some because some of the images go by in a fraction of a second. Actually, most of them are on screen for way less than a second because somehow, despite the slow start and the slow finish, I make it about 100 images in 83 seconds. And only four recognizable faces: Tim Pawlenty, George Washington, Martin Luther King and Cassius Clay (as he was known when he fought for the United States in the 1960 Olympics, which is where he is depicted).

It’s kinda fun, in a twisted way, to iimagine the filmmaker (we can assume that’s not Pawlenty) considering the universe of available images and settling on the hundred or so, and working out the order according to some logic I can barely imagine, and then decided which of the images will get a full second of display, versus the ones that go by so fast you could really watch this video a hundred times and never notice them, except subliminally.

Here’s the list:

1. Clouds in sky. (Koyaanisqatsi?)
2. Lincoln and Washington Monuments.
3. Clay celebrating at Olympics.
4. Sailors celebrating (end of World War II?)
5. Berlin Wall coming down (several images).
6. U.S. Capitol glimpsed through windshield of moving car.
7. Martin Luther King walking with Ralph Abernathy, others.
8. New York Harbor.
9. Statue of Liberty.
10. Cute baby.
11. Streaming superfast crowd on sidewalk.
12. Cute kids in nature.
13. Man in dark suit from behind (probably Pawlenty but, to the degree that this can be done in the time available, the film is building some suspense).
14. Unrecognizable businessman-looking guy.
15. Man talking. Can’t make him out completely, but it’s gonna turn out to be Pawlenty. (Of course, Pawlenty is reading the script the whole time, but this is not clearly divulged.)
16. Waving hand in dark suit (Pawlenty?).
17. Photographer taking picture with big lens.
18. A woman is hugging a man, probably a soldier, and there’s a flag in there.
19. Surface of the moon.
20. Camera lens (or is it an eye?) reflecting nothing but light.
21. Teenage girls sitting, watching a movie.
22. Group of unfamous black and white attractive people looking up at TV screens.
23. Wide-angle skyshot of a suburb.
24. Weird image of same head divided and shown twice. Face not visible but it’s going to turn out to be Pawlenty.
25. Pretty blonde woman, one eye showing.
26. Cute big-eyed boy.
27. Cute red-haired girl with freckles.
28. Skyline of unidentified city.
29. Random traffic on street in red glow.
30. American flag.
31. A man shot from behind (it’s gonna turn out to be Pawlenty).
32. American flag blowing.
33. A nanosecond of a crowd.
34. A shot of man from the front and this time you can be pretty sure it’s Pawlenty.
35. Now a black screen and the white words end the mystery: “Former Governor of Minnesota TIM PAWLENTY.”
36. Bank of TV cameras.
37. Pawlenty’s face, he’s talking now, we know for sure now that it’s his voice we’ve been hearing the whole time “…it’s takes extraordinary effort, it takes extraordinary commitment, it takes extraordinary strength…”
38. Military jets in flight.
39. Pawlenty from behind greeting young people.
40. Pawlenty lit from behind.
41. A handshake.
42. Pawlenty speaking. (You couldn’t read the words on the wall behind him this fast but at the pace I’m going I can see that he’s at the National Press Club.)
43. Pretty young blonde woman.
44. Pawlenty face.
45. Painting of George Washington at Valley Forge (Pawlenty is saying “Valley Forge wasn’t easy, going to the moon wasn’t easy…”)
46. Three moonshot related images and text on screen indicating “First Live Pictures from the moon.”
47. Pawlenty talking. “Settling the west wasn’t easy.”
48. Wagon train.
49. Cowboys riding horses
50. Blue-green sky.
51. Pawlenty at the Press Club.
52. Pawlenty standing with some women.
53. A hand holding a cellphone, on the cellphone is video of Pawlenty standing with unidentified woman.
54. TPaw hugging a man.
55. An average Joe-looking guy with mustache in ball cap.
56. Another one. Ball cap, yes; mustache, no. For some reason, there’s a vehicle in the background, looks like an ambulance, but the word “dismal” is written on it.
57. Still another Joe Sixpack, this one’s wearing a hardhat.
58. Pawlenty talking earnestly to a guy whose face we can’t see.
59. Flag waving.
60. Happy troops waving caps in celebration.
61. Two hands shaking, a young one and an old wrinkled one. (I’m thinking the young one is  Pawlenty).
62. The flag-raising at Iwo Jima.
63. An American flag waving.
64. Hockey footage. Celbrating a goal.
65. TPaw standing with Mary Pawlenty.
66. TPaw with a toddler, the toddler’s shirt says “Pawlenty for Prez” but there’s no way in a million years you could read that at live speed.
67. TPaw at a political rally. He seems to be autographing a poster that says: “Pawlenty for Governor.”
68. A shot of a farm landscape.
69. Another rural-looking shot.
70. Some kind outdoor shot with a crowd and an American flag.
71.  
72. TPaw with a different woman, a younger one. They’re having their picture taken together.
73. Now we’re back at the Press Club speech.
74. Now a large group is waving a giant American flag.
75. Tpaw on one knee, shaking hands with a young man in a wheelchair.
76. Kids and adults, in hard hats, seem to be pushing up a big piece of wood. Maybe Habitat for Humanity project or something like that.
77. TPaw surrounded by men in suits, walking out of an elevator.
78. Now we’re back at the Press Club speech.
79. An indoor shot of crowd flag waving.
80. TPaw has a little girl on his lap.
81. A bald man is taking TPaw’s picture.
82. TPaw and a pretty young blond woman are smilingly chatting while some teenage boys look on.
83. A crowd is standing, clapping.
84. Now we’re at a book-signing event. TPaw at table, signing.
85. TPaw against black backround. Words on screen: “Courage to Stand.” (That’s the name of his book. (There seems to be some effort to cloak this video as a book thing, rather than a presidential candidate thing.)
86. Now a black screen except white words: “Former Governor of Minnesota.” “Courage to Stand.” “Available Now.”
87. Now green grass under a blue sky and the pace slows way down so you can read:
88. “Courage to Stand.” “Tim Pawlenty’s Freedom First Pac.” Paid for and authorized by Freedom First Pac.”

Nothing has been on screen for more than a second or two, but the “paid for” announcement stays up several seconds. Then fade to black.

 Here’s the video again: