The Problem Is the Banana on the Wall

Everyone has an explanation for the turn of events in November. It’s the economy, the culture, a failure to connect with working-class Americans. All these are valid reasons.

However, I have my own explanation that sheds some light on what has gone wrong in America. It explains something of the craziness of our times.

I think the problem is the banana on the wall.

I know it sounds exoteric, but let me explain. I think the banana metaphor will help clarify why some Americans reacted during the election.

An Auction in New York  

My reasoning centers on a recent event in New York City in which the renowned Sotheby’s auction house sold a 2019 art piece dubbed “Comedian” by Maurizio Cattelan. The work consisted of a fresh banana duct-taped to the wall.

The bidding started at $800,000, and within five minutes, the item sold for $5.2 million plus auction house fees, which came to a total of $6.2 million. The new owner is Chinese-born crypto-businessman Justin Sun.

The actual banana cost thirty-five cents when bought in the morning at an Upper East Side fruit stand. The new owner will get a certificate of authenticity and installation instructions should he want to replace the banana before it rots. Mr. Sun has already announced that he will eat the original banana “as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.”

Commenting after the sale, Billy Cox, a Miami art dealer with his own copy of “Comedian,” says the work is something of historical importance that comes only “once or twice a century.”

The Elephant in the Room Is the Banana on the Wall

Something is profoundly wrong here. That’s why I think the problem with our country is the banana on the wall. It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to see.

We are living in a society where certain liberal sectors inhabit an alternative reality where thirty-five-cent bananas are handled as multimillion-dollar works of art. The problem is that they want to force everyone else in society to believe their madness.

The only way to get out of this mess is for innocent souls with enough common sense to break the spell of this absurd consensus by crying out, “It’s not art! It’s just a banana! Can’t you see?”

Insisting on Absurdities

To return to our original problem, what happened in November was a clash of two groups. The first are those who do not want to see the absurdity of the banana on the wall and dogmatize that it is art. They create their own reality and impose it on the nation.

The second group consists of those tired of being told a banana taped to the wall is art. They long to live in a world where art is art and bananas are bananas.

In the election, some of the latter group said, “Enough is enough.”

Other Bananas on the Wall

This reaction was not against a single banana on one wall.

You see, there is the banana that claims a man is a woman and a woman is a man. Other bananas claim that people can choose their pronouns, pornography in libraries is literature, or that it is just fine for men to compete with women in sports. We are told drag queen story hours are suitable for children, after-school Satan Clubs are educational and it is not a human baby but a clump of cells.

It is all part of a vast banana extravaganza that we are asked to admire and make believe is the blueprint for a dream society. Sensible people are starting to do the unthinkable: question the real value of these bananas of absurdity that appear on the walls of our wayward culture.

An Awakening

Thus, the election represents an awakening that comes none too soon. When absurdities are enshrined in a culture, anything can happen. Truth is denied, morals are eroded, and a cult of ugliness reigns. The cruelest manifestations of intolerance and cancellation are possible since the absurd demands absolute acceptance. It cannot tolerate innocent souls that call a spade a spade and denounce the nonsense of the banana on the wall.

The time has come for a return to order and sanity. It is long past time to take the bananas off the wall.

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The featured image is courtesy of Pixabay.