Generally I appreciate this level of hyper-geekiness, but I feel the metaphor falls short because of the sheer complexity of NGE.
And as you mention, there's a give and take between human and machine (especially because the machine is part organic), but Trump Is immune to feedback.
Well the metaphor is not intended as an exact replica of NGE, but rather to pose the question. I'm not sure that it's true that Trump is immune to the feedback - it's true that he doesn't like it when people question him, but he feels some sense of personal frustration when the 'machine' doesn't seem to do what he wants, and he clearly has some deep solipsism in which he cannot seem to make a clear distinction between himself and the 'mecha', as if he's externalizing his own inner world into this outer entity...
But yes, it's not the same relationship that Shinji and the others have in the series. I think it's actually kinda useful to debate where the metaphor works and doesn't, because it gives us a new lens on the mindset of the 'pilot'. It's clear that world leaders have capacities at their disposal, but which of them imagine that those capacities are extensions of themselves and which see themselves as separate from those capacities?
In terms of the Angels - external bogeymen. Trump spend a lot of time generating imagery of threats to the society, whether external and internal
I understand the Mecha as a useful metaphor for all kinds of hierarchical institutions. In this sense, the pilot of the Trump administration is an entity called Ahriman in zoroastrian mythology. https://www.worldhistory.org/Ahriman/
Who are the Angels in this metaphor?
Generally I appreciate this level of hyper-geekiness, but I feel the metaphor falls short because of the sheer complexity of NGE.
And as you mention, there's a give and take between human and machine (especially because the machine is part organic), but Trump Is immune to feedback.
Well the metaphor is not intended as an exact replica of NGE, but rather to pose the question. I'm not sure that it's true that Trump is immune to the feedback - it's true that he doesn't like it when people question him, but he feels some sense of personal frustration when the 'machine' doesn't seem to do what he wants, and he clearly has some deep solipsism in which he cannot seem to make a clear distinction between himself and the 'mecha', as if he's externalizing his own inner world into this outer entity...
But yes, it's not the same relationship that Shinji and the others have in the series. I think it's actually kinda useful to debate where the metaphor works and doesn't, because it gives us a new lens on the mindset of the 'pilot'. It's clear that world leaders have capacities at their disposal, but which of them imagine that those capacities are extensions of themselves and which see themselves as separate from those capacities?
In terms of the Angels - external bogeymen. Trump spend a lot of time generating imagery of threats to the society, whether external and internal
Perhaps just as worrying is the possibility that DT himself is a (largish) cog in a different machine.
Indeed. I'd personally argue that the ultimate 'pilot' is the systemic structure of capitalism itself
I understand the Mecha as a useful metaphor for all kinds of hierarchical institutions. In this sense, the pilot of the Trump administration is an entity called Ahriman in zoroastrian mythology. https://www.worldhistory.org/Ahriman/