“The real evil” — the enduring evil — “was the narrative we created to justify enslavement.” Bryan Stevenson
I finally made it to the acclaimed Christopher Nolan film, The Odyssey. My grandson and I found a local IMAX and had the full experience. For me, it was too long, too loud, and too ludicrous. He found the story, the action, and the sound effects compelling. In spite of our different experiences, we agreed that it was clearly a cinematic masterpiece with a timely message. I’m sure there will be an ongoing debate whether or not the movie was a vanity project to advance Nolan’s own political agenda or an accurate summary of Homer’s classic poem and the times in which the story took place—approximately 1,200 BCE.
Whenever we see a movie together, I always ask my grandson what he saw as the highlights and the most memorable scenes. And, of course, his main takeaways. He loved the Cyclops, the story of the Trojan Horse, and was struck by how the war resulted in so much human cost. I thought the movie was a brilliant and captivating way to graphically demonstrate how humans continue to engage in folly, foolery, and fantasy.
To set the stage for this post, let me define the terms. Folly is the pursuit of policies or actions contrary to self-interest that are conducted despite clear warnings, available evidence, and viable alternatives. Foolery manifests as theatrical behavior and antics that substitute bluster, absurdity, and spectacle for serious governance or conduct. And fantasy consists of delusional mythmaking or ideological self-deception that replaces realities with ungrounded expectations or explanations. Think climate change, the Trump administration, and the Iran war—all three “F-up” to the max.
While folly, foolery, and fantasy all relate to the fallibility of human judgment, they operate on vastly different scales of intent and consequence: Folly is a profound lack of wisdom, foresight, or sound judgment. It represents hubris and strategic blind spots—making decisions that seem rational to the arrogant yet lead inevitably to disaster. Foolery is absurd or performative behavior characterized by lighthearted, deceptive, or reckless clowning (e.g., antics, squandering resources, circus-like political spectacles). Fantasy is the act of imagining impossible or idealized scenarios divorced from objective reality. It involves comforting illusions, seductive escapes, or ideological delusions that obscure truth. Once again . . . . .
In The Odyssey, folly is the engine of tragedy. It begins with the Trojan War itself—an act of ego that dooms soldiers to years of death and wandering. Today, folly manifests in systemic overreach and short-sighted leadership. Modern nations repeat the mistakes of the Trojan War by engaging in endless foreign interventions and ignoring ecological warnings for short-term gain.
In Ithaca, foolery reigns in Odysseus’s absence. Suitors turn the royal palace into an arena of reckless consumption, revelry, and petty games, squandering the island’s wealth while oblivious to the looming reckoning. In contemporary culture, foolery has become a dominant form of public life. Political discourse frequently degrades into media antics and performative posturing designed to entertain rather than govern. Like the suitors feasting as Ithaca collapses around them, modern society routinely elevates trivial distraction and social media spectacle over pressing existential threats. Think $40 trillion in debt while we experience fires, floods, and famine. Yup, we’re pretty much “F’d.”
The Odyssey is fundamentally a journey through seductive illusions. Odysseus and his men are repeatedly derailed by fantasy: blissful oblivion, deceptive domesticity, and delusional isolation. Each stop offers a comfortable escape from the hard reality of returning home and facing accountability. Today, fantasy is manufactured on an industrial scale. Through hyper-curated digital identities, algorithmic echo chambers, and social media, individuals construct custom realities that shield them from discomforting truths. Whether it is the fantasy of perpetual economic growth or a gilded prison where comfort replaces genuine human purpose. Remember, the Odyssey was written almost 3,500 years ago. What does that say about how well we learn and how capable we are of denial?
Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam remains the definitive modern historical treatise documenting institutional self-destruction and governmental policies pursued against self-interest over that 3,500-year period. Literature is full of stories about foolery and fantasy.
William Shakespeare is the most notable and preeminent chronicler of political and human foolery. Through figures like the Fool in King Lear, Shakespeare demonstrated that the “fool” is often the only observer capable of speaking unvarnished truth to delusional rulers. Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels masterfully portrayed political foolery, petty partisan feuds, and bureaucratic absurdity. Hannah Arendt, who wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism and Lying in Politics, analyzed how political movements replace verifiable reality with coherent ideological fictions and propaganda myths. George Orwell, who wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, documented how language is manipulated (“doublethink”) to sustain institutional fantasy and obscure operational failures. I could go on, but let’s come back to the present.
Three of my favorite columnists in the NYT are Masha Gessen, Ezra Klein, and Maureen Dowd. In a recent column, Ezra shares his version of the Trojan Horse. He describes Odysseus as a man of “many wiles and many turns.” He perceives our current folly as the product of tricksters who inject disorder to create a chaos that invites collapse. He concludes that we are living in the ruins brought on by people who treat strangers as enemies and violate the moral order. It’s definitely worth reading.
Maureen Dowd, famous as a scathing satirist, describes the foolery of the Trump administration. In a column entitled Founding Father vs. Founding Toddler. In the article, she quotes Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Ron Chernow as saying, “I just can’t imagine two human beings who are more dissimilar than George Washington and Donald Trump.” Dowd goes on to say that “It’s illuminating to look back at the life of the man who refused to be king now that we have a man who fancies himself a king.” She continues, “One famously wouldn’t tell a lie. The other famously can’t stop telling lies.” If you need some dark humor that lays bare Trump’s fantasies about himself, I highly recommend it.
Masha Gessen recently wrote a column on the evil of erasing facts that undermine fantasy. As an immigrant from the Soviet Union, they never knew never knew “which part of our history would be obliterated next.” In the article, Gessen documents how Trump directed officials through an executive order to remove “improper ideology” from national sites like parks and museums. Gessen suggests that Trump wants Americans to unlearn what they have come to know about history. They share an interview with Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Institute in which he says, “The real evil” — the enduring evil — “was the narrative we created to justify enslavement.” I think that pretty much says it all.
So how can I sum this all up. Essentially, folly happens when we ignore clear warning; l foolery occurs when we manufacture illusions; and fantasies can be characterized as spectacles of human ridiculousness. While the Odyssey historically represents the origins of folly, at least Odysseus struggled with moral issues and had few illusions about who he was. He was not a simple hero. He saw himself clearly and understood his dark side. Trump is a simple fraud who has no awareness of his dark and ugly sides.
I’m hoping my grandkids will keep going to movies with me in spite of my annoying questions when we leave the theatre. I’m also hoping we can learn from Odysseus and from Trump that folly, foolery, and fantasy lead to untold suffering – as much as we want to pretend otherwise. Finally, I’m hoping we will finally confront and debunk the narratives that cause enduring evil. May it be so.
