Fintan steele biography of barack

The following first appeared as a COMMENTARY in the May 29, 2024 issue of the Boulder Daily Camera under the title “Communications breakdowns are at the heart of sociopolitical upheaval.”)

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate,” said Captain (Strother Martin) in the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke.” This disturbing movie, made during the height of the Vietnam War protests in the US, tells the story of Luke’s (Paul Newman) rebellion against a corrupt authoritarian penal system.

Unable to break Luke’s spirit, the system tries to force his fealty through increasingly punishing “communications” practices. The escalating physical violence (and Luke’s stubborn resistance) ends eventually in Luke’s death, but also his spiritual survival in the memory of other prisoners.

Although religious allegories to Christianity abound, to my mind “Cool Hand Luke” is primarily a parable of bad communication and its destructive power.

The best description of “good” communicat