Unlike other people in her family FLOTUS still has her Twitter. So she would like to let us know just how wonderful her Be Best campaign has been. If her twitter attention goes over well with her husband, who got recently deprived from such perks, can only be guessed.
The video she had created is 3:30 long. It is long. It feels long. Just because you can operate editing software does not make you an editor. Just as there is (was?) the happy ukulele selling us tech stuff and services there is the happy piano, Einaudi reduced to the meaninglessness of Clayderman, that wants to give us an upbeat vibe.
But no, the video is not for us. It is a memento for Melania. That is probably why it is so long: It shows her in PR events. I would not be surprised if it would be a complete chronic of her time as a First Lady. She has staff that does this kind of thing. So having a summary in the end of the project is just what you do.
In light of the previous causes that started innocent enough with the renovation of the White House by Jacqueline Be Best is pretty dismal. Sure, Nancy Reagan didn’t get rid of drugs either. Turns out just saying no somehow was not enough. As it turned out drugs seemingly don’t adhere to “no means no” either.
The problem with Be Best is that is PR only. It does not even make an attempt to suggest how cyber bullying could be reduced for the youth. Just like with Nancy it starts with language: Just ask somebody who is younger then lets say 35 what “Cyber” means. Most people will think of Elons truck. Maybe Melanie is against electrical vehicles being part of Americas must cultured event: Trucks getting dirty.
Or maybe she somehow and magically and inconclusively succeeded behind the scenes: Was it maybe her campaign that got her husband banned from Twitter? Kids bully kids. That is horrible. It was. Middle school is hell for most people. Various reasons. Other pupils are a big part of it. Schools and society mostly ignore that problem. They leave people in between childhood and adulthood alone.
Historically that wasn’t always the case. Definitions of child / adult vary. Most traditional cultures have initiation rites. Groups of people often have in general. If group means overall population then coming of age is the event that triggers acceptance in society. The gauntlet to be passed makes belonging binary. Bad for handicapped humans, or others that might not pass muster. Good for those that do: Usually it is not easy to loose social acceptance at a whim. Middle School is not that caring. Nobody is ever hip enough. Very few go without fear day in day out into the maelstrom of other hormonally confused homo sapiens.
Modern society does not have much to offer here: The market will make you happy? Just grow up and you get to consume a shitload of stuff, then you will be happy? Or: Do as your elders have done. Have values based on a world when people cared about what an oxen was and what it could do for you and yours. Just have ‘traditional values’. Which ones? From which time?
Be that as it may: Be Best didn’t help. It do jack shit. But much like its figure head we all stop caring a long time ago.