QUESTION:

Does 'art' imitate life or does life imitate art?

I must confess to being a fan of House Of Cards. Something about that show makes me think it's not too far from the truth. Maybe because of all the other accumulated info dumps in my head.

Dyls sent me the above pic yesterday. (The kid knows me too well.)

The scene was obviously shot BEFORE the official meeting. This then further evolving it into a case of (working backwards from Trump) life imitating art imitating life.

I ask though: Who are the real actors here? Which is the art and which is life, above? (They're both almost identical- if you showed someone who knew neither of the two sets of protagonists... and asked them to pick out who the actors were and who the politicians- see the difficulty?)

Some tin-foil theorists might point out that both lots are actors within sets- therefore both art. Certainly these 'official' meetings are highly orchestrated and meticulously planned (staged) so in effect, far removed from 'reality' and therefore life. And of course (in the interests of realism) the show best tries to stage how  these scenes would be portrayed in real life- based on past instances and current events.

In essence, the show predicts expected patterns of behaviour- some of which later oft come to pass, as is evidenced above. So art not only imitates life but... also some instances predicts it.

The question: This scene would have been watched by many in the White House (and the Kremlin) so... how much influence did it have on the official meeting? Was this a political 'tongue-in-cheek' dig at the show? (That's what you expect so that's what we'll give you"?)

Or was this in fact a dual propaganda assault on our minds? None of it art, none of it life, and certainly neither imitating either... merely a message, reinforced- firstly in a supposed 'fictional' art-form, then in equally supposed real life?

It led me to ask: Does art manipulate life or does life manipulate art?

Thoughts? 

*I used film as the example here but in broader terms this can be applied to any 'art' form. Take for instance the books '1984'  or  'Brave New World'.