Lincoln's Warning for America and Other Thoughts-WARNING It was a Bait and Switch and I'm Gonna Bitch

I'm furious with the NY Historic Society's Lecture last night "Le Conversazioni Lincoln's Warning for America and Other Thoughts".  The conversation regarding Lincoln's comments was anticipated as a prescient & sagacious discussion.  Philip Gourevitch, a staff writer for "The New Yorker" was the featured guest moderated by Antoni Monda, a pompous orator credited as being a curator at the MoMA & Guggenheim.  In fairness, they were both pompous & pointless.  But, most egregious is the deceptive derailing of a discussion detailed as..."Young Abraham Lincoln once posed a foreboding question to an assembly of his peers:  What is the greatest threat to the republic?"  The conversation pertaining to Lincoln lasted only 2 minutes.  Gourevitch began by saying Lincoln gave a speech in Springfield {capital of IL} as a young atty. lasting 2 hours which anticipated the pending Civil War.  This was made 50 years after the Amer. Revolution and Lincoln drew from the Revolution which was fading from physical memory saying men of ambition will rise.  Monda said we are now going to see a clip from one of the his favorite films ever made "Greed" an early 20th C silent picture.  How did this connect to Lincoln I wondered.  It didn't, neither did anything that followed; slides of artworks, photos, film clips that had no bearing on Lincoln.  The arrogant erudite opinions on their art selections bore no connection to the evening's topic.  Furthermore, it was a total bore.  I couldn't take it anymore and left within the 1st 1/2 hour.  I wasn't alone in leaving and feeling aggrieved.  The evening was a flagrant ruse.  I felt like a rube.  And, I'm angry and will be getting in touch with personnel at the NY Historic Soc.  A man in the lobby was voicing my same frustration. "What was that? I came to hear what should have been an interesting talk about Lincoln and it had nothing to do with it!"  I said, "I totally agree".  The program was a scam.  The people at the desk shrugged and shook their heads.  Today,  I will speak with the person running the programs and voice my outrage & seek restitution.  I'm scheduled for tomorrow night's program at the NY Historic Society "Portraits of America with Elizabeth Strout." If I don't receive satisfaction from last night's talk, it will be my last.