Thank-you all for the new session!
I had a few thoughts I wanted to get down regarding Trump...
When trying to understand Trump's position, I find myself drawing parallels between the political community and.., junior high school.
I remember becoming aware of a kind of force active which drove all activities and relationships, but which had no fixed name or way of describing it despite its enormous power. It's what divided the kids into groups; "popular" was a word used, but that only describes a group, not the dynamic which served to sort people.
It's been a long while since I read
War & Peace, but this passage stuck in memory, as Tolstoy described one of his characters first recognizing what I'm talking about...
“Very well, then, be so good as to wait,” said Prince Andrei to the
general, in Russian, speaking with the French intonation he affected
when he wished to speak contemptuously, and noticing Borís, Prince
Andrei, paying no more heed to the general who ran after him imploring
him to hear something more, nodded and turned to him with a cheerful
smile.
At that moment Borís clearly realized what he had before surmised, that
in the army, besides the subordination and discipline prescribed in the
military code, which he and the others knew in the regiment, there was
another, more important, subordination, which made this tight-laced,
purple-faced general wait respectfully while Captain Prince Andrei, for
his own pleasure, chose to chat with Lieutenant Drubetskóy. More than
ever was Borís resolved to serve in future not according to the written
code, but under this unwritten law. He felt now that merely by having
been recommended to Prince Andrei he had already risen above the general
who at the front had the power to annihilate him, a lieutenant of the
Guards. Prince Andrei came up to him and took his hand.
In the world of popularity contests, being fat, loud and orange-haired, and most of all, not sharing in the popular kid's collective consensus about the various cognitively dissonant 'truths' in currency, (
Jill is a loser and it's correct to socially exclude her. Tennis and Polo shirts are In, but only fools wear ____ brand. And never, ever roll up the cuffs of your jeans!), means exile.
Virtue signaling is required to avoid ridicule and punishment. -The craftier and more perceptive types learned quickly that this set of 'truths' was something which could be manipulated and that there is a geometric power growth involved. That is, if enough people can be convinced to live in fear of exile (for not signaling enough alliance or virtue on a given 'truth') then large and otherwise impossible actions can be achieved. Harnessing and directing public opinion means power!
These power lessons never stopped, and carry on right into the adult world. Politics is a highly tuned version of the same damned system, with the most successful players being able to dictate the activities of entire nations. Fascism is one extreme example of such a successful power pyramid, where everybody in the population becomes afraid of "not saluting high enough" and thus terrible actions no rational person would chose alone happen nonetheless.
This system requires cowards and idiots to form the wide base of the power structure. -Cowards, who predicate all their choices in terms of how near or far it will put them from the dreaded specter of ridicule/exile, and thus will go along with whatever orders come down the pyramid -all in order to preserve their own safety.
-And Idiots who actually believe the lies.
"Jill REALLY is a loser and it is genuinely correct to socially exclude her!"
Trump, being a strong-willed outsider was neither a coward, (not afraid of social exclusion), and not an idiot, (can see through lies), is a natural threat to the existing power pyramid. -He was allowed to do his thing and wield some social power, probably because it would be too difficult and dangerous to depose him. Cowards and idiots are like bowling pins to a guy like Trump, and the popular kids knew it would be costly to mess with him. So their relative circles of power co-existed without touching. However, when he made a point of upsetting the big power pyramid, the popular kids used their concentrated might against him.
And he wasn't prepared.
Learning the rules of the popularity game, learning craftiness and subtlety.., yes, these are the tools of snakes and cowards, but they are the rules in Washington and the decks were stacked against him. His narcissism and past successes through the use of raw personality and will power and various other advantages (money) left him without having to ever really learn the rules of the snakes and ladders game.
He didn't bring enough of his own people with him, and he made too many enemies too quickly.
And now the "Heathers" are in charge.
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