“The
elevation of Caesar Disgustus is a consequence of equating wealth
with intelligence and then compounding the error by joining celebrity
with substance.”
---from
“The Quotations of Chairman
Joe”
What
can you make of a man who is constantly singing his own praise? Last
winter Caesar Disgustus took to the antisocial medium “Twitter”
and, like the bird-brain he is,
began “tweeting”. “Throughout my life, my two
greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really
smart”.(1) He then proceeded
to elevate himself to the level of 'genius' for being elected. “and
a very stable genius at that”.
What
produced this outburst was the release of Michael Wolff's “Fire
and Fury”, in which Wolff describes the Chief Magistrate as “a
mentally unstable simpleton”. (2).
It is
clear to even the most casual observer of the human experience that
elevation to leadership, even the presidency, is no indicator of
native intelligence. Witness Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding or
George W. Bush. The prosecution rests.
Further,
as Charles M. Blow wrote in The New York Times: “Let's start
here: From everything I have ever read about the man, he is not
particularly smart. This is sometimes hard for people to understand.
They equate financial gain with intellectual gifts, but the two are
hardly synonymous.
“Being gifted at
exploitation is not the same as intellectualism. It is a skill, but
one separate from scholarship. Being able to see and exploit a need,
void or insecurity in people can be an interesting, and even
lucrative, endowment, bit it is not enlightenment.
“He is also not a
reader. That is not to say he can't read, but rather that, given his
druthers, he won't.
“But mental
instability—whether a diagnosable disorder or just a combination of
crippling character traits—is a problem of another magnitude. That
goes to basic competence and substantially raises the stakes.
“This is the problem we face: We have a person occupying the presidency who is impetuous, fragile, hostile, irrational, intentionally uninformed, information averse and semiliterate.” (3)
Wolff describes a White House that has
become, in Senator Corker's words, an “adult day care center”, in
which the president's staff spend inordinate time praising him in
order to keep the man-child from going off the rails. Meanwhile his
obsessive need to erase the entire Obama legacy, his coddling of
white nationalists and hostility to minorities (born of deep seated
racism? ), not to mention his sexism has clearly divided the country.
In polling from Quinnipiac University and cited by The Times,
taken last December as the nation was coming upon the first
anniversary of this national calamity, fully 62% said that tRUMP was
doing more to divide the country. 32% said unite. 52% said he was
abusing his power as opposed to 44 % who said was not. 52% said we
are less safe now then when he took office, only 26 % said we are
more secure. This was before the move to Jerusalem, the withdrawal
from the Iran nuclear agreement, and the growing uncertainty and
drama over North Korea.
In the meantime “(T)hey have
learned to praise him”, like some Old Testament God, “in
order to steady him. His weakness is an unending need for
affirmation. Anyone who provides it, he abides. It's simple. Also
sad. Actually, pathetic”(4). Perhaps, at last, we have
stumbled upon the ties that bind the evangelical: the 'unending need
for affirmation'. Evangelicals know about this need in their god,
and they know how to provide it. So, as they raise Disgustus to the
heavens, the 'stable genius' claims his place beside Caligula in the
pantheon. “And a very stable genius at that”.
“Whatever you say, Wile E.
Coyote”.,(5) I mean, “All Hail Caesar”.
This
is what happens when one equates wealth with intelligence and then
compound the error by equating celebrity with substance. This is what
happens when you worship 'gods' like this or, more modestly (with
tRUMP is that possible?) Chauvan to tRUMP's Napoleon: It's simple,
Also sad, Actually, pathetic” (6).
“'an Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”
Impeach and Imprison.
_________
- Blow, Charles M. '...And Being, Like, Really Smart' The New York Times. Monday, January 8, 2018 page A19
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Ibid
No comments:
Post a Comment