The title is borrowed from the Credo of the Roman Catholic Mass. It means "Begotten, not made," and in the context of this post it refers to leaders.
Notwithstanding the claims of military academies and universities, leaders are born, not made. Any idiot can shout orders at other people and maybe coerce them into action, but only a true leader can give orders in full confidence that they will be obeyed. Only a leader can run out ahead of a platoon and know instinctively that the group has her back.
Leadership is a gift that embodies trust, confidence, self-respect, courage, and intelligence. The genuine leader is able, in some way, to impart those qualities to the people she leads. We call it a gift because it is an inexplicable quality that some humans have and most do not.
Leaders, seemingly through the force of their personality, are able to help their followers reach mental or physical goals they once thought beyond them. Perhaps this comes from the trust followers place in leaders--trust that they will be supported and praised for doing the best they can do while being subtly encouraged to do better.
Leaders think on their feet and have the capacity to adapt to fluid situations. They remain confident that their people will follow them because they have earned the trust of their followers and have listened to their input.
Donald Trump is good at many things: shouting, denigrating, diverting blame, pointing, intimidating, hating, insulting, name-calling, belittling, whining, scorning, mocking, taunting, and generally being unpleasant.
Trump has neither the trust of his followers nor any confidence that they will follow him. CNN reports there is a "serious divide" among unpresidential advisers, some of whom urge him "to formally address the nation and call for calm, while others have said he should condemn the rioting and looting more forcefully or risk losing middle-of-the-road voters in November."¹
Doves and hawks, doves and hawks, and not a populist among them. And that's irrelevant because he hasn't the sense to listen to any of them. He will continue
shooting from the hip until he is stopped by someone with the authority to make him stand down. There are such people; they just need to grow a spine.
People who follow Trump do so out of fear. He can't lead because he is not a leader. He can make people do his bidding because he is a bully. But he will never lead.
It's not easy being the Loser-in-Chief.
--- Diogenes, 6/1/2020
¹ https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/trump-underground-bunker-white-house-protests/index.html
U.S. Constitution
The voice of the people
01 June 2020
31 May 2020
You Say You Want A Revolution*
More than one-quarter of this nation's governors have mobilized their national guard forces in response to rioting.
What's happening in many of our major, and some minor, cities is neither revolution nor protest nor civil disobedience, but violence for the sake of violence that has nothing to do with the death of George Floyd, in whose name many of the protests began.
There is a disturbing historical tendency in the United States for peaceful protest gatherings to become violent uprisings, but what is happening now is beyond anything in memory. The Inciter-in-Chief, who has to blame somebody, is pointing his well-manicured finger at Antifa, a large but amorphous radical left-wing group whose name is short for Antifascism.
We think the finger should be pointed the other way. When a ship's captain loses the respect of the crew or repeatedly puts them and the vessel in danger, mutiny frequently ensues; what we are seeing is mutiny by citizens of a leaderless nation.
In retrospect, we should have seen it coming. We've all been cooped up for months fearing a disease that no one could seem to define, which was denied by our alleged leader, but which was killing people around the world at a frightening rate.
Rather than offering us words of encouragement and comfort, the unpresident spent his time blaming anyone he could think of for the disease, all the while shamelessly trying to elevate his own image in the public eye and ignoring expert advice. He was clearly uninterested in the plight of the American people.
The Ship of State is adrift without a hand on the tiller, and no one is stepping up to get us back on course. We place the fault for this unrest, this mutiny, squarely at Donald Trump's feet. His xenophobia, his disdain for the common people, his racism, and his pandering to groups who espouse hate and anger have come home to roost.
Someone has to get this mess straightened out. The only sure thing is that it will not be Donald J. Trump.
--- Diogenes, 5/31/2020
* The Beatles, "Revolution," 1968.
What's happening in many of our major, and some minor, cities is neither revolution nor protest nor civil disobedience, but violence for the sake of violence that has nothing to do with the death of George Floyd, in whose name many of the protests began.
There is a disturbing historical tendency in the United States for peaceful protest gatherings to become violent uprisings, but what is happening now is beyond anything in memory. The Inciter-in-Chief, who has to blame somebody, is pointing his well-manicured finger at Antifa, a large but amorphous radical left-wing group whose name is short for Antifascism.
We think the finger should be pointed the other way. When a ship's captain loses the respect of the crew or repeatedly puts them and the vessel in danger, mutiny frequently ensues; what we are seeing is mutiny by citizens of a leaderless nation.
In retrospect, we should have seen it coming. We've all been cooped up for months fearing a disease that no one could seem to define, which was denied by our alleged leader, but which was killing people around the world at a frightening rate.
Rather than offering us words of encouragement and comfort, the unpresident spent his time blaming anyone he could think of for the disease, all the while shamelessly trying to elevate his own image in the public eye and ignoring expert advice. He was clearly uninterested in the plight of the American people.
The Ship of State is adrift without a hand on the tiller, and no one is stepping up to get us back on course. We place the fault for this unrest, this mutiny, squarely at Donald Trump's feet. His xenophobia, his disdain for the common people, his racism, and his pandering to groups who espouse hate and anger have come home to roost.
Someone has to get this mess straightened out. The only sure thing is that it will not be Donald J. Trump.
--- Diogenes, 5/31/2020
* The Beatles, "Revolution," 1968.
28 May 2020
Still Trying To Eradicate Stupidity
This
post was originally published on April 7. In light of the attention
recently given to masks and Americans' responses to using them, we have
updated it.
In his 1982 novel "The White Plague" Frank Herbert writes about a mad scientist who develops a pathogen that kills women. Men are asymptomatic carriers. His intended target is Ireland, because his wife and children were killed by an IRA bomb. But viruses don't observe borders, and the virus spreads rapidly and easily, passing through filters with ease. The result is global gendercide.
COVID-19 is far less selective. Its victims include the rich and the poor, the intelligent and the moronic, the religious and the atheistic, the royal and the commoner. It is an equal opportunity pathogen, making no distinction of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. No one is immune.
But there is one class of Americans who choose to put themselves at increased risk by willfully and deliberately ignoring the best medical advice: There is no word for such behavior other than stupid.
In a White House press briefing on April 3, the Great Pretender discussed the CDC advisory that all Americans wear face masks when around others to help stop the spread of the virus.
That was when a true leader would have pulled out a mask and put it on.
But after repeatedly assuring Americans that wearing a mask is voluntary because he doesn't want us to think the CDC has any authority, he went on to say that he would not be wearing a mask because "I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself."¹
Excuse me? There hasn't been a state visit to the White House since before COVID-19 appeared. His excuses range from silly to petty, like saying he "didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it"² during a visit to a Ford plant in Michigan.
As Biden aide TJ Ducklo noted, "Presidents lead by example, and wearing a mask helps protect others, . . . Donald Trump should try it, because his failure to act early on producing [personal protective equipment], on ramping up testing, and implementing a coherent national response to this crisis has cost thousands of Americans their lives."As if the Unspeakable Unmasked cared.
Unfortunately, the Chucklehead-in-Chief's "do as I say, not as I do" attitude will no doubt be adopted by those who accept him as a role model, needlessly increasing the death toll. His followers, who seem to tend to blind allegiance, either to the GOP or to Trump, as opposed to independent thought and decision making, may well be hit the hardest.
With COVID-19 we might finally have a cure for stupidity--dare we hope it begins at the top?
---Diogenes, 4/7/20; republished 5/28/20
¹https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-briefing-transcript-april-3-new-cdc-face-mask-recommendation
²https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
³https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
In his 1982 novel "The White Plague" Frank Herbert writes about a mad scientist who develops a pathogen that kills women. Men are asymptomatic carriers. His intended target is Ireland, because his wife and children were killed by an IRA bomb. But viruses don't observe borders, and the virus spreads rapidly and easily, passing through filters with ease. The result is global gendercide.
COVID-19 is far less selective. Its victims include the rich and the poor, the intelligent and the moronic, the religious and the atheistic, the royal and the commoner. It is an equal opportunity pathogen, making no distinction of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. No one is immune.
But there is one class of Americans who choose to put themselves at increased risk by willfully and deliberately ignoring the best medical advice: There is no word for such behavior other than stupid.
In a White House press briefing on April 3, the Great Pretender discussed the CDC advisory that all Americans wear face masks when around others to help stop the spread of the virus.
That was when a true leader would have pulled out a mask and put it on.
But after repeatedly assuring Americans that wearing a mask is voluntary because he doesn't want us to think the CDC has any authority, he went on to say that he would not be wearing a mask because "I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself."¹
Excuse me? There hasn't been a state visit to the White House since before COVID-19 appeared. His excuses range from silly to petty, like saying he "didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it"² during a visit to a Ford plant in Michigan.
As Biden aide TJ Ducklo noted, "Presidents lead by example, and wearing a mask helps protect others, . . . Donald Trump should try it, because his failure to act early on producing [personal protective equipment], on ramping up testing, and implementing a coherent national response to this crisis has cost thousands of Americans their lives."As if the Unspeakable Unmasked cared.
Unfortunately, the Chucklehead-in-Chief's "do as I say, not as I do" attitude will no doubt be adopted by those who accept him as a role model, needlessly increasing the death toll. His followers, who seem to tend to blind allegiance, either to the GOP or to Trump, as opposed to independent thought and decision making, may well be hit the hardest.
With COVID-19 we might finally have a cure for stupidity--dare we hope it begins at the top?
---Diogenes, 4/7/20; republished 5/28/20
¹https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-briefing-transcript-april-3-new-cdc-face-mask-recommendation
²https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
³https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
26 May 2020
Gimme Shelter
We live in a county which the board of supervisors has declared a "Second Amendment Sanctuary."
What's happened to the Second Amendment that it needs sanctuary? Does it fear editing? Has it tired of being abused by Boobus Americanus Militante and gone into hiding? What on earth could have made a short paragraph seek shelter?
If I were the Second, I just might have taken it on the lam after all the misuse I had suffered at the hands of the gun lobby. And this nonsense about Second Amendment "sanctuaries" might have been the last straw.
Of all the subspecies of Boobus Americanus, the gun-toters who think they should be able to carry openly any firearm they can lift are by far the least evolved. Unable to make their case to most legislatures, they have brought their scare campaign to local and county governments, urging them to adopt a "sanctuary" measure to ensure the safety--or as they would probably say, the sanctity--of the Second Amendment.
This is without doubt one of the most ludicrous, absurd, harebrained, risible, ridiculous, foolish, silly, puerile, goofy, and preposterous schemes ever foisted on the American people. It's appalling that anyone, let alone elected officials, who are supposed to have some semblance of intelligence, could fall for it. As P. T. Barnum may have said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
First, the Second Amendment doesn't need a sanctuary. It is safely embedded in the root and base of our legal system, the Constitution. If it needs sanctuary from anyone, it is the leadership of the NRA, who have the gall to call themselves a civil rights organization, and have somehow brainwashed hundreds of thousands of Americans into the idea that their rights--well, specifically their rights to gun ownership--are in danger. Hogwash.
The NRA claims their rights are endangered because there is a move afoot to repeal the Second Amendment. No, there isn't. I have to seriously doubt that any of them have ever read the Constitution. If they had, they would have an idea just how difficult it is to repeal an amendment.
Since the first ten amendments were published in 1791, only one amendment has been repealed. That was the 18th, which established Prohibition, and getting it out of the way was a cakewalk. It wouldn't be so for any others, and especially not for those first ten, enshrined as the Bill of Rights.
The portion of the Second that the NRA sometimes speaks of as God-given is the sentence fragment that goes " . . . the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," written by James Madison, not the Almighty.
Rehearsing all the reasons why the NRA is wrong on this issue will be the content of another blog when I can get it down to manageable size. I started on the idea of sanctuary and got carried away.
Should your local government look into the idea of becoming a "sanctuary", please bring them to their senses and remind them that anything they pass in opposition to any existing state law will be quickly overturned.
The United States of America is the home and sanctuary of the Constitution and its Amendments, and it's all that is needed.
--- Diogenes, 5/26/20
What's happened to the Second Amendment that it needs sanctuary? Does it fear editing? Has it tired of being abused by Boobus Americanus Militante and gone into hiding? What on earth could have made a short paragraph seek shelter?
If I were the Second, I just might have taken it on the lam after all the misuse I had suffered at the hands of the gun lobby. And this nonsense about Second Amendment "sanctuaries" might have been the last straw.
Of all the subspecies of Boobus Americanus, the gun-toters who think they should be able to carry openly any firearm they can lift are by far the least evolved. Unable to make their case to most legislatures, they have brought their scare campaign to local and county governments, urging them to adopt a "sanctuary" measure to ensure the safety--or as they would probably say, the sanctity--of the Second Amendment.
This is without doubt one of the most ludicrous, absurd, harebrained, risible, ridiculous, foolish, silly, puerile, goofy, and preposterous schemes ever foisted on the American people. It's appalling that anyone, let alone elected officials, who are supposed to have some semblance of intelligence, could fall for it. As P. T. Barnum may have said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
First, the Second Amendment doesn't need a sanctuary. It is safely embedded in the root and base of our legal system, the Constitution. If it needs sanctuary from anyone, it is the leadership of the NRA, who have the gall to call themselves a civil rights organization, and have somehow brainwashed hundreds of thousands of Americans into the idea that their rights--well, specifically their rights to gun ownership--are in danger. Hogwash.
The NRA claims their rights are endangered because there is a move afoot to repeal the Second Amendment. No, there isn't. I have to seriously doubt that any of them have ever read the Constitution. If they had, they would have an idea just how difficult it is to repeal an amendment.
Since the first ten amendments were published in 1791, only one amendment has been repealed. That was the 18th, which established Prohibition, and getting it out of the way was a cakewalk. It wouldn't be so for any others, and especially not for those first ten, enshrined as the Bill of Rights.
The portion of the Second that the NRA sometimes speaks of as God-given is the sentence fragment that goes " . . . the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," written by James Madison, not the Almighty.
Rehearsing all the reasons why the NRA is wrong on this issue will be the content of another blog when I can get it down to manageable size. I started on the idea of sanctuary and got carried away.
Should your local government look into the idea of becoming a "sanctuary", please bring them to their senses and remind them that anything they pass in opposition to any existing state law will be quickly overturned.
The United States of America is the home and sanctuary of the Constitution and its Amendments, and it's all that is needed.
--- Diogenes, 5/26/20
25 May 2020
Too Stupid To Live?
"Some people are too stupid to live" was a favorite saying of a former coworker.
It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw a photo this morning of people crowded into a swimming pool at a Lake of the Ozarks venue.
It's true that COVID-19 doesn't spread in water, as far as anyone yet knows. But in a pool environment people pop up snorting, spitting and blowing. That's a lot of potentially infected air moving around, and the chlorine in the water will have no effect on it.
"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" has been another phrase running around my head since the well-publicized opening of bars in Wisconsin on May 14. Just about a week later, Wisconsin saw a spike in new COVID-19 cases almost doubling the number before the opening, and the state's numbers remain high.¹
This Memorial Day weekend will be another key date to watch. The traditional opening day of summer is bringing Americans out in droves where weather permits. One can hardly blame them after months of isolation, but one can at least hope they wear masks and keep their social distance. But we know they won't.
People who seek out beaches, bars, and other crowd-oriented venues tend to be gregarious. It is not in their nature to stand apart. They like to congregate, mix, and mingle. That isn't a judgment, just a statement of fact. They can do so masked, but it's hard to drink wearing a mask, and dancing wouldn't be much fun, either. They also enjoy physical contact--the "rubbing elbows" effect. Despite best intentions, after trying to sip a drink around a mask, almost anyone would ditch the mask.
It's difficult not to have some sympathy for governors who are doing their best to manage this mess. Absent any guidance--indeed, with contrariness--from the alleged chief executive they have to rely on the best teams they can put together.
We're Americans, and we don't like being told we can't carry on as usual. As the saying goes, this is a free country. But we are not free to shout "Fire!" in a crowded auditorium or to bring a valise labeled "BOMB" onto an airliner, which I have actually seen.
We should be savvy enough to know that endangering public health is tantamount to endangering public safety. Adapting to a new status quo isn't easy. It's inconvenient and uncomfortable and weird in some cases, but we have to get it through our heads that there is a potentially deadly pathogen floating around everywhere, and it's easy to catch.
COVID-19 kills about 6% of the people who get it.² By contrast, the annual flu that the Pretender-in-Chief likes to compare it to kills only about 2/10 of one percent of its victims.³ That makes COVID-19 about 54 times more deadly than any garden variety flu.
If we can keep those numbers in mind, maybe we can be smart enough to live.
--- Diogenes, 5/25/20
¹ Disclaimer: The numbers in this paragraph are based on a New York Times database of Wisconsin cases. Other sources differ in the actual numbers but not in the shape of the curve. The spike may be coincidental and/or may be the result of factors other than tavern attendance.
² https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1?
³ https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw a photo this morning of people crowded into a swimming pool at a Lake of the Ozarks venue.
It's true that COVID-19 doesn't spread in water, as far as anyone yet knows. But in a pool environment people pop up snorting, spitting and blowing. That's a lot of potentially infected air moving around, and the chlorine in the water will have no effect on it.
"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" has been another phrase running around my head since the well-publicized opening of bars in Wisconsin on May 14. Just about a week later, Wisconsin saw a spike in new COVID-19 cases almost doubling the number before the opening, and the state's numbers remain high.¹
This Memorial Day weekend will be another key date to watch. The traditional opening day of summer is bringing Americans out in droves where weather permits. One can hardly blame them after months of isolation, but one can at least hope they wear masks and keep their social distance. But we know they won't.
People who seek out beaches, bars, and other crowd-oriented venues tend to be gregarious. It is not in their nature to stand apart. They like to congregate, mix, and mingle. That isn't a judgment, just a statement of fact. They can do so masked, but it's hard to drink wearing a mask, and dancing wouldn't be much fun, either. They also enjoy physical contact--the "rubbing elbows" effect. Despite best intentions, after trying to sip a drink around a mask, almost anyone would ditch the mask.
It's difficult not to have some sympathy for governors who are doing their best to manage this mess. Absent any guidance--indeed, with contrariness--from the alleged chief executive they have to rely on the best teams they can put together.
We're Americans, and we don't like being told we can't carry on as usual. As the saying goes, this is a free country. But we are not free to shout "Fire!" in a crowded auditorium or to bring a valise labeled "BOMB" onto an airliner, which I have actually seen.
We should be savvy enough to know that endangering public health is tantamount to endangering public safety. Adapting to a new status quo isn't easy. It's inconvenient and uncomfortable and weird in some cases, but we have to get it through our heads that there is a potentially deadly pathogen floating around everywhere, and it's easy to catch.
COVID-19 kills about 6% of the people who get it.² By contrast, the annual flu that the Pretender-in-Chief likes to compare it to kills only about 2/10 of one percent of its victims.³ That makes COVID-19 about 54 times more deadly than any garden variety flu.
If we can keep those numbers in mind, maybe we can be smart enough to live.
--- Diogenes, 5/25/20
¹ Disclaimer: The numbers in this paragraph are based on a New York Times database of Wisconsin cases. Other sources differ in the actual numbers but not in the shape of the curve. The spike may be coincidental and/or may be the result of factors other than tavern attendance.
² https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1?
³ https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
23 May 2020
Smite The Unbeliever!
Unbeliever-in-Chief Donald Trump says he will order churches to open. Ha!
He knows his base is heavily peopled with conservative Christians. He has also no doubt received heavy pressure from the likes of Jerry Falwell jr., Steve Pettit, and Franklin Graham, who will show us the way according to them, in return for our personal check, to paraphrase Mary Chapin Carpenter.
He plays to that audience not because he shares their beliefs, but because they comprise a large chunk of the white conservative vote. He couldn't care less what they believe, but they will support him come hell or high water, and he is desperate for their help.
That pesky First Amendment gets in his way of trying to strongarm the churches directly, so he wants governors to declare churches essential: “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now for this weekend, . . . if they don’t do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less.”
Right. Good luck with that. We have plenty of prayer, thank you. What the preachers are missing is hands dropping money into offering baskets.
There is no hierarchical structure outside martial law that compels governors to obey the president. And considering that the president left the governors leaderless and swinging in the wind early on in the pandemic, few are likely to be amenable to his "orders."
In any event, I'm pretty sure the governors' actions are supported by the Tenth Amendment, and not subject to override by federal power.
The lockdown hasn't put a damper on prayer or praise. Christians of faith know they don't need buildings, or crowds, or even ministers, to worship. They can commune with their Lord singly and quietly, anywhere.
The Unbeliever-in-Chief should try it.
--- Diogenes, 5/23/20
¹ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/trump-churches-coronavirus.html
He knows his base is heavily peopled with conservative Christians. He has also no doubt received heavy pressure from the likes of Jerry Falwell jr., Steve Pettit, and Franklin Graham, who will show us the way according to them, in return for our personal check, to paraphrase Mary Chapin Carpenter.
He plays to that audience not because he shares their beliefs, but because they comprise a large chunk of the white conservative vote. He couldn't care less what they believe, but they will support him come hell or high water, and he is desperate for their help.
That pesky First Amendment gets in his way of trying to strongarm the churches directly, so he wants governors to declare churches essential: “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now for this weekend, . . . if they don’t do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less.”
Right. Good luck with that. We have plenty of prayer, thank you. What the preachers are missing is hands dropping money into offering baskets.
There is no hierarchical structure outside martial law that compels governors to obey the president. And considering that the president left the governors leaderless and swinging in the wind early on in the pandemic, few are likely to be amenable to his "orders."
In any event, I'm pretty sure the governors' actions are supported by the Tenth Amendment, and not subject to override by federal power.
The lockdown hasn't put a damper on prayer or praise. Christians of faith know they don't need buildings, or crowds, or even ministers, to worship. They can commune with their Lord singly and quietly, anywhere.
The Unbeliever-in-Chief should try it.
--- Diogenes, 5/23/20
¹ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/trump-churches-coronavirus.html
22 May 2020
Boobus Redux
Boobus Americanus was H. L. Mencken's pet name for the American people.
Of the "plain people," the middle class, he said, "No one . . . has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
He was right.
Yes, I said that.
Few people outside journalism and academia spend much time on Mencken. For most, his writing is too predictable and his personality too prickly. He had deeply held views on almost everything, was critical and/or intolerant of almost everything, and he was a snob.
He was also probably a genius. Mencken wrote nearly 30 books including the first English language study of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy in 1907. In 1919 he published The American Language, a study of the dialects of English spoken by Americans. He wrote in many genres including drama and poetry, and was an exceptionally prolific journalist.
Throughout his work he held to a belief in Social Darwinism: the doctrine that the rich are rich precisely because they are smarter and/or harder working than the poor.¹ Mencken saw society in layers of castes to which one belonged by virtue of birth. The poor were poor, the rich were rich, and that was that. Being of privileged birth, Mencken naturally saw himself in the upper layer.
We at Vox Populi hold to a narrow and specific message: we promote and support the overthrow of Donald Trump as president of the United States. We assume that our readers share the same view, which leads us to assume that we share the same demographic.
Let's consider the circles of friends and acquaintances with whom we share social activities. Ours includes academics, educators, lawyers, funeral directors, pastors, musicians, journalists, writers, artists, physicians, etc. Are we similar? If so, we're all snobs--that's our caste.
We, and most of you, I expect, value learning, knowledge, and professional expertise. I submit that many of the people who support Trump do not. They think those values are elitist and they distrust them. It was no accident that intellectuals and artists were targeted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Educated and creative people question authority and don't do as they're told. They look for options to the status quo, and those options might include unfriendly systems of government. They tend to upset the apple cart.
Trump's brashness, his affected "plain guy" attitude, his disrespect of the press and of his staff, his disdain for any rule he doesn't like, his open anger and abrasiveness, are embraced by those who think such behavior is somehow masculine, American, and therefore admirable.
Mencken foresaw how a real estate salesman could be elected president with no political experience: "In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is . . . the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum."²
We admire intellect, poise, erudition, and eloquence. As a class we tend to political correctness and conflict avoidance. We drink artisanal beer with our panini while discussing Annie Proulx's latest book. We bemoan having a fatuous idiot as president.
If we don't push back hard, if we don't call out Trump on every lie, if we don't back the Democratic nominee 100% with no defections, if we don't find ways to convince Trump's supporters of the real truth, we'll be doing the same things for four more years.
Boobus Americanus will prevail again.
--- Diogenes, 5/22/20
¹ https://seesharppress.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/nietzsche-and-mencken/
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken#Books
Of the "plain people," the middle class, he said, "No one . . . has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
He was right.
Yes, I said that.
Few people outside journalism and academia spend much time on Mencken. For most, his writing is too predictable and his personality too prickly. He had deeply held views on almost everything, was critical and/or intolerant of almost everything, and he was a snob.
He was also probably a genius. Mencken wrote nearly 30 books including the first English language study of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy in 1907. In 1919 he published The American Language, a study of the dialects of English spoken by Americans. He wrote in many genres including drama and poetry, and was an exceptionally prolific journalist.
Throughout his work he held to a belief in Social Darwinism: the doctrine that the rich are rich precisely because they are smarter and/or harder working than the poor.¹ Mencken saw society in layers of castes to which one belonged by virtue of birth. The poor were poor, the rich were rich, and that was that. Being of privileged birth, Mencken naturally saw himself in the upper layer.
We at Vox Populi hold to a narrow and specific message: we promote and support the overthrow of Donald Trump as president of the United States. We assume that our readers share the same view, which leads us to assume that we share the same demographic.
Let's consider the circles of friends and acquaintances with whom we share social activities. Ours includes academics, educators, lawyers, funeral directors, pastors, musicians, journalists, writers, artists, physicians, etc. Are we similar? If so, we're all snobs--that's our caste.
We, and most of you, I expect, value learning, knowledge, and professional expertise. I submit that many of the people who support Trump do not. They think those values are elitist and they distrust them. It was no accident that intellectuals and artists were targeted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Educated and creative people question authority and don't do as they're told. They look for options to the status quo, and those options might include unfriendly systems of government. They tend to upset the apple cart.
Trump's brashness, his affected "plain guy" attitude, his disrespect of the press and of his staff, his disdain for any rule he doesn't like, his open anger and abrasiveness, are embraced by those who think such behavior is somehow masculine, American, and therefore admirable.
Mencken foresaw how a real estate salesman could be elected president with no political experience: "In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is . . . the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum."²
We admire intellect, poise, erudition, and eloquence. As a class we tend to political correctness and conflict avoidance. We drink artisanal beer with our panini while discussing Annie Proulx's latest book. We bemoan having a fatuous idiot as president.
If we don't push back hard, if we don't call out Trump on every lie, if we don't back the Democratic nominee 100% with no defections, if we don't find ways to convince Trump's supporters of the real truth, we'll be doing the same things for four more years.
Boobus Americanus will prevail again.
--- Diogenes, 5/22/20
¹ https://seesharppress.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/nietzsche-and-mencken/
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken#Books
20 May 2020
Poor Donald, Part 3
I've recently written about ways in which Donald Trump is poor. Not in money, to be sure, but in empathy, understanding, affirmation, and self-esteem. Today I want to talk about his poverty of intellect.
I'm not going to borrow from his own playbook and call him stupid. Like it or not, no one who can reach his level in business, then parlay his personality into a successful presidential campaign is stupid. At the very least he is smart enough to hire the right people to tell him what to say and do. The problem is, he doesn't like to listen to them and usually ends up firing them.
The nature of both intellect and intelligence has been heavily studied, and there are several theories and models of both. One area where most theories agree is that the ability to recognize and solve problems effectively is important to a mature intellect.
It is that area where Donald Trump's intellect appears to have been shortchanged.
Solving problems is a routine matter, something we all do hundreds of times a day. We may not call it problem-solving, but every time we make a decision to do one thing and not another, every time we face a challenge, however slight, we are identifying and solving a problem. The magnificent quantum computer we call our brain does it all for us unconsciously, and usually effortlessly.
The unpresident's brain may not work all that smoothly. Most of us aren't privy to decision making in the White House, but we have witnessed the effects of some problems with decisiveness there. In the three years the Trump administration has been in charge, it has seen an 85%¹ turnover in upper-level staff--an unenviable record in a place that should be a model of stability. Who knows what secrets those people are carrying away with them?
Every entry/exit through the administration's revolving door is a decision the Addlepate-in-Chief couldn't make, couldn't live with, or simply didn't like.
We see it more directly in his spoken language, particularly in press briefings and similar venues. His inability to complete sentences, his detours into unrelated subjects, his limited attention span, and his occasional outright incoherence raise serious concern about his fitness for any position potentially involving the use of weapons.
Testing and psychometric evaluation from Trump's youth could shed a great deal of useful light on these questions, but Trump has threatened to sue any school that releases his records.²
Getting to those records should be the goal of every investigative reporter in America. There's unquestionably a Pulitzer prize waiting. And I'll bet there's a "Deep Throat" out there with the information.
Everyone has a price.
--- Diogenes, 5/20/20
¹ https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/
² https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-trump-high-school-transcript-20190305-story.html
I'm not going to borrow from his own playbook and call him stupid. Like it or not, no one who can reach his level in business, then parlay his personality into a successful presidential campaign is stupid. At the very least he is smart enough to hire the right people to tell him what to say and do. The problem is, he doesn't like to listen to them and usually ends up firing them.
The nature of both intellect and intelligence has been heavily studied, and there are several theories and models of both. One area where most theories agree is that the ability to recognize and solve problems effectively is important to a mature intellect.
It is that area where Donald Trump's intellect appears to have been shortchanged.
Solving problems is a routine matter, something we all do hundreds of times a day. We may not call it problem-solving, but every time we make a decision to do one thing and not another, every time we face a challenge, however slight, we are identifying and solving a problem. The magnificent quantum computer we call our brain does it all for us unconsciously, and usually effortlessly.
The unpresident's brain may not work all that smoothly. Most of us aren't privy to decision making in the White House, but we have witnessed the effects of some problems with decisiveness there. In the three years the Trump administration has been in charge, it has seen an 85%¹ turnover in upper-level staff--an unenviable record in a place that should be a model of stability. Who knows what secrets those people are carrying away with them?
Every entry/exit through the administration's revolving door is a decision the Addlepate-in-Chief couldn't make, couldn't live with, or simply didn't like.
We see it more directly in his spoken language, particularly in press briefings and similar venues. His inability to complete sentences, his detours into unrelated subjects, his limited attention span, and his occasional outright incoherence raise serious concern about his fitness for any position potentially involving the use of weapons.
Testing and psychometric evaluation from Trump's youth could shed a great deal of useful light on these questions, but Trump has threatened to sue any school that releases his records.²
Getting to those records should be the goal of every investigative reporter in America. There's unquestionably a Pulitzer prize waiting. And I'll bet there's a "Deep Throat" out there with the information.
Everyone has a price.
--- Diogenes, 5/20/20
¹ https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/
² https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-trump-high-school-transcript-20190305-story.html
19 May 2020
Poor Donald, Part 2
"Despite his wealth, the trappings of his office, and his attempts to
appear otherwise, in the final analysis, his behavior reveals Donald
Trump to be a poor man."
So ended Part One of this series. If you haven't read it I urge you to do so before getting into this one.
Donald Trump doesn't lack money or resources or housing or any of the basics of life, but he is still poor.
Remember that I came to this conclusion considering his physical behavior and body language, not his wealth or trappings. There are many kinds of non-material poverty: of spirit, of affection, of companionship, of self worth.
Let's look at an easy one: poverty of affirmation. Trump is so hungry for praise and acceptance that if he can't get it from the outside he makes up his own. This also speaks to a lack of self esteem and a sense of insecurity. He is a braggart and a boaster: the behavior of someone who desperately needs to hear himself praised, even if the words come from his own mouth.
That is classic Narcissism, and it points to the emotional emptiness of his condition. Most serious Narcissists hate themselves, recognizing the poverty of spirit and sense of worthlessness that gnaws at them.
It is that poverty that leads him so often to adopt defensive postures, specifically the crossed arms protecting his vital organs and the pout that acts as a symbolic seal on his mouth. He is signaling that he has walls up and will neither act nor speak.
But then what about the obvious, sometimes explosive behavior directed outward? It's bullying, and it's all part of the same package. Bullying isn't just a matter of being mean:
"Research finds that bullies have a distinct psychological makeup. They lack prosocial behavior, are untroubled by anxiety, and do not understand others' feelings. They exhibit a distinctive cognitive feature, a kind of paranoia: They misread the intentions of others, often imputing hostility in neutral situations."¹
In the unpresident's case, bullying is a form of defensive behavior. When he yells at a reporter or reels off a string of insults, he is trying to avoid input. When you see that behavior, the image you should have in your mind is that of a little boy with his fingers in his ears saying bla-bla-bla-bla-bla.
Last episode tomorrow: The Poverty of Intellect.
--- Diogenes, 5/19/20
¹https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bullying
So ended Part One of this series. If you haven't read it I urge you to do so before getting into this one.
Donald Trump doesn't lack money or resources or housing or any of the basics of life, but he is still poor.
Remember that I came to this conclusion considering his physical behavior and body language, not his wealth or trappings. There are many kinds of non-material poverty: of spirit, of affection, of companionship, of self worth.
Let's look at an easy one: poverty of affirmation. Trump is so hungry for praise and acceptance that if he can't get it from the outside he makes up his own. This also speaks to a lack of self esteem and a sense of insecurity. He is a braggart and a boaster: the behavior of someone who desperately needs to hear himself praised, even if the words come from his own mouth.
That is classic Narcissism, and it points to the emotional emptiness of his condition. Most serious Narcissists hate themselves, recognizing the poverty of spirit and sense of worthlessness that gnaws at them.
It is that poverty that leads him so often to adopt defensive postures, specifically the crossed arms protecting his vital organs and the pout that acts as a symbolic seal on his mouth. He is signaling that he has walls up and will neither act nor speak.
But then what about the obvious, sometimes explosive behavior directed outward? It's bullying, and it's all part of the same package. Bullying isn't just a matter of being mean:
"Research finds that bullies have a distinct psychological makeup. They lack prosocial behavior, are untroubled by anxiety, and do not understand others' feelings. They exhibit a distinctive cognitive feature, a kind of paranoia: They misread the intentions of others, often imputing hostility in neutral situations."¹
In the unpresident's case, bullying is a form of defensive behavior. When he yells at a reporter or reels off a string of insults, he is trying to avoid input. When you see that behavior, the image you should have in your mind is that of a little boy with his fingers in his ears saying bla-bla-bla-bla-bla.
Last episode tomorrow: The Poverty of Intellect.
--- Diogenes, 5/19/20
¹https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bullying
17 May 2020
Poor Donald, Part 1
The Roman playwright Terence wrote, "I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me." I discovered that quote back when I was studying Latin, and it stuck with me. These days, however, I find myself wondering about the nature of humanity.
Specifically, I wonder about Donald Trump. I can't seem to reconcile my humanness with his. It's not the money or the trappings. I've rubbed shoulders with millionaires and "personalities." Ho-hum. Nor do I think he's not human, although the thought sometimes flashes across my mind.
Still, it is the money and the trappings that make the behavior difficult to understand. Then it struck me: I've been tying him to the wrong demographic.
This is not a happy man. The crossed arms are a classic defensive position, a barrier against interaction, a fence to keep the world out. The facial expression, with eyes open and mouth downturned, expresses contempt of whatever or whoever is the subject of dislike. In public appearances he is seen more often in this pose than in any other.
I have seen this defensive posture frequently, but not in people who are wealthy and/or who exercise power. Their postures are typically open and confident. This image is everything but.
These postures are clearly practiced. For Trump the crossed arms are not defensive but an aggressive posture such as that used by animals trying to make themselves look bigger to a foe. Then there are the facial gestures. Most notable is the rosette mouth that he wields aggressively. It is a gesture that he shares with other primates:
Trump likes to think he is a unique creature, but his behavior and choice of gestures reveal a universal truth: he, we, and our cousin species are inextricably linked in uncountable ways, right down to our DNA. And whether the unpresident likes it or not, "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together¹."
Specifically, I wonder about Donald Trump. I can't seem to reconcile my humanness with his. It's not the money or the trappings. I've rubbed shoulders with millionaires and "personalities." Ho-hum. Nor do I think he's not human, although the thought sometimes flashes across my mind.
Still, it is the money and the trappings that make the behavior difficult to understand. Then it struck me: I've been tying him to the wrong demographic.
I have seen this defensive posture frequently, but not in people who are wealthy and/or who exercise power. Their postures are typically open and confident. This image is everything but.
These postures are clearly practiced. For Trump the crossed arms are not defensive but an aggressive posture such as that used by animals trying to make themselves look bigger to a foe. Then there are the facial gestures. Most notable is the rosette mouth that he wields aggressively. It is a gesture that he shares with other primates:
Trump likes to think he is a unique creature, but his behavior and choice of gestures reveal a universal truth: he, we, and our cousin species are inextricably linked in uncountable ways, right down to our DNA. And whether the unpresident likes it or not, "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together¹."
OK, this has been a long digression. I started talking about human behavior and demographics and landed up somewhere else. I said that I had been considering Trump in the context of the wrong demographic. What I was leading to was this: Despite his wealth, the trappings of his office, and his attempts to appear otherwise, in the final analysis, his behavior reveals Donald Trump to be a poor man.
Stay tuned.
--- Diogenes, 5/17/20
¹ The Beatles, "I Am The Walrus," 1967.
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