If RFK Jr. (or Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, or Pete Hegseth) is Caligula's Horse, Trump is Caligula
One occasionally hears the phrase "the best and the brightest" used without intentional irony to describe people as highly qualified experts and thus likely to do an excellent job in some demanding positions. The phrase nonetheless carries a negative connotation ever since David Halberstam's book of that name, chronicling how the Kennedy and then Johnson administrations blundered into, and continued to blunder once embroiled in, the Vietnam war.
In standard cocktail-party settings, Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest is often cited (frequently by people who haven't actually read it) for the proposition that expertise is no guarantee of practical competence. Although that proposition is true, it isn't actually the point of the book. Halberstam offered plenty of evidence that the decision makers--especially Robert McNamara--were of course smart and well educated but that they in fact lacked relevant expertise and largely ignored the reports and warnings of people who did have local knowledge.
Even so, let us take at face value the proposition that even genuine experts can err, for certainly that is true. It nonetheless does not follow that, ex ante, one does better to trust the reins to spiteful ignoramuses whose only qualification for leadership is their willingness to debase themselves as sycophantic courtiers to an emperor-fool. The race isn't always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet. Thus, there is a decent chance that the emerging clown car of a second Trump administration will drive over a cliff.
I'll have more to say about Trump's courtiers in follow-up essays next week. For today, I'll confine myself to expressing surprise about how much surprise has greeted the announcements of the last few days.
Each of the most absurd Trump picks for important Cabinet positions has been greeted with an outcry. Anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services? Preposterous! At-best-ethically-challenged Matt Gaetz for Attorney General? Unthinkable! Possibly white supremacist (and generally unqualified) tv personality Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary? Outrageous! Putin apologist (and all-around crazy person) Tulsi Gabbard for National Intelligence Director? Appalling!
The exclamations are all objectively appropriate. But the surprise that seemingly permeates the reactions is itself, well, surprising. After all, the casting director who chose this gang is Donald Trump--a man who wasn't remotely qualified to the presidency the first time around; whose first presidential term featured racism, xenophobia, chaos, corruption, and a bungled pandemic response that led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths; who encouraged a violent mob to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after the failure of his comical legal efforts to prevent it; and who campaigned for election this time around by embracing authoritarianism, spreading dehumanizing lies about immigrants, "dancing" rather than take questions, expressing admiration for the size of Arnold Palmer's penis, and promising to combat inflation--which has already cooled to lower than its long-term average--by mass deportation of undocumented immigrants (who comprise a good portion of the agricultural and construction workforce) and imposing heavy across-the-board tariffs, i.e., by adopting inflationary policies.
Yes, it is preposterous, unthinkable, outrageous, and appalling that Trump hopes to staff his administration with RFK Jr., Gaetz, Hegseth, and Gabbard. But is it more preposterous, unthinkable, outrageous, and appalling than the fact that Donald J. Trump is about to be president again?
It's sensible to be dismayed when you learn that Caligula wants to make his horse Incitatus a Consul, but is it really surprising? Incitatus is hardly your biggest problem when Caligula himself is Emperor.
12 comments:
'It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power — power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.'--Eric Hoffer
Many theologians over the years have stated just what you quoted Hoffer as saying...
When the oppressed come to power, they frequently become the oppressors themselves.
Is there a solution, or is it simply the product of the human condition?
Trump was never oppressed. He was the product of an elite upbringing, but he pretended to understand the oppressed. Right now he has the elitist wealthy among his choices for his all white cabinet.
And among those multi- millionaire quasi- cabinet appointees is Ramaswamy who is looking to severely cut veterans’ benefits.
Trump never respected those who served our country.
There ABSOLUTELY IS an answer.
The human ego simply refuses to accept or apply it.
Theological beliefs, refied into Church dogma is also a contributor to the wealth/power lust.
Dave Miller, there have been multiple studies on the subject of those who are oppressed being worse than the oppressors when the roles are reversed. There is a 'take that you scum' element when justice has been denied for too long.
Maybe there is a way to avoid this fate when We The People rise up against the cruelty and hypocrisy enacted by the ruling class. I'm not sure though. Thirteen years of therapy haven't mellowed me in my thoughts about my abusers. In fact, knowing what I could have done and what I'm limited to here/now - yeah, I'd be the over the top oppressor in response to those who oppressed me in the first place, and I know better. There is a reason I'm not seeking power this life.
The solution, simple in word, difficult in deed.
Love they enemy as oneself.
Forgive transgressions and extend loving kindness to all. Even the transgressor.
Rest in self knowing wakefulness and remain open to all experience (phenonoma).
Rest in the state of equanimity, while allowing everything to unfold exactly as it will. Do not attach to anything. Do not maintain aversion. Do not maintain judgement. Be open, allowing transgression. arise, abide, and then̈ disolve. Into the boundless open state of natural awareness.
Recall that everything is impermanent, everything is in a constant state of change. Nothing, except space and time is permenant.
Perhaps Thich Nhat Hahn's Engaged Buddhism is the solution to resisting the draconian authoritarian changes that are soon coming at us in full on frontal attack force.
Or, the Path Jesus of Nazareth stroke is another. But the ego self and western materialism stand in the way, blocking realization of either path.
Namaste
RFK,Jr., with a LAW degree, not a MEDICAL degree or any SCIENTIFIC training, and who was shooting up heroine while at H.U., is going to decide the state of health for millions of Americans. What could possibly go wrong?
I heard they are all getting in, including the Putin puppet Tulsi via recess appointments. Or tRump will make them "acting" then keep them on even after the time limit for someone to be "acting" expires. Sex trafficker Matt Gaetz has been assigned the task of burning down the DOJ from the inside.
Lana Quest: “Republicans want you to believe that Black people are not qualified for high positions by calling them DEI.
Meanwhile, mediocre white men with rich daddies continue to receive positions they are not qualified for.
Matt Gaetz has only practiced law in the fields of real estate and business for a couple of years before going to Congress.
He has no criminal prosecution or civil rights litigation credentials.
No Prosecutorial Experience.
He lacks direct experience managing criminal investigations, litigating cases, or overseeing law enforcement agencies.
He does have one very important qualification.
He's a child sexual predator.
Imagine being a Republican and talking about Christian family values.
We kept warning you that Republicans wanted to give rapists more power.”
I found this article. It's long.
https://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism
Their book concluded that the GOP, by positioning itself as the party of traditional values and law and order, had unknowingly attracted what would turn out to be a vast and previously bipartisan population of Americans with authoritarian tendencies.
This trend had been accelerated in recent years by demographic and economic changes such as immigration, which "activated" authoritarian tendencies, leading many Americans to seek out a strongman leader who would preserve a status quo they feel is under threat and impose order on a world they perceive as increasingly alien.
"Trump embodies the classic authoritarian leadership style: simple, powerful, and punitive."
Caligula - stabbed to death by his own security guards at age 28. Nero at age 30 tried to commit suicide, chickened out and had his private secretary stab him to death. Commodus, chocked to death by his fitness instructor at age 31. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. A history lesson.
sic transit tyrannis
Post a Comment