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Public Enemy #1 as Supreme Leader? (Part #5)

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Where indeed is the perspective articulated that would purport to encompass the paradoxes and contradictions of the dynamics of democracy?

Clearly Trump is a different political animal than those who have immediately preceded him in a presidential role. However it is one thing to focus on criticizing him as unacceptable and deplorable, it is another to consider how the various leaders of the recent past have all proven inadequate to the challenges of the times. Is American society, if not global society, increasingly ungovernable -- beyond the coping threshold (Ungovernability of Sustainable Global Democracy? 2011). Is any assumption by progressives that global society is governable to be recognized as inherently naive?

Psychosocial disciplines? It is is somewhat astonishing to discover that disciplines from which one expect a larger framework have avoided any extensive enragement of the consideration of the phenomenon represented by Trump. From some progressives, favouring particular psychosocial models, it would be expected that Trump would be recognized as representing a particular style or "energy". Naturally this would be deprecated from the perspective of another style or energy. The crucial question is whether a contrasting energy is indeed fruitful in compensating for inadequacies in the styles of governance in the immediate past. Who might be expected to clarify such a possibility dispassionately and in a non-partisan manner?

Insights are offered by the following:

Can the results of this reflection be considered to match up to the challenge framed by Olivia Goldhill (Philosophy once helped us make sense of our confusing, ever-changing political world. What happened? Quartz, 5 November 2016). This expressed the disappointment that:

This week, Slavoj Zizek, one of the most famous living philosophers, endorsed Donald Trump for president. As someone who cares greatly about philosophy's role in the world, I was disappointed by this news, and not simply because I disagree with him. Zizek is an unusual philosopher. While he's highly controversial, he's both publicly and academically renowned and he uses his own philosophy and ideas from great historical thinkers to engage with contemporary events. As a result, he's one of the few philosophers whose political views are widely reported and listened to.

See: Far-left philosopher Slavoj Zizek explains why he supported Trump over Clinton, Vice News, 30 November 2016; Slavoj Zizek on Trump and Brexit, BBC News, 17 January 2017; Zizek: Electing Trump will 'shake up' the system, Al Jazeera, 16 Nov 2016). The pattern of reaction is illustrated by that of Andre Damon (The Idiot Speaks: Slavoj Zizek endorses Donald Trump, World Socialist Web Site, 9 November 2016).

Without providing any sense of perspective, Simona Aimar and David Egan argue only that Donald Trump's victory shows why we need philosophy students more than ever (Times Higher Educational Supplement, 12 November 2016). The need for such discourse is evident from the announced conference Trump, Philosophy, and American Politics: Philosophical Implications of the 45th Presidency (February 2017) hosted by The Penn Center for Philosophy, Ethics, and Public Affairs. Such debate hopefully contrasts in quality and insight with that framed by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite (2017 Imperative: Counter Trump's Political Philosophy of Abuse, The Huffington Post, 29 December 2016).

There is a necessary contrast to be recognized between the ability of philosophers to predict phenomena they frame as deplorable and an ability to recognize that the manifestation of contrasting philosophies and worldviews calls for a framing in a larger scheme of things. The latter capacity is notably absent from the framework offered by Richard Rorty, as argued by Rupert Read (Postmodernism Helped Elect Trump, TPM Online, 22 November 2016). The need has been clearly articulated by Nicholas Rescher (The Strife of Systems: an essay on the grounds and implications of philosophical diversity, 1985):

For centuries, most philosophers who have reflected on the matter have been intimidated by the strife of systems. But the time has come to put this behind us -- not the strife, that is, which is ineliminable, but the felt need to somehow end it rather than simply accept it and take it in stride.

Psychology? Another potential source of perspective is psychology. Unfortunately it would appear that the focus in this case is more on the analysis of Trump and less on the dynamics which have rendered him attractive to some rather than to those alienated by his style:

One compilation focuses on the 12 Psychological Tactics Donald Trump Uses to Manipulate the Masses under the following headings:

  • Sowing seeds of fear
  • Provoking anger and hostility
  • Playing the big strong Messiah figure
  • Painting everything as Black and White
  • Deflection via humour
  • Acting superior to opponents
  • Doing whatever possible to make it his game
  • Creating double-bind situations
  • Repetition
  • Social proof
  • Appeals to authority
  • Appealing to irrational parts of our brains

However any such list immediately raises the question as to whether these all tend to feature in any strategy, including those articulated by progressives, whether or not they might prefer to deny this. The larger issue is how to encompass a situation in which many competing social movements are all employing such strategies with greater or lesser skill -- whilst deprecating their use by others.

Martial arts? It would appear that conventional Western philosophy, psychology and psychoanalysis have relatively little to offer beyond partisan analysis and categorization, however pertinent (Daniel Bonevac, Why As A Philosopher I Voted For Trump: Trumpism and the future of the American Republic, The Critique, 20 January 2017).

It is the dynamic which is significant, not whether one set of "alternative facts" has greater validity than an other, as discussed separately (Towards articulation of a "post-truth table"? 2016). Hence the argument here in favour of insights from the Eastern martial arts and their associated philosophical underpinnings. The argument is consistent with Trump's own appreciation of one such form, and the bond he potentially shares with Vladimir Putin -- awarded black belts in several martial arts (Putin becomes eighth-degree karate black belt, CNN, 21 November 2014; Vladimir Putin Earns 9th Degree Black Belt In Taekwondo, The World Post, 13 November 2013; Putin awarded 8th-degree black belt in karate, USA Today, 21 November 2014).

Missing is any more fundamental consideration of the insight from martial arts. How best to make use of the energy of the opponent in order to neutralize the threat represented? For example, Aikido consists of entering and turning movements that redirect the momentum of an opponent's attack (George Kirby, Jujitsu Advanced Techniques for Redirecting an Opponent's Energy, 2015).

Arguably Trump exhibited this skill to remarkable degree during his campaign. Whereas his opponents invested hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising of every kind, Trump frequently noted that he had not needed to do so (Adam Pearce, Trump Has Spent a Fraction of What Clinton Has on Ads, The New York Times, 21 October 2016). He conducted himself such as to ensure that his opponents expended resources on media coverage of his campaign to an unprecedented degree. They were seemingly oblivious of the basic marketing adage: There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Psychodrama? It is too readily forgotten that, like any archetype, Trump now constitutes a strange psychoactive complex in the collective imagination -- hence the daily fascination of many over months with new aspects of the drama he engenders. As a daily happening, his performance transcends the focus of conventional criticism, whether the drama is "good" or "bad".

As an archetype Trump merits exploration in terms of strange cultural traditions such as those engendering a Lord of Misrule (Prince des Sots in French; Precentor Stultorum in Latin). In the case of Europe, this was separately discussed (Necessity for a European Lord of Misrule? 2009) -- faced with the ambitions of Tony Blair (Urgent Need for Blair as President of Europe: maximizing early collective learning in anticipation of future crises, 2009). Some carnival traditions involve both the mock crowning and subsequent dethroning of the carnival king (if not some form of symbolic execution). American society could well be understood as unwittingly locked into some such psychodrama -- for reasons that are as yet far from being explored.

More obvious is the manner in which the current drama has been effectively scripted around the traditional American sense of "Public Enemy No. 1" -- exemplified by cinematic celebration of "Wanted Dead or Alive" and the focus this now gives to the quest for leaders of terrorism. This frames current speculation about the probable assassination of Trump, even enabled by the traditional role of a bounty hunter. These merit reflection in the light of other cases (List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots; List of assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler; Assassination attempts on Fidel Castro). Through Trump society is witness to a curious process of enthronement and the prospect of imminent dethronement and the psychosocial catharsis it hopefully represents through cultivated dependency on a "silver bullet".

Especially relevant to this argument is the discussion of enthroning and dethroning by Vilma Santiago-Irizarry (Labels, Genuine and Spurious: anthropology and the politics of otherness in the United States, 2013, pp. 78-100):

In the article whose conceit I borrow, Edward Sapir argues that we use labels, which he characterizes as "empty thrones," in a necessary attempt for ontological and epistemological reasons-to encompass and objectify intrinsically ambiguous and contradictory concepts. Our ability to analyze, or even conduct sociocultural life, is facilitated by a willful finding of commonality among these concepts and by choosing particular labels that help us fix the meaning of concepts ... Sapir's metaphor of enthroning and dethroning through the contextual choice and deployment of contending labels implicates political contingency as well as a struggle over the significance, value, and consequence of particular labels. Insofar as an ethno-racial terrain is involved, labels become polysemic sites in which difference, rather than homogeneity, is made tangible, represented, and foregrounded, as well as challenged and re-construed. (p. 81)

Rather than Trump as a person, or as representing millions of Americans, is there a case for recognizing how he represents a set of labels variously called into question? This is consistent with the theme of the volume of which the above study is a part (Gabriella Vargas-Cetina (Ed.), Anthropology and the Politics of Representation, 2013).

Curiously, in the pattern of American presidents, history may come to compare Trump's dramatic eccentricities with those of Theodore Roosevelt (as noted above). His behaviour may increasingly evoke bemusement, if not amusement -- as has been more recently the case with another "larger than life" national leader, namely the Italian media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, somewhat affectionately nicknamed Il Cavalieri. What is the appeal of the eccentric in a period of hopelessness?

Like the famed self-publicist P. T. Barnum (to which the "bad publicity" remark is attributed), Trump has had long involvement with showmanship, as noted by the emphasis of The Economist on Trump as a vaudeville impresario (The Impresario-elect, 3 December 2016). This is clearly a role he has cultivated to greater effect than his drably conventional rivals in the presidential race. It obviously contrasts with the uninspiring performance of many grey-suited politicians and academics with a horror of the unusual. Unwittingly, as implied by Santiago-Irizarry, he is a bearer or wearer of labels (or patterns) through which unusual forms of change have been engaged.

The dramatically transformative role of Mikhail Gorbachev can be explored in this light (Gorbachev: Dramaturge ?! Participative Democracy vs. Participative Drama, 1991). It is in this sense that, beyond the current focus on his demonisation, far greater attention needs to be given to insights into archetypes such as the trickster (Trump?), or as psychopomp -- as a catalyst unconsciously engendered and crafted to enable change.

How better to engage with him in that mode -- through a more impressive show or a more attractive new story? Perhaps in the tradition of the poetic and music duels of some cultures, as separately noted (Evoking Castalia as Envisaged, Entoned and Embodied: the great game informed by the bertsolaritza cultural process? 2016). This would contrast with the uncreative role of the tragic Greek chorus of Antiquity -- "woe, woe, woe" -- into which progressives appear to have cast themselves as "extras" in the ongoing drama. From such a dramatic perspective, particular care is required in anticipating the time when he has been successfully dethroned -- as bearer of labels and patterns valued in American culture. Given his aesthetic preferences, he and his court might even invite comparison with Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

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