ADDENDUM TO THE MIRROR STAGE - THE WAY OF THE WORLD

I must apologise for the many mistakes in the last blog. There were unfortunate errors and repeated sentences and phrases that should have been edited. Also, there was some unfinished notions from Mr. Erik Baker’s piece in Harper’s Magazine. He concluded his article with the following paragraph:

“For his part, Trump, with the perverse insight with which he is blessed, was able to perceive the cruelty and ruthlessness of the America he grew up in earlier than many of his peers. He concluded at a young age that reason and principle are deceptions—­that there are only power and domination and instinct. Now he is far from alone. It will continue to prove impossible to extirpate social Darwinism as long as the American Empire refuses to part with the violence, cruelty, and exploitation that give it plausibility as a description of reality. The main reason Americans keep listening to the propagandists who inform them that some people are inherently better than others is that they live in a society whose organisation and daily operation present them with that same message. “I happen to be a person that knows how life works,” Trump remarked in 2017, explaining why he trusts his instincts. This is the fatalistic kernel within all instantiations of social Darwinism: everything you see around you—­all the irrationality, all the hierarchy, all the pain—­is just the way of the world. The only way we can debunk this claim is to create a world that works differently.”

I think perhaps a very cynical view. I do not entirely agree. The current propagandists may well present an hierarchical system based on wealth, power and hence influence, but that is not what the founding fathers subscribed to when they wrote, debated and approved the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration Of Independence. Nor is it the rhetoric of what we are taught in most educational institutions, as to what are our greater aims and beliefs. Indeed, even the basics of Judaeo-Christian religions preach tolerance and inclusion. 

In my view, the world does work differently. I accept that there are at present a mass of people who function in a world that accepts “all the irrationality, all the hierarchy, all the pain” is the way of the world, but that is not what our institutions tell us is the case. There are many voices in this world, and particularly in the United States. The megaphone that is the American way has resounded around the globe. Publicity and fame lead to fortune. It is just that, at the moment, a kind of retrograde insanity has become the dominant voice and, what was once a feeble political group of representatives in congress have somehow gained a majority. I say feeble, because, having obtained their position, they have no idea what to so with it, and accordingly they acquiesce to a populist overblown narcissistic leader who has dazzled them with his tinselled life style on reality television. Indeed reality television is what it’s all about. It is non stop.

Our governments proffer the belief that we live by a rule of law, based on the duty of care we owe to each other. Our finest instincts are enshrined in our constitutions, legislations and religions. The state is meant to operate for the benefit of its people.  In effect, we already know how the world should work. Even Donald Trump spouts for peace and stop the killing. He would love to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He would love the increased attention and adulation it could bring. But peace does not make for good television. So chaos rules and Trump promotes it with an entourage of feeble, chaotic, narrow minded men and women who embrace with gusto “all the irrationality, all the hierarchy, all the pain”. His ‘instinct’ to ‘keep them guessing’ is his primary goal. He doesn’t really care about anything but himself in the mirror. 

So, as far as making the world work differently, it's just a matter of switching channels. Please pass the remote, if not before, at least by November of 2026.