Obsessed With Revenge

If one has to choose a single defining characteristic of the MAGA world it would have to be their thirst for revenge.  Trump is the avenger-in-chief, but vengeance and retribution are the animating impulses throughout the cult.

But why this mania for revenge?  Why does the MAGA world feel so aggrieved and vengeful?  What are the underlying causes and how did we get to the point where much of Trump’s world revels in the outright mocking cruelty that he, Musk and others employ in pursuing the Project 2025 agenda?

 

The first cause that comes to mind is resentment of the intellectual elites.  The MAGA world is primarily, though certainly not entirely, composed of people with less education.  Education level does not necessarily correlate with intelligence, but there is definitely a predisposition in society to associate the two.  Over time, people with less education may feel demeaned or underestimated, even if not specifically ridiculed by those with more education.  And certainly,  in the partisan battles of the last several decades there has been a tendency of the educated left to speak condescendingly of the less-educated right.

 

The second cause is an angry lashing out at the implication that the right has no compassion or conscience. The right’s positions on social services, extreme income inequality, immigration, incarceration and other ‘issues of conscience’ are often characterized as lacking compassion or empathy.  Being labeled in this way is particularly galling for people who consider themselves to be the moral and religious compass of society.  The secret guilt of rejecting the very fundamental teachings of the Jesus that they claim to follow is transformed into an indignant and angry outrage.

 

The third cause is the ‘woke culture’ obsession and backlash.  Confronted with multiple themes of a changing society – sexual freedom, the decline of religious affiliation, reproductive freedom, immigration, gay marriage, gender concepts and transsexuality, racial reconciliation, new definitions of patriotism and reassessments of US history – the MAGA world has felt overwhelmed and alienated.  Finding themselves labelled as backward or unable to adapt, the reaction has been one of fury and self-righteousness.  Rather than rationally discuss or attempt to find compromises to the woke cultural changes, the goal has become the complete negation of them and a furious attempt to punish any and all who endorsed them.

 

And a fourth cause is the shock and pain of having MAGA disinformation debunked and their glorious leader indicted for multiple different crimes.  The fact that no court in the land has ever legitimized the claims of a stolen 2020 election or that a jury of regular citizens found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation, or that over 1500 people were convicted by juries of their peers of crimes associated with the January 6^th riots have created an insatiable hunger for vengeance.  This is another example of the furiously aggressive reaction that people with guilty consciences have to perceived slights.

 

Seeking revenge is not the act of any leader or movement with integrity.  It is the classic ploy of a tyrant and his henchmen.  Trump has brought the entire MAGA cult down to his level, and whipped up Orwellian doublespeak versions of reality:  that they are the persecuted, that they have lost their freedom of religion and speech, that the USA is being exploited by other countries.  And thus they seek retribution, indulging in a cathartic orgy of cruel and petty acts, with Trump as their mighty sword of vengeance.

Prometheus Bound and Eve Condemned

It seems that our ancient ancestors had a variety of views of how human beings sought or acquired a thirst for knowledge.  There is a wealth of different mythologies that give us insight into our religious and intellectual heritage.  If one takes the time to study several of them, it becomes clear that our struggle to answer basic questions about our existence is universal, and that any claim to be the absolute truth is dubious.

In Greek mythology, the story of Prometheus explores the creation of humankind and the gift of fire, the arts, science and other knowledge.  Prometheus was a titan whose love for humankind inspired him to oppose Zeus and secretly provide fire to the newly created humans and then teach them language and the love of the arts, literature and science.  Zeus punished him by having him bound in chains on a mountaintop.  Each day an eagle would attack him and eat his liver, which would heal overnight so as to allow the horrible act to be repeated endlessly.

 

Prometheus was celebrated as a heroic figure.  The quest for knowledge and the love of all of the arts and sciences was paramount in Greek culture.  The search for meaning and understanding produced a myriad of philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, dramatists, poets, architects, orators and other luminaries that are still recognized today as the richest lode of human advancement.

 

The bible gives a very different take on human striving for knowledge.  After creating Adam and Eve, God provides an idyllic garden for the new humans, but forbids them to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Eve persuades Adam to eat the fruit after being tempted by a serpent and this is perceived as the original sin of humankind.  

 

There is no heroic Prometheus in this version, and if the message to quit seeking knowledge wasn’t strong enough, it is repeated in Genesis 6 with the story of the tower of Babel.  Humans began building a tower as a means to achieve new knowledge and capabilities, and God was not amused.  He scattered them across the earth and made them all speak different languages so as to limit their ability to make progress together.

 

Is it any wonder that religions based on the bible have had such a difficult time reconciling the spiritual and the rational?  No wonder a big part of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish world doesn’t accept evolution and is so suspicious of scientific inquiry and research.

 

And what to think of poor Eve, whose curiosity and persuasive arts led to her being cursed with the most dangerous and painful childbirth in nature and branded with the reputation of being treacherous and conniving for most of history.  No heroic treatment for her like Prometheus.

 

But lest we think the Greeks were paragons of gender equality, be aware that the story of Prometheus is often related with the appearance of Pandora, the first woman, whose box of ills and plagues is given by Zeus in retaliation for Prometheus’s gift.  And, of course, Pandora, weak, beautiful, treacherous and deceitful woman that she is, cannot contain her curiosity and opens the box, releasing all the plagues that humankind must endure.

 

Yes, it seems that no matter which mythology you endorse, women get condemned and slandered.  Almost makes you suspect that these mythologies were all composed by men!

Trump’s Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study performed under Professor Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971.  It was designed to study antisocial behavior and involved the observation of how volunteer guards reacted when given authority over volunteer prisoners.  The experiment was terminated early because of the increasing brutality of some of the ‘guards’.

Trump is conducting a similar project, imbuing various cabinet members and their newly hired underlings with the imprimatur of executive authority and instructing them to perform various aggressively undemocratic actions.  The results are horrifyingly similar to the Stanford experiment, but no one yet has had the power or temerity to stop this project.

 

Marco Rubio (or little Marco, as Trump once demeaned him), flush with his new authority as Secretary of State, has revoked visas and permits for hundreds of students who protested against the Israeli conduct of the war in Gaza, in direct violation of their basic right to free speech.  He accuses them of antisemitism, though many Jewish students were hand-in-hand with these students in demonstrations and protests.  

 

The same is true for Kristi Noem, whose cruelly zealous prosecution of undocumented immigrants while taking every opportunity to burnish her image in photo ops, is a perfect example of how power can provoke sadistic and anti-social behavior.

 

JD Vance, the attack dog for Trump, abandoned any semblance of integrity when he left the Never Trump Camp and courted Trump at Mar-a-Lago, desperate for the next step in his political ascendancy.  Now he spews out ever more mean-spirited diatribes against any country or person or principle that stands in the way of the MAGA cult.

 

Hegseth, the veritable poster child of toxic masculinity, is rampaging through the military in a petty, vindictive manner, hoping to win the award for most slavishly devoted to master Trump.  After all, his time as a Fox host worshipping Trump got him the job. 

 

Trump, who needs no motivation to lash out in vengeful, sadistic acts, is using every tool at his disposal to attack, belittle, disenfranchise, persecute, threaten and extort anyone standing in his way.

 

The type of people who have signed on for the MAGA ride and imbibed the Trump kool aid are in free fall.  Like the Zimbardo guards, they are empowered well beyond normal social boundaries.  They are the type of people who embrace power trips and rationalize cruelty.  

 

When I went to Naval Officer’s Candidate School in Newport, RI after college, I experienced a mini version of the Stanford experiment.  Older officer candidates were given authority to make life very difficult for new ones in the quest to break down individuality and create a team unity and military discipline.  They responded to this responsibility in different ways.  About two thirds of them did the required work with integrity, finding no joy in the process but carrying it out in a competent manner.  But one third of them succumbed to the temptation to give their inner demons full voice.  They became sadistic taskmasters and reveled in the fear and unpleasantness they inflicted on their charges.  It shocked me how quickly these people lost their humanity, then pretended it was all part of the game once it was over.

 

The Trump team is an all-star cast of people with this predisposition for antisocial behavior.  They are not so unlike the Himmlers, the Goebbels and the Heydrichs of a previous experiment of empowering people’s darker selves.  The only question is whether there are enough remaining people of conscience in our three branches of government to rein in this experiment before it permanently damages our country.

When Everything is an Emergency

Tariffs on Canada and Mexico because of the so-called fentanyl emergency.  Tariffs on the rest of the world because of the national emergency described as the poor ‘international economic position of the United States and the need to protect American workers’.  Mass deportations based on the 1789 wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act.  Arrests and deportations of students who protested Israeli actions in Gaza with essentially no justification at all other than a vague and unconvincing order to fight antisemitism.  The firing of large numbers of federal employees with almost no analysis or justification or congressional oversight.

Trump has declared multiple emergency situations and has claimed emergency executive power in an avalanche of executive decisions that have sidelined congress and centralized the direction of almost all government activity in the oval office.  Trump has become a dictator.  This is not a representative democracy and we are perilously close to becoming an authoritarian state.

 

Congress is unwilling and/or unable to rein him in, because republicans live in fear of having Trump or Musk single them out as unfaithful to the MAGA cause and losing their next election.  The tiny republican majorities in the house and senate ensure that the outrage from the democratic side remains impotent. The legitimacy of these sweeping executive actions will be tested in the courts, but Trump has already extorted law firms and threatened judges with impeachment to game the system.  

 

Trump’s apologists would argue that he must perform these executive actions because they are urgent and congress has been unable to move quickly or decisively.  But the reason congress has been stymied for many years is that the country is deeply divided.  Overriding congress to take aggressive actions at a time when the country is struggling to find a balance in opinion and direction threatens our democracy and the rule of law.  The consequences may be disastrous.

 

Trump’s arrogance and narcissism are well known.  His reliance on his business instinct, forged in the cauldron of his street-brawling real estate and construction deals, is for the most part unguided by respected experts.  His MAGA advisors are not highly regarded and they were clearly chosen primarily for their loyalty and sycophancy. 

 

Trump may be successful in ‘evening the playing field’ with some trading partners, because the USA is the most powerful economic nation on earth.  But the long-term consequences of a chaotic and mean-spirited USA will certainly be the loss of trust and respect in the world community, and may be the end of our exalted economic position as nations adjust their alliances and trading relationships to a new world order.

Trump’s America is a Bully and a Spoiled Brat

Here are a few facts that reflect on Trump’s assertion that the USA has been taken advantage of by other nations and that we desperately need to put America first.  The first fact is that our GDP is by far the largest in the world and is seven to fifteen times more than the GDP of the next ten strongest economies excluding China, whose GDP is a little more than half of ours.  The per capita GDP is also very high, eclipsing all but a few small-nation outliers – Luxemburg, Switzerland, Iceland and Singapore.

The second fact is that our average personal wealth is more than twice that of every other developed nation, with the exception of Luxemburg, Switzerland and Hong Kong.  The third fact is that the average wages in the USA are higher than every other nation except Luxemburg, Hong Kong and Iceland. 

It is hard to argue that the USA is suffering in a general sense.  We are the acknowledged technology capital of the world, we have been the largest producer of crude oil in the world since 2018, we have an unmatched military capability, and we have untapped natural resources and vast areas of arable land that are the envy of the world.  

 

Trump’s brutal trade policies and his threats to acquire Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada can only be interpreted as the antics of a spoiled child and bully that will never be satisfied.  There is no rationale, either economic or political, for these hyper aggressive actions, other than the greedy frenzy of an arrogant, ignorant MAGA group led by two narcissistic autocrats.

 

It is true that the last 30 years have left a good part of the American population behind with stagnating wages and cultural shocks.  The high wages and wealth skew wildly toward the top end of the American wealth demographic.  Somehow, Trump has managed to convince this group that radical liberals and the rest of the world are at fault for their economic malaise.  This fiction will not stand the test of time, but Trump’s strategy will no doubt be to shut the door on any democratic processes and eliminate all opposition before that happens.  

 

The USA is powerful and can assert its will on many nations even if the terms are wildly unjust and punitive. A bully can prevail for a time.  But in the long run, I believe there is enough strength and integrity in other nations to enable a re-ordering of world commerce and affairs.  The sad truth for us is that it will be the stature and economic strength of the USA that will be diminished in the end.  This is what happens to bullies and spoiled brats.

Patience

I am not a particularly patient person.  This is most evident in my driving habits.  I like to say that I am an energetic driver, but it is clear that I generally am impatient and too eager to get to my destination in the most efficient and fastest way possible.  My impatience is also evident in my unwillingness to endure long plateaus in new hobbies or acquiring new skills.  I am not big on persevering if progress doesn’t come pretty quickly.  

Recently, I have been confronted with an example of patience and perseverance that is making me reevaluate my own predisposition for impatience: my grandson.  He was born on October 18^th and I have seen him about every two weeks since his birth.

 

The thing that has really made an impression on me is how much time it takes for a baby to develop various physical capabilities.  Other animals can ambulate almost immediately.  Our family watched an Icelandic horse give birth to a foal that was up and walking within minutes!  Baby birds start to fly around two weeks – is that crazy or what?

 

My grandson, Oliver, whom I love dearly, just recently found his feet at five months.  He is capable of flinging his arms and kicking his feet quite energetically, but he is just now learning how to control his hands to bring objects up to his mouth for exploration.  He can roll over, but not back yet.  Crawling is months away and when he finally walks, at about a year, he will ‘toddle’ like a drunken sailor for another year.

 

Human babies are incredibly slow developing in the realm of physical capabilities.  They are literally helpless for years!  But something very profound and amazing is going on behind the scenes during all that time.  That big human brain is gobbling up much of the energy provided by its caregivers and creating a basis for incredibly complex activities in the future.

 

And despite the apparent frustratingly slow progress on the physical front, Oliver is undeterred.  He tries again and again to make different movements or explore different sounds or try different facial expressions.  He learns how to smile and laugh and emit shrieks of glee or frustration or discomfort.  

 

As it slowly dawns on him that his parents and others around him have amazing freedom of movement and speech, he recommits himself each day to emulating them.  His determination, and yes, his patience, are laudable.  He will not leap up and walk right away, nor will he make an intelligible sound for some time.  But he works on it, making slow but steady progress.  

 

Maybe I need to be more like Oliver.  I need to be willing to keep plugging away at the things I become interested in.  I need to persevere.  And maybe, like Oliver, I will find that some amazing things are going on behind the scenes when I persevere and be very happy with the long term result.