An Existential Threat

 

 

The Bob Woodward book revealed more concrete evidence about the inauthentic character of Trump. It depicted audio recordings of Mr. Woodward’s questions and the answers provided by Trump. For example, it was apparent that in early February, Trump knew about the pandemic and lied about its danger to our country. Trump admitted downplaying the virus. He stated that he did not want to panic the citizens. There have been numerous Republicans stating that they are no longer supporting Trump but are supporting Biden. This essay addresses the existential threat posed by Trump and his supporters.

Briefly, existentialism is based on humanistic studies, philosophy, psychology and psychiatry. Some of their ideas include that man is driven by  irrational forces; man is too easily manipulated by propaganda and mass media;  man conforms too easily; man has to confront  the brevity of human life [I recently and unexpectedly lost a 52-year-old cousin]; man , because of the contradictions in society, has to deal with ontological anxiety and guilt; man has the potential to become authentic but far too many men are  inauthentic; man can’t be comforted by religious, political, scientific or other illusions; and  man’s choices and decisions determine his character and quality of life .

Recently, there have been a number of books written about Donald and one about his wife. Rick Wilson “Running Against the Devil”, Mary Trump’s “Too Much-Never Enough”; John Bolton’s “The Room Where It Happened”; Stephanie Winston Wolkoff “Melania and Me;” Michael Cohen’s “Disloyal;” and Bob Woodward’s “Rage,”  are examples. These five books have painted a picture about the character who lies, cheats, manipulates and exploits in the service of himself with little care and concern about the country and others. Further, there have been additional responses about Trump being an idiot, unfit and a danger to our country by Tillerson, Matus, Coats, whistleblowers and others.

His impeachment trial and the Mueller report addressed Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s attempt to coerce or blackmail the Ukrainian leader to create false information on the Biden’s. Donald’s flagrant non -cooperation with Congress; not allowing his administration to respond to subpoenas; his firing of so-called  the disloyalty’s or whistleblowers; and his misuse of the Atty. Gen.’s office not to hold him accountable for his illegal actions . According to Barr, he cannot be indicted. are a few examples of this lying, corruptive, authoritarian. His character is based on lying, cruel decisions and authoritarianism which result in his inauthenticity.

In 1932 with the great depression, over 40% voted and supported Calvin Coolidge. Today, current polls place Trumps approval rating in the low 40% range. We have the worst pandemic of the century; close to 200,000 dead from the virus; high unemployment numbers; too many people not being able to pay their rent; schools being taught online; and not being able to attend, in person, sporting events. In fact, Donald has support from conspiracy and hate groups. That fact is despicable and speaks volumes about his sycophant followers. Why does he have, In spite of all the negatives, so much continued support? It’s about the character of the followers.

It’s clear that some, do not know about all his negatives either because of ignorance or stupidity, lack of information, belief in illusions, denial, rationalization, cognitive dissonance [avoiding negative or unflattering information regarding Trump] or relying on social media and/or listening to Fox news. Just recently, I heard numerous individuals from Fox news supporting the lie, going along and just focusing on “I don’t want the country to panic so I’m downplaying the virus threat.” No one suggested for him to be a cheerleader. No one told him to jump up and down. If he acted like a coach, he could’ve come up with the strategy to handle the threat. He didn’t and said “It is what it is.” He made it worse with the greatest lie in our history.

We know that a number of his people know the truth and yet still support his behavior and chaos. Yes, people like to be around power and do not want to lose it. Other previous supporters like Kelly, Coats, Bolton and others stated they disliked him but stayed on the job because they thought they could help the country through his ineptness. I’d call that rationalization and intellectualization. Some said they put up with him as long as they could and then left. I I’ll call that denial. Who didn’t know about his character?

Why it is that others still follow this Pied Piper? We know that man is biological and psychological with need structures. We could argue that man’s biological needs are not the prime motivators to support Trump. Psychologically, is likely where the answer lies regarding supporting this man. The total experience of one’s mentality, emotions,  intelligence, awareness, perception, senses, intuition, memories, fantasies, anticipation’s and orientations toward others influence man’s behavior and choices in the world.

Man clearly benefits when he’s fully able to use all his cognitive capacities. Don’t let irrationality, emotions and defense mechanisms get in the way. Man has to navigate his environment by exercising his cognitive capacities along with taking responsibility for behavioral actions. He has to incorporate his past, present and his future. In other words, man has choices and decisions to make throughout his lifecycle. He has to be able to symbolize and classify countless amounts of information. Words are symbols. When more categories exist in one’s cognitive mass, the greater will be the meaningfulness of experiences. Greater amounts of objective information will in turn create a greater and more active amount of imagination. Man has to employ judgment. Judgment means evaluating experiences in a manner that leads to either considering good or bad as in moral judgment or pleasant or unpleasant as an preferential judgment. Man is a symbolizing, imagining and judging oriented. These cognitions allow man to feel more satisfied and hopefully to avoid some frustration.

Life is full of challenges which makes choosing difficult. One can be afraid of making a choice because of the fear and anxiety emotions. The choice or one alternative might be anxiety producing because it’s related to the future which is an unknown as well as an unpredictability. Another alternative, in a series of choices, might be related to the past, the status quo or the familiar. Making that choice might result in the guilt of a missed opportunity. Another problem can occur when one makes a choice in order to meet important goals but there’s no guarantee that the favored outcomes will occur. Obviously a Monday morning quarterback, can make better decisions. Just think about the future decisions based on predictions of what might, or what might not occur. More often than not, one doesn’t have any control over the variables. Just think how often we are wrong when it comes to making a prediction. We want as much control as possible. So it’s certainly understandable why we attempt to reduce anxiety by making a prediction. Many times individuals, because of fear, avoid making a decision by playing it safe. This avoidance actually winds up as making a decision anyway.

Conformity is a trap that can result in lying to self which is not taking responsibility for one’s decisions and actions. Lying to others can simply be a dependence upon the wishes and belief of others.  Both instances result in negatives to self. Going along with the crowd means not paying attention to oneself or one’s needs but simply being part of a consensus.  Being part of the group or being part of the consensus often does not necessarily mean the truth.  Conformity suggests employing many social roles and results in having thoughts that are limited, gross and stereotyped. The conformist is irrational, does not tend to question and buys into the propaganda falsehoods.

Sometimes decisions are made over and over without thinking about consequences. In fact one might not even be aware of all the consequences of the decision or decisions. Hopefully, man can utilize all his cognitive skills in making important decisions. We know there vast amounts of incompleteness of information when it comes to decision making. It’s important to realize the value accompanying the decision and importantly the courage to disagree with the crowd. Don’t forget that some decisions are based on actual necessities and not all decisions are based on possibilities. It’s also important not to lie to oneself regarding ones decision making. For four years, everyone has seen Trump in action. There should be no surprise or doubt about what the next four years would bring if reelected.

A view questions to consider: 1. Is Trump moral? 2. Is Trump ethical? 3. Does Trump lie and cheat? 4. Does Trump break the law? 5 Is Trump above the law? 6. Does Trump make decisions based to totally benefit to him? 7. Does Trump seem okay with a number of deaths from the pandemic 8. Does Trump want Russia to assist him in the election 9? Does Trump withhold information from his taxes? 10. Does Trump act like an authoritarian? 11. Do Trump’s tax cut benefit the top 1%? 12. Are Trumps border policies, cruel and sadistic? 13. Did Mexico pay for the wall? 14. Are Trump’s trade wars detrimental to the United States? 15. Is Trump doing everything he can to sabotage a democratic based election?

It would seem to me that answers to the questions above say a lot about the respondent. If one uses all his cognitive abilities effectively, has a well-functioning conscience based on moral and ethical values, that suggests a very human quality based on welfare of self and others. However, those that support him based on prejudice, incomplete, limited or erroneous information are certainly not employing their ability to symbolize, to employ imagination and to use proper judgment. Their emotional overlay, as to overcome fear, inadequacy and seeking power, also interferes with their rational judgment. Those that are members of racist and conspiracy groups have their negative hateful and sadistic emotions interfering with their cognitive processes especially when it comes to moral and ethical judgment. Those that are part of the Republican consensus or illusion, going along with the crowd and buying into the propaganda also are not fully employing their cognitive processes. Those that joined him because they believed they could either change him or thought they could still save the country were employing defense mechanisms and not their full cognitive processes. In essence, the plan to vote for this inauthentic man by the inauthentic crowd, would be a terrible decision and choice. This group poses an existential threat to our country.