Humiliation Wins

 

 

 Competition is the activity of competing. It is very much prevalent, in our culture, as in the survival of the fittest. There are statistics that measure and rank the wealthiest in our country; a listing of the top Fortune 500 companies; and numerous other comparisons found on the sports page pertaining to all the professional teams. There are statistics for almost everything relevant and non-relevant .Our country is compared, on many categories, to other G-7 nations. There is comparison of school achievement scores in science and math that can be found locally, nationally and worldwide. There are even rankings of mortality and happiness rates per country. Turning to the family, we know about sibling rivalry, which is competitiveness. My friend Dave, in his late 60s, recently told me that he was his mother’s favorite son, and laughed when he added that he was number one. Tony and I have been competing over 20 years. I have an age handicap. He gives me so many minutes per our age difference. At times, I require a larger handicap in order to beat him. Often, I even talked about hobbling him. So far nothing has worked. I am still looking for an advantage. This disquisition pertains to Trump’s competitiveness.

Competitiveness is very broad, and seems to engulf just about all sapient activities. For instance, Michael Jordan did not limit his competitiveness to the basketball court. He was known to bet on just about everything that he did. In fact the NBA, at one time, was very concerned with his gambling. Within Trump’s neurotic character traits, exists his competitive nature. For instance, he constantly measures himself against others especially Barack Obama. Trump was concerned with the size of his inauguration claiming it was larger  than Obama’s and he consistently overturned many of Obama’s policies like the Parris Accord, Iran’s Nuclear Treaty, listing Cuba as a terrorist  regime etc. Trump also claimed that his rallies were larger than Biden’s. During the 2016 primaries, Trump put down his opponents with various unflattering names and remarks .Trump, in his mind, has to be more intelligent and popular than everyone else. He said he was smarter than the general’s; he was the greatest president; no other President did …; and he was maybe only second to Lincoln in supporting the blacks. He does not appear content in what he’s doing only about how much success and the prestige he gained by the task. Gold Trump signs on buildings are only, an attempt to fulfill feelings of inadequacy.

Trump’s ambition and goal is to accumulate money, power and prestige. In addition to any accomplishment, he has to have greater success and be perceived as being exceptional, clever, and be the best at everything he touches. He overcame 6 bankruptcies, won numerous lawsuits, and swindled many without paying them for services or labor. Even Giuliani may not be paid for services. Wow, what a clever thief! He even brags how smart he is by using bankruptcies laws to his advantage by not paying taxes. However, because of his excessive drive for ambition, he is very sensitive to failure and not meeting his fantasies.

With extreme competitiveness, there is a tremendous amount of fear and sensitivity to failure. Also, within competition the other person has to lose and be defeated by him. In other words, the destructive hostility aspect of competition is stronger than the constructive element. It’s more important for him to see the other defeated and for him to defeat others. This reminds me of Potato, a Tevis endurance competitor, who would say “the person coming in second is the first loser.” Once again the only way to feel superior is to put down and belittle others. It didn’t work against the Biden’s. He has to damage a competitor to enhance his own glory. He’s driven by a blind indiscriminate and compulsive way to disparage .He has to be the winner at all costs. He expends a great amount of emotional intensity behind his destructive impulses regardless of the reality of the situation. With fear of failure, he becomes like a raging blind man in a glass shop.

Trump is also motivated to defeat and not take the counsel from his advisers because he knows best. Many advisers have warned him not to do many of the things that he does. He knew the pandemic was disastrous. Did his advisers tell him to dismiss and silence all the scientists? Probably not, as he has to be in charge which is an important aspect of his competitive nature. He is unable to take advantage of the input of others because that would be, in his own mind, a feeling of defeat and failure.

The last four months or so we have seen his competitive nature and fear of failure in full force. He knew the polls showed him behind Biden. He began cheating and continued lying about mail-in ballots and even curtailed the post office’s mail delivery. When he lost in November, he refused to acknowledge the reality. His frivolous lawsuits were an attempt to avoid that fear of failure. When that didn’t work, he and his sycophants made calls to various state governments and election officials pursuing fraud. The epitome was on January 6 with his role in the insurrectionist war on the Capital.

Trump also fears retaliation for his ambitious pursuit of ambition. As he stepped on others, humiliated and crushed them, this sets in motion his thinking that they want just as intensely to defeat him as well. Therefore, he attempts to expand his own power in an attempt to protect himself from this defeat. His fear of failure or humiliation only pushes him into enhanced efforts to be more successful and to be more invincible and controlling. In his mind, he constantly justifies his actions while attempting to prove his superiority. Yet, being the only president to be impeached twice, with more Republican’s voting against him in the House, brings him closer to reality of the underlying unconscious fear of being humiliated. Despite the reality he seems to reject all the overt evidence facing him. His self-esteem, feelings of inferiority, his inadequacy are all unconsciously at play. He lacks the inner ego resources too effectively to resolve, and deal with his dilemma. Reality continues to close in despite what his sycophants tell him.

Yes, Trump has been experiencing constant stress and anxiety while acting out anger and rage. He’s attempting to go out in style in an attempt to emotionally soften the dreaded failure and humiliation. That’s only a Band-Aid approach. Trump’s neurotic competitiveness along with other character deficiencies facilitated his demise. His losing the presidency, the threat of impeachment, legal actions and money woes place him in a unique position that he has never experienced before. Being non-psychologically oriented, he likely will continue to exhibit more self-defeating behavior. This chapter in his story looks bleak and pathetic. As T.S. Eliot said in the final stanza of his poem “The Hollow Men,”   This Is the way the world ends ….. Not with a bang but a whimper.

PS

I am relieved that President and Vice President Biden and Harris excised the sadomasochistic, cancerous and diseased cancer from the White House. Tomorrow, Linda and I are scheduled for our Covid-19 vaccination. I am laughing again more because Tony and I are together on the trails . For and in-depth analysis of fear of failure consult: Horney, Karen. The Neurotic Personality over Time, WW Norton and Company Inc.