[FRIAM] @fakedonaldtrump

[Steven A Smith]

Marcus -

> Thus, it is not a necessarily a good sign when someone that has to 
> make people cooperate takes a direct approach.  It may just show that 
> they lack the memory and patience to turn over all the necessary rocks 
> and think about how they relate before taking action.
>
Thus: *"< *Give him credit or not"

I never have given him any credit for this feature, but I do believe 
many do, and I do understand that this is a powerful mode of being in 
(too) many people.   It is the default *I* go to when *deeply* cornered, 
which suggests to me that our disaffected "populist" portion of his base 
were acting out of some kind of fear, ready to gulp down any Snake Oil 
offered up to allay the very fear said Snake Oil Purveyor was whipping 
up in the crowd.  They should be choking on that Snake Oil anytime if 
they aren't already.

As frightening as I find many of our current events, I pull out my 
Pollyanna persona to protect me from joining the mob (or the anti-mob) 
simply because I am too frightened to keep looking for better solutions.

I had a much more Cynical persona that gave me relief from fear when I 
(first) voted for Reagan, then (second) saw the error of my ways and 
withdrew significantly from political interests for 20 years.

I'm balancing this habit/nature to be stampeded by fear into acting 
foolishly against Edmund Burkes' admonition:
/The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do 
nothing./

It feels to me that more and more good men (and women) are doing 
*something* even in the face of bodily harm.  I think that many of these 
people have thoughtfully turned over many rocks before acting.  As 
tedious as that process can be and as much as it feels like it puts one 
at a disadvantage against those who have no trouble acting in a knee 
jerk fashion,  I want to believe it is a more viable strategy in the 
long run.

When the Trump Rally started in the markets (January?), I pulled way 
back mainly because I did not want to profit from his bad acting and 
those who are finding profit in his bad actions.   I believe now that 
this bubble is ready to collapse and the vanguard of that collapse might 
be others who see the injustice in profiting from war, xenophobia, 
science-denial, etc. if not simply those with enough self-interest 
(enlightened or not) to flee before the ship sinks to a new bottom.   It 
may still take impeachment proceedings or criminal charges to kick the 
stool out from under this propped up mess, but that will just make it 
fall harder.

Hope springs infernal,
  - Steve


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20170818/c94c9d1e/attachment.html>