Courtesy of Yahoo.com
During my interview with Willy Vlautin, for Just Read It, the writer said he couldn’t understand why working-class people imagined the rich would act in their interests. It’s a question I’ve also considered in my blogs. Pecking orders exist in Nature, so it seems natural for them to exist among people. The French philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau came to a similar conclusion, deciding that three inequalities dominated human society: a) physical, b) political, and c) economic.
Concern for political and economic differences appears to be uppermost in President Donald Trump’s mind, not for altruistic reasons as they were for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Trump seems to prefer ignoring the poor and members of the working class, and attacks institutions that make them visible, Universities, the media, and the legal system. It’s the same desire to turn a blind eye that he showed during the COVID-19 epidemic. If we stop testing, we’d have fewer cases.
Some institutions have surrendered to his logic, not because they believe in it but because, according to one commentator, they believe more in money and privilege than they do in truth and justice. (“Cowardice Is Contagious Too,” by Jodi Dean, The Nation, May 2025, pg. 5)
Whatever the reason, these institutions, together with a trembling Republican party, have submitted to Trump’s whims to the degree that he imagines he is not only a king but a ruler of the world. His delusion isn’t good for the Grand Old Party, which has turned itself inside out to appease him. Neither is it good for the country. In the absence of dissent, Trump has felt free to deny due process to citizens and non-citizens alike and turned the White House into a place of commerce.
Usury cries for his impeachment, not to mention his attempt to overthrow the government after the 2020 election. I’m not the first to conclude he is the most corrupt President in American history. What’s more, he revels in his audacity. I am doing a number…and I’m having so much fun. ((B&A, The Nation, May 2025, pg. 62.)
Equally shocking is the plethora of those eager to dance around his bonfire, their debauchery aided by the 19 million registered voters who decided to sit out the 2024 election. Indifference, after all, is a form of betrayal in that it fosters cowardice and self-interest.
As a nation, we have experienced this corruption before, during the Joseph McCarthy era. Orson Welles, a celebrated actor, described it as a time when many of his colleagues chose to sacrifice their friends to communist hysteria rather than lose their swimming pools. (“American Crawl,” by D. D.. Guttenplan, The Nation, May 2025, pg. 4)
How the current struggle will end, I do not know. But I am certain of one thing. We will remain a multicultural nation. Should tyranny refuse to accept that reality, it will lead to more uprisings and more spilled blood. This cycle will continue until we grasp one self-evident truth– no honor exists unless we honor humankind. (The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer, Harper Perennial, 2002, Pg. 149)
One pertinent question is what to do with the rubble of our discontent.
If I were king, I’d use it to build a temple to Peace, decreeing that the structure have three dimensions: a) a roof large enough to shelter everyone; b) a cella of grand proportions to billet individual differences, and c) gigantic columns to protect liberty and justice for all.
Until we grow wise enough to build this edifice, we must continue to resist our darker forces.
To those who insist Trump has a better way, remember he is a liar, a Pied Piper who in a moment of candor once admitted, My life is shit! (“Dog Eat Dog,” by John Ganz,The Nation, May 2025, pg. 61.)
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