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Wednesday, April 3, 2019

ARMCHAIR DIAGNOSIS

Yesterday, three times, Trump said that we need to look at the "oranges" of the Mueller Report.  I think it is clear that he is dyslexic.  Oh, by the way, he cheats at golf.  That might lose him a couple of votes with the country club set.

Since the readership, or at least the commenting readership, of this blog is the most deadly serious, earnest, ideologically clued in collection of people I have ever met, one might wonder why I even mention these sorts of trivia.  Simple.  It  is because I am being driven stark raving mad by the political reality in which my one and only life cycle [Erik Erikson] is located.  If I cannot find some way to lift the cloud over my head, I fear I shall not make it to my ninetieth birthday.

12 comments:

s. wallerstein said...

W. B. Yeats: Why should not old men be mad.

https://poetrytreasures.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/why-should-not-old-men-be-mad/

Ed Barreras said...

Is this kind of mispronunciation of words, within the flow of speaking, a sign of dyslexia? Wikipedia, at least, seems to indicate that dyslexia manifests specifically in the act of reading. I took it as a sign of a more general cognitive decline, which is extremely worrying because when a person as mean, vindictive, petty, narcissistic, vainglorious, lecherous, and nasty as T***p begins to experience the added volatility of losing his mind — and he has the nuclear codes! — we all better watch out.

Of course, his mental decline was apparent well before he was voted into office. ::sigh::

Chris said...

Professor Wolff,
I completely missed this incident, so whatever oranges is supposed to refer to is presently lost on me. Is it a Freudian slip, or what word was he trying to say?

Ed,
In my case it did/does. I'm dyslexic, but I also read a lot, and at an 'above average' rate (which took lots of practice). My parents determined there was something 'wrong' with me because I had numerous mispronunciations as a child that required me to see a speech therapist. I was literally incapable of saying 'work' for instance (early signs of Marxism!). She basically reset how I vocalized certain sounds, letters, and finally words. And there definitely seemed to be a connection between my reading and my speaking dyslexia. For instance it's really hard to read a word you cannot say.

Christopher J. Mulvaney, Ph.D. said...

I am certain the things at which he doesn't cheat constitute a null set.

There are three things which have come to mind with some frequency for the past few years. First, the old socialist slogan during the inter-war period: SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM. True then and now. Second, graffiti from the Paris Rebellion of '68: America is the the first country to go from savagery to barbarism with no civilization in between. I don't know, but I suspect the first slogan was not, although it could have been, influenced by Vico, but the second certainly was.

The third is the first stanza of "The Second Coming" by Yeats.

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

Robert Paul Wolff said...

Chris, sorry. The word he was reaching for was "origins."

Chris said...

On a positive note Professor Wolff, Sanders is doing amazingly well in fundraising and given present polls certainly looks to be a front runner in general, and is absolutely a front runner for people under 30.

LFC said...

@Chris

Polls at this stage of a presidential contest must be taken w caution, as what they register is, to a substantial extent, nothing more than name recognition. Fundraising is more indicative of depth/breadth of support at this stage and Sanders is doing well there, but I wouldn't place too much emphasis on polls at this point.

Chris said...

I completely agree that polls at this point are near meaningless, however, it is the case that Sanders did well with that same age group in 2016.

Rafael Vulgo Sapo said...

I am a daily reader of your blog. I think I have never commented here, but know that I have been following your works, articles and books for some time. I found you watching lectures and lessons on youtube. I'm a philosophy student from Brazil, more precisely from ICHS-UFMT. I sincerely hope you continue with your postings (even trivias) and works as much as you can. Much obliged

Robert Paul Wolff said...

Welcome! Please comment whenever you feel moved to do so.

F Lengyel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chris said...

Hahahahahahaha F Lengyel