Trump is an empty human being, obsessively, insatiably in need of confirmation, approval, sadistic relief from an inescapable inner conviction of his worthlessness. He does not have purposes, strategies, or goals, just an immediate need for approval. His political rallies provided relief until the pandemic forced their cancellation. His daily briefings served as a substutute until [I hope I am using this phrase correctly] he jumped the shark with the inquiry about internal LYSOL cleansing.
I predict that very shortly Trump will become desperate for approval. He will use the excuse of the May 1st "reopening" to schedule one or more rallies, and from those rallies will come COVID-19 hot spots.
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A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
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The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.
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11 comments:
A very good prediction, Professor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark
"Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe a moment when something that was once popular but has grown less so makes an attempt at publicity which only serves to highlight its irrelevance."
well, I was close, but no cigar. Thank you. It refers to Fonzie, yes?
Possession of nuclear codes and desperate for approval doesn't seem like a good mix. Someone please stoke his ego so we all don't end up in armageddon.
Apparently Trump is planning a face-to face graduation ceremony for Westpointers who will mostly have to return from their homes to West Point via New York. So that's a possible coronavirus hotspot. Fortunately the cadets will all be young and fit and therefore unlikely to die if they catch it but the same need not be true of their nearest and dearest who are being endangered to feed Trump's vanity.
Of course the poor bastards will have to stand there at attention listening to Trump's nonsense.
Professor- it could turn out that even the virus can't stand MAGA types.
Science and medicine tell us that the Covid virus does not discriminate -- everyone is susceptible to infection. But social realities demonstrate that it does in fact discriminate. As is the case with most disasters (hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, oil spills, epidemics, pandemics, etc.), it is always the economically disadvantaged who are threatened most and bear the brunt of the mortalities. In our current situation, those who do not have the luxury of self isolating are at higher risk. These kinds of events reveal and highlight the weaknesses of a given society. Why are U.S. hospitals forced to ration PPE and make heart-rendering decisions about who to put on a scarce ventilator or let them die? It reveals not simply the shortcomings of our healthcare system, but the true (as opposed to the supposed) values of our society as a whole. If there is a silver lining in this pandemic, it is that enough people will actually "see" and understand what the reality is so that we can effect a positive change. If that does not happen and Trump is re-elected, then I do believe it is game over (with the caveat, thanks to Ernst Bloch, that we can not predict the future with absolute determinist accuracy). Nonetheless, society will never return to normal (whatever the hell that even means) afterwards with another Trump term.
-- Jim
Psychiatrist Justin A Frank, author of Trump on the Couch (as well as Obama and Bush in previous books), would agree with you. He calls the condition of desperate for approval as "narcissistic supply," where Trump regularly wants to establish himself as "beloved, admired, yearned for, adored."
O yeah?
What about God?
Doesnt He getta say?
Or are you too focused
on this earth to worry
about much else, abortion
N homosexuality? Focus on
yourself first, Pops...
then you can judge.
God bless you.
You know, Matte Blk, Catalyst4Christ, you might be talking' to a bunch of atheists. So what then?
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