The Trump Sham and Why so many Folks (even the educated) Bought It

This is a statue located in Berlin, entitled “Politicians Discussing Global Warming.”

“The most predictable aspect of Trump is unpredictability. I think it’s dangerous, very dangerous,” -Noam Chomsky.
Erich Fromm who wrote “The Art of Being,” among other insightful and important works, really understood the dynamics of humans.  I wasn’t going to write a political post but here goes. I think Fromm’s words are powerful and they are relevant (although written in the early 90s! long before this crazy election, ) Fromm was On The Mark. 

Here’s what he had to say and mind you, decades ago:

 “Products have built-in obsoleteness these days, The basic principle being interest in maximum profit rather than maximum usefulness for humans. 

“The public (even the educated public) buys into shams and has lost the ability to discern the difference between genuine and fake. They don’t listen with a ‘third ear’ for authenticity. Or for intellectual concepts. 

“Hypnotic attraction of power and fame exists here.

“If a man’s name is made famous by clever publicity, then the average person is willing to believe the man’s claims. We live in a completely commercialized society. 

“Salability and optimum profit constitute core values in that each person experiences himself as capital that he must invest with the aim of optimum profit (success) with his inner values counting as little as that of a dental cream or patent medicine. 

“Whether he is kind, intelligent, productive and courageous matters little– if these qualities have not been in use to make him successful. 

“On the other hand if he’s mediocre as a person or artist or writer for example or whatever, and is also 

“narcissistic, aggressive, and an ‘obscene headline maker’ – he will (given some talent) – easily become the leading artist or whathaveyou of his day. 

“Of course the PR team and everyone interested in his success has ‘made’ him and once he’s nationally advertised, once he’s ‘celebrity status’ he is then perceived a ‘great man’ just like the soap powder jingle you can’t forget. 

“Fake fraud is nothing new, it has always existed. 

“What of man’s inner well being, salvation, inner growth, happiness? 

“The socially more dangerous is the swindle in which these performers honestly believe -whether they’re planning war or offering ‘the way to happiness’ (even at the risk of personally attacking well meaning people) these merchants of salvation offer a widespread demand. 

“How could it be any different?People are confused and unsure. They seek answers but also demand that 

“The solution be EASY to learn. 

“With little effort- and easy and quick to attain. 

“A person orients his life thru having or being. 

Consider roses needing things for optimum growth and not receiving it -but compensating by for example- lack of light by 

growing crooked-bending toward the Sun…”
ENDQUOTES

What do you think? Fromm is right. Dangerously and sadly right. This is what Noam Chomsky has to say and these Remarks are current November 2016:

“Those Who Failed to Recognize Trump as ‘Greater Evil’ Made a ‘Bad Mistake’

“I didn’t like Clinton at all, but her positions are much better than Trump’s on every issue I can think of. This (not voting for Hilary) is  a “bad mistake.” 

On both moral and practical levels, Chomsky told Al Jazeera’s Medhi Hasan, the choice was clear. He said:

“Do you vote against the greater evil if you don’t happen to like the other candidate?” (asked Chomsky, who spoke out during the election against Trump’s candidacy and in fact predicted his rise six years ago. )

“The answer to that is yes.”

“…voters did not have to ignore Clinton’s serious shortcomings in order to recognize Trump as the much more serious threat.

“I didn’t like Clinton at all, but her positions are much better than Trump’s on every issue I can think of,” 

(the professor emeritus of linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) told Hasan. Chomsky supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic presidential primary. Chomsky also objected to philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s post-election argument that Trump’s victory would “shake up” status quo.)

 

“Terrible point,” ( Chomsky said of Zizek’s take. ) 

“It was the same point that people like him said about Hitler in the early 30s.”

“He’ll ‘shake up the system’ in bad ways,” (Chomsky said of the president-elect. )

“What it means is now the left—if Clinton had won, she had some progressive programs. The left could have been organized, to keeping her feet to the fire. What it will be doing now is trying to protect rights…gains that have been achieved, from being destroyed. That’s completely regressive.”

(Indeed, Chomsky further warned in the aftermath of the election: )

“The outcome placed total control of the government—executive, Congress, the Supreme Court—in the hands of the Republican Party, which has become the most dangerous organization in world history.”
(The GOP) “is dedicated to racing as rapidly as possible to destruction of organized human life. There is no historical precedent for such a stand.”
Wednesday December 7 and Wednesday nov 30 catch Years of Living Dangerously in NatGeo channel. Check your listings. Dave Letterman and SNL alum Cecily Strong host this award winning documentary on climate change. 

Our president elect is already trying to get out of the Paris agreement. 

Sweden is 100% fossil free. What’s up with that? We have to push. 

Catch Leo Dicaprio’s film Before the Flood

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/before-the-flood/

7stages to grief. They all appear not in any order. Now moreso than everChannel grief into peace, art, music. Be heard❤️I’m joining a quest to flood the WhiteHouse with personal peace flags. 

Stay informed. 

On the same day in 1989 that the BerlinWall came down…this day in 2016, someone somewhere was making plans to put up the USA Wall. I have a headache writing this. I spent day and night, removing a Trojan/malware, reinstalling Windows, losing valuable apps, perusing my corrupt heap of files and unable to reload MSWord which I need for work. 

But I thought Fromm and Chomsky made a lot of sense and so headache and all I hit send now.