"My button is bigger than yours"
It is as if I have been in a state of shock over the last year, as this new era unfolds where blatant lies, treachery and immoral acts are qualities awarded political gain where once they would have been career ending. All successful politicians are necessarily cunning, but the performance of people like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson escapes the expected and understood boundaries of the capitalist democracies we thought we knew. The buffoonery unashamedly acted out by Trump and Johnson is not an attempt to disguise ambition for power for it's own sake: that is plain for all to see. They have a different cunning. It is to "act in a way that is not immediately readable in order to gain an unfair advantage" - to quote Tim Parkes from Joe Queenan's subtle and compelling Radio 4 programme, A Brief History of Cunning, see www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09r37tz.
The fact that they hold no regard for any consequences to everybody else seems absolutely shocking to those of us who had perhaps become complacent about the checks and balances built into our democratic institutions. Such extreme personality malfunction would normally have been judged too unstable to be accommodated at any serious level. But it now seems to be approved by many as a sign of 'honesty'.
Perhaps that's the endgame of a long period in which individualism and materialism have been the most prominent factors and a culture of celebrity notoriety the prime signifier of success and affirmation. And of course, those whose employment prospects and well being have been so severely diminished by global capitalism are completely disenchanted with the traditional politicians, as they are with the entitled 'elite' who condoned austerity being imposed on the many to recoup financial losses incurred by the few in the 2008 banking crisis. Preferable to have a wolf you can see than one hiding in sheep's clothing?
Except the particular demons that drive our special narcissists are not subdued by gains in power. Surely a profound alienation and insecurity crouches deep within their essence, such that will drive even harder under the isolation of leadership? No doubt the ego comes to believe that only absolute dominion will quell the demons, believing them to have outer cause rather than inner motor. Everybody is viewed as hostile and a bullying divide and rule the only recourse. Historically, such characters often self-destruct, but only after having created havoc all around. Which is why Trump's boasting about the size of his nuclear button is chilling.
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