Month: November 2016

Anthony Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service

The Media Doesn’t Get It!

What is being missed by media analysts is “Trumpism!” Rising anger and distrust with the “System”, combined with a voice speaking candidly and fearlessly about voter alienation.  It no longer matters what Trump says or does, even the most egregious of statements are tolerated or ignored; there is no diminution of loyalty.

Indeed, Trump’s words and actions, especially his attacks on the System and the characters benefitting from corruption, cronyism, and white-collar crime, are now rallying cries.  Down with the System! Many now recognize and understand the foundations of the System: government, corporations, and financial institutions constituted a “rigged” system. Policies, actions, laws keep corrupt people and institutions in control, pandering to each other, and ignoring those outside their boundaries.

The media “darlings” keep appealing to reason!  Can you imagine what a Trump presidency would be like? We would lose foreign support! We would alienate minorities! We would build walls all around us! The “darlings” do not get it! This is not a matter of reason!  This is a matter of primitive survival instincts.  Trump supporters ask: What have I gotten from the System?

In many instances, cabals and secret societies acted with impunity, dismiss struggles and concerns of those neither sanctified nor included in their membership circles (e.g., Economic and Military Treaties, Philanthropies, favored-nation consortiums, Bilderburg, Davos Factions, Skull and Bones, Opus Dei, allied corporate board memberships, Federal Reserve Banks, and special political power groups including Council of Foreign Relations, Tri-Lateral Commission).

Trump’s persona is the other part of the ecology fueling his appeal. His behaviors reveal a pattern of characteristics which some find appealing and others find frightening! Psychiatry’s diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM-V) is already the source of many pathological labels. And yet, the more he is condemned, the more the condemners appear as self-serving and system sycophants.  There is biblical imagery happening here!

In what appears to be an impossible alliance between a billionaire and disenfranchised voters, Trump speaks for the outsiders. An insider is speaking for the outsiders! He is criticizing (i.e., scape-goat) those who outsiders have long resented as they are toasted on biased-media programs, and hold offices claiming purity in purpose, nobility in thought, and morality. How rewarding, how cathartic, how triumphant for outsiders to hear Trump speak of System icons with disdain: insulting them, ridiculing them, staining them! Take that you bastard billionaires, you Hollywood and media moguls, you privileged offspring of the wealthy parents, now acting as if you deserve this inherited status.

Trump condemns the System, even as he may inherit its structures, institutions, laws, and regulations if he wins the Presidency. He seems oblivious to the consequences and import for his words if he enters the oval office, now charged with defending the Constitution. How will he handles the situation? The Constitution is prisoner to corrupt office holders, and financial interests, scornful of its once treasured principles. Will Trump call for an absolute reading of the Constitution? Will he insist on legal and martial support for its “interpreted” meanings?  Will his wife choose new dishes and table ware? The questions go from the sublime to the ridiculous! Chart 2 displays the second part of the ecology appeal.

Trump Labels the Problems

For so many outsiders, the rapid and profound intrusion of globalization events, forces, and policies left them reeling in discontent. It was not only job losses as manufacturing sector jobs were sent abroad, it was a total package, including: dehumanization, technological skill sets priority for employment and services, immigration of non-Western white people (i.e., Mexicans, Latinos, Asian Indians, Chinese, Africans), a Black President, accepts neo-liberal policies contradicting all he promised in his election campaigns, Wall Street crimes, failed government institutions.  Who are these new faces, now empowered by law, privilege, crony ties deciding our future?

The seeds for Trump’s ascendancy have been planted for decades throughout the United States, although ignored or unrecognized for the fruit – tainted fruit – they could yield. Those previously in power, were now being dethroned. Many whites felt entitled by virtue of their race and ethnicity – white privilege! Now their lives were being determined by Asians, Blacks, Latinos, and women.  What happened?  One can almost say the words, “While you slept,” others were slowly becoming empowered.

We are surprised! Why? Did we think we could ignore the offenses imposed by those with wealth, power, and position? Do they not grasp the resentment we feel? Do they not see their privileges are seen as taking from our opportunities? Their corruption, cronyism, and connections destroy our institutions, forcing us to tear down the myths we believed to be true?

What Trump has grasped, and what is now the enduring source of his appeal is a “human principle,” long attributed to peasant cultures: “The principle of limited good!” Anthropologist Robert Redfield (1982) used the concept in his studies of peasant societies. He suggested that under conditions of want and scarcity, what emerges is a mentality in which anyone gaining advantage must do so at the expense of others.  There is limited good! So be careful about its availability and distribution. Hmmm? Sounds a great deal like societies and nations today. Inequities in wealth, power, and position create grief, anger, resentment, and revenge. Perhaps we are all victims!

The Elusive Explanation

I have suggested Trumpism is a function of a complex ecology. One element is a perceived onslaught of problems among certain populations, creating a “victim mentality!”  The second element in the ecology is Trump’s appealing public persona, his shrewd assertions identifying the sources of the problems, and ready solutions to them. Obviously, the problems are far more complex than Trump has indicated, and obviously, his stylistic presentation is filled with puzzling inconsistencies and questionable character qualities.  But Trump and Trumpism endure!  Endless criticisms of Trump appear to being little to reduce his appeal, although the criticisms to incite violence from those groups considered problem targets by Trump.

So where does this leave us? No one wants to talk about it publically, at the risk of being criticized. But, I feel it must be said. Trump supporters, and there are many, are responding to his criticism and condemnation of all the sanctimonious and hallowed leaders, institutions, and mythic traditions of our nation and the world. They respond with glee each time an individual (e.g., Hillary) or institution (e.g., the media, government, Hollywood) is his target.  Many no longer fear the System’s appeals to rationality and enlightenment. Hillary says Trump is dangerous; his inept domestic and foreign policies will destroy the world. Followers do not care.

Trump’s supporters dismiss the alleged risks of Trump’s presidency. They know the risks of the current System. They would like to see the System topple and crumble. “Bring on the chaos! Thank you Trump, for raising consciousness about the corrupt System imposed on us.” They no longer believe our government and institutions exist to help them.  Trust is gone!

Bring on the apocalypse!  It was promised in the Bible! We have nothing to lose!  The more you condemn him, the more we love him! It is Biblical!  We claim you are dangerous. Every comment, every remark, every criticism you make, strengthens our resolve!  If Trump wins, the System falls.  So be it!  We don’t want the old system.

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Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., a  member of the TRANSCEND Network, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces. He can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 13 June 2016.