The Art of the Cult, by Donald Trump
Trump rallies are far more than just public speeches. Kurt Vonnegut said to “join a gang”, as the cure to modern cultural separateness in a city of total strangers. Later, it was interpreted as “join a group”, as gangs have a bad reputation.
Some say that Trump read “Mein Kampf”, and I suspect he followed the old films of Mussolini and Hitler’s vast rallies, of everybody behaving in unison, wearing uniforms. Trump senses the psychic bonding and complete lack of reasoning, individual responsibility and cure for loneliness that a chanting group provides. Hence, everybody wears identical Trumpware, MAGA hats, and nobody dares express any individualism by dawning a mask or social distancing. Trump even appeared to make a slip once, when he meant to say herd immunity, but said “herd mentality”. I’m sure, that was because his team was planning these rallies with “herd mentality” on their minds.
We are all group indoctrinated going through school. Pledge allegiance to a flag and a nation. Root for your high school teams, as if they are any different from any other team. Be proud of your high school, as if they are anything special. Root for your college teams. Root for your city teams. (Go Fairfax High Lions, UCLA Bruins, LA Rams, UC Irvine Anteaters, oh wait, we don’t have a football team, LA Dodgers, Yippee, 32 years to win a World Series?)
A large part of this is human nature, since collective action has been a key to our evolution, development and mastery as a species. Biden’s campaign lacks this cohesion as no groups are formed, no rallies bind us in the time of the plague, no uniforms are required, and there is no group bonding. He therefore lacks pizazz. Some of us just prefer a wisened, experienced administrator, beholden to the law.
The cult formed by Trump (Trumpites, Trumpians, Trumpeteers?) will listen uncritically to hourlong rants of insults and lies, and repeat insulting dogmatic chants, the language of the mob. People watching excerpts on TV see the unbridled enthusiasm, and think that there must be something there that is meaningful and attractive about Trump. There really isn’t. He is just a demagogue for our time. And so it goes. (A Vonnegut Ending.)
Instead of drinking the Kool-Aid, Trump rallies have now been shown to seed Coronavirus superspreading events. So people are inhaling the virus. Oddly, this feeds into Trump’s new love for creating herd immunity as rapidly as possible, and ignoring the necessary deaths and suffering that will occur in the process. With vaccines, herd immunity may eventually come true.
Well, this is another attempt to get out my observations before the fateful Election Day, which signals the official beginning of the massive legal challenge to our Democracy. However, extreme voter suppression has continued as it always has. One Dropbox for the 5 million citizens of Houston Texas. Is anybody going to even empty it, or once it is filled is that just it? The city of Laguna Beach, of 25,000 people, has its own Dropbox in the center of town. That is 1/200 of the population of Houston! Irvine, a city of 280,000 has 10. Orange County, with a population of 3 million, has over 100. My postman told me that they are even going to have a late mailbox collection so that we can get our ballots postmarked on Election Day, and they can be counted later. California is truly Democratic.
