Trickster Trump

[GliderGuider]

In addition to reviling him, I have lately come to think of Donald Trump as a classic example of a Trickster, perhaps in the mold of the European "picaro".

Tricksters are often considered to be essential to a society, because they prevent rigidity, ossification and stagnation by breaking the established rules of "civilized" behavior.

The Trickster's lying, stealing, disregard for others' feelings and disdain for convention can illuminate the myriad of absurdities and hypocrisies that we politely ignore and even deny in our daily lives.

At least, their rule-breaking behaviour may do that for those (few?) who are inclined to see it that way. Others, perhaps the majority of us who are more attached to the hypocrisies and absurdities, may see the Trickster's lying, stealing and rule-breaking as simply the blatant evidence of a deeply flawed character. Which it is, of course. But in the service of the Trickster, this flawed behavior can become a mirror of our disowned flaws - if we let it.

What do you see when you hold the mirror of Donald "the Don" Trump up to your own face?

I'd even venture to say that Trump is essential at this point in world history. He is here to mark the discontinuity, the break-point, between the age of construction that was and the age of destruction that is to come. He is ushering in the Age of Collapse that so many of us have known in our hearts is both inevitable and necessary. If he did not exist, we would have been forced to invent him.

I know this is a confrontational post for a Democratic board that is universally allied against Trump. I hope you accept it in the spirit of serious, tricksterish mischief in which I offer it.

[vlyons]

1. The Trickster is an ancient archetype in many cultures around the world.

To me, Donald Trump represents the epitome of the unbridled greed and LOVE of money that society has allowed to blind us.

[GliderGuider]

4. The Trickster never looks like you expect when he appears.

I used the pord "picaro". It's a particular kind of trickster that comes out of European history.

A picaro is a person of low character or social class. He (or she) gets by with wit (i.e. cheating, cons and theft) and rarely deigns to hold a job. In the story of a picaro there is no plot, just a loosely connected set of adventures or episodes. There is little if any character development either - once a picaro, always a picaro. His circumstances may change but they rarely result in a change of heart.

That sounds pretty close to a Trump.

What you're talking about is more like what Indigenous Americans call spirit of Wetiko. I agree that Trump epitomizes that spirit as well. It's all in how you choose to look at him.

[gratuitous]

2. Well that seems a lot more anodyne than my feeling

I've been reading a book about Mao's Great Leap Forward, 1958-1964, and the disastrous results when reality is subordinated to politics. Hopefully we'll all learn a good lesson about our own flaws and millions won't have to starve or die from wholly preventable and treatable causes.

But I'm not betting on it.