We say “birds of a feather flock together,” but since humans don’t have feathers, it might be useful to explore by what characteristic appearances or behaviors they recognize each other.
A love of gossip
Antagonism towards outsiders
Status consciousness
Cause and effect confusion
Disordered thinking
Fear
Bluster
Habit and Ritual
Accumulation
Adulation
Personal fixation
Opposition
Call and response, the ritual of religion, in a secular situation.
It is, apparently, the mode of the Con to have people identify themselves and pledge support for the “leader.” “Personal responsibility” means that the individual responds (appropriately) when called upon. I’ve never been to an AA meeting but suspect it is the same. This ritual goes one step beyond calling the roll in a classroom to establish the teacher’s control. The response is effectively a sign of subordination. The language is indicative: “leader” “honor” “blessing” “deserving”
The cult of personality can only be properly understood when one recognizes that the essence of the cult is coercion. People are “honored” and “blessed” and “deserving” for subordinating themselves to the “leader.” Ass-kissing isn’t about the ass; it’s about sublimating the disgust occasioned by the act. The psychological process is similar to, but not as extreme as, a mobster’s initiation.
There is no interaction with the material world in the cult. No practical achievement of any kind. The meritocracy is not about action; never mind affirmative action. The meritocracy is about subordination and the result of subordination is the leader. Every individual is dispensable. In the cult of individualism, the individual person does not count. I suppose that’s ironic, but the Cons do not get irony.
Nothing else to add.
Oh, the latest news is that Preet Bharara refused to take a phone call from the Dude and 22 hours later he got fired. Gangster movies are popular. Having one in the White House maybe not so much.
Au naturel
Turns out that idiot grin is automatic–whenever a camera is spotted.
Oh, dear. This is not good. Phillip Mudd, former Deputy Director of the FBI, suggested:
“You can’t take this seriously. You feel like you’ve got to give the president of the United States a pacifier and a rattle and put him in the crib.”
The Dude’s a rube. “Rube” likely is derived from the German word for a root vegetable, “rübe.” It lost the umlaut in translation.
The union of Vanna White’s “Wheel of Fortune” with “Desperate Housewives.” No longer the apprentice, the Dude is now the star. Alternate reality has come to Washington, undisguised. The world of the soap opera and game show realized.
Familiarity may breed contempt, but not in the family values clan.
The Dude is a compendium of cliches come to life. Nothing that comes out of his mouth hasn’t been heard a million times before.
Authoritarianism without the cracker and sip of wine. Now Russians have seen the light.
