In the Aboriginal society in Australia, a walkabout is a rite of passage in which males undergo a journey during adolescence, typically between the age of 10 and 16. They live in the Outback, the wilderness area that covers much of the country. The journey can take as long as six months as they undertake this traditional, spiritual transition into adulthood.
Trump never experienced a walkabout because of bone spurs, which also conveniently resulted in multiple draft deferments. Instead of cultivating a mature, masculine spirituality, he has spent most of his life cultivating the Art of the Lie. This had led recently to multiple walk-backs, rather than walkabouts.
This week he elevated the word “not” to the linguistic symbolism of Bill Clinton’s “is,” who once said, “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” And now, Trump would have us believe, “I did not lie about lying when I lied, and I am not lying now.”
In the dystopian worlds in the novels, “Brave, New World” by Aldous Huxley and “1984” by George Orwell, language was used as a tool of oppression. While Trump probably never read either book, he is a master of linguistic oppression. Such is the nature of the narcissistic personality. Because of this, we would do well to re-read M. Scott Peck’s 1983 book, “The People of the Lie.” In it, Peck sees evil as a malignant type of self-righteousness. People of the lie “…are men and women of obviously strong will, determined to have their own way.” They live in a world of their own in which the “self” reigns supreme.
Trump once said, “I’m very highly educated. I know words. I have the best words.” By the “best” words, he meant words that are meant to attack, belittle, mislead, lie, disparage, and divide, as he seeks to distort reality. Consider some of his “best words” and terms: not born in America, fake new, s--- hole countries, rapists, infestation, rigged election, witch hunt, no collusion, weak on crime, 30,000 emails, non-existent sources, want open borders, the enemy of the American people, blood coming out of her wherever, no puppet, and on and on and on. (For a summary of his insults on twitter go to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html.)
In the end, truth doesn’t count for anything with Trump’s supporters or the Republicans in Congress. Legislators gratefully walked-back their criticisms of Trump’s remarks in Helsinki as soon as Trump lied about the absence of the word “not.” As many have observed, his performance about “not” had the feel of a hostage video.
Trump knows that if he engages in “lie repetition,” saying the same lie over and over and over again, his supporters will accept it as fact, while his detractors will just become numb. Trump’s supporters applaud his unrelenting attacks on his legion of enemies in his ongoing campaign of oppression, unaware that they, too, will eventually become victims of his oppression. Such is the nature of dictators who, in the end, only have allegiance to one person: “My country, tis of me!”
Photo Credit: Photo by Holger Link on Unsplash