The Return of the Dark Ages?
Spain has a prime minister with no charm, no wit, and no clarity of speech. He is the butt of jokes arising from his sputtering of mismatched sentences that make no sense. His conservative political party has driven this country to the brink of austericide, destroying social nets with every budgetary cutback mandated by the vultures in Brussels, so that our national deficit fits in neatly with the neoliberal virtues exalted by the 1%. Yet he and his party were the most voted in the last elections this past June. Call us stupid.
Which is why most Spaniards are baffled and worried by Donald Trump. They are baffled that an orange-haired, foul-mouthed buffoon, who has never known what it is to be middle-class, let alone poor, has been chosen as the Republican candidate for the Presidency of one of the most powerful nations on earth. Looking at we have here, they are worried that Trump just might be elected. Every time he has opened his mouth and spit out racist rhetoric, or xenophobic promises, or the utter dismissal of women, or simple ignorance of world politics, they wonder how he can appeal to anyone who is not an old, white, rich male. Yet, there are women who support him, Latinos who will vote for him, and even a black police officer who spoke at the Republican convention against his own interests. Just like the poor and underemployed who voted for the conservative Partido Popular in Spain, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Perhaps, under the thin veneer of political correctness and rational thinking, there is a vast lake of latent hatred in most humans. Hatred against everything different from us, against everything that upsets stereotypes we've had ingrained as children, against the upsetting of the status quo. Donald Trump reaches down into that lake and pulls up a net of feelings too many of us wish we could say or truly believe. He is bringing out the dark side of our nature. He appeals to those deep, dark instincts which we must bury in order to live in peace with one another. Which is why so many consider him honest. Because he is shouting out loud at large meetings, before hundreds of people, what some only let rip in the intimacy of their own minds. That is why he is scary. Because that thin veneer of rationality is what is holding back humanity from destroying itself.
So, while laughing at the plagiarisms, at the ego trip, and at his sheer effrontery, we are worried. We are worried that come November, the election of a President of the United States brings a man to that office whose intentions and actions might just bring about a new Dark Age.
Which is why most Spaniards are baffled and worried by Donald Trump. They are baffled that an orange-haired, foul-mouthed buffoon, who has never known what it is to be middle-class, let alone poor, has been chosen as the Republican candidate for the Presidency of one of the most powerful nations on earth. Looking at we have here, they are worried that Trump just might be elected. Every time he has opened his mouth and spit out racist rhetoric, or xenophobic promises, or the utter dismissal of women, or simple ignorance of world politics, they wonder how he can appeal to anyone who is not an old, white, rich male. Yet, there are women who support him, Latinos who will vote for him, and even a black police officer who spoke at the Republican convention against his own interests. Just like the poor and underemployed who voted for the conservative Partido Popular in Spain, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Perhaps, under the thin veneer of political correctness and rational thinking, there is a vast lake of latent hatred in most humans. Hatred against everything different from us, against everything that upsets stereotypes we've had ingrained as children, against the upsetting of the status quo. Donald Trump reaches down into that lake and pulls up a net of feelings too many of us wish we could say or truly believe. He is bringing out the dark side of our nature. He appeals to those deep, dark instincts which we must bury in order to live in peace with one another. Which is why so many consider him honest. Because he is shouting out loud at large meetings, before hundreds of people, what some only let rip in the intimacy of their own minds. That is why he is scary. Because that thin veneer of rationality is what is holding back humanity from destroying itself.
So, while laughing at the plagiarisms, at the ego trip, and at his sheer effrontery, we are worried. We are worried that come November, the election of a President of the United States brings a man to that office whose intentions and actions might just bring about a new Dark Age.
Comments
Post a Comment