It was very different this year. The traditional lowering of a large crystallized ball, on New York’s Times Square, to signify the arrival of the New Year, bearing new promises of hope and resolution, was seen by many troubled citizens, to issue bright beams of alarm. Instead of the shiny orb being slowly lowered to signify a new start and a refreshed resolve, they saw its “descent” as a symbol of an anticipated retrograde, if not, apocalyptic, year’s expectation, redolent with the bizarre irrationality of a combination of Orwell’s “1984,” Kafka’s “The Castle” and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” The extent and nature of the fear was an advent of a modern day “dark ages.”
The intent of this writing is to observe the “Effects” relative to the “Causes” written of previously, most recently in “the Chosen.”
By simple comparison, when a retail business establishment posts a sign,” Under New Management,” reasonable people will defer their judgment pending empirical experience. By bright contrast, our new “General Store Manager-Elect” has already publicly revealed his unique persona and undisciplined character, with the nimble and adroit poise and studied reserve of the proverbial “bull in a china shop.” The public has been deluged with a myriad of his bizarre statements and his reductionist declarations of purpose, evoking substantial concern in a great many people, here and abroad.
It is distressing, and, frankly, embarrassing, to acknowledge that, contemporaneous with a great and ambitious international effort by several countries to raise the “phoenix” of the legendary repository of world knowledge, the Library of Alexandria, that our pharaoh-elect is very busy degrading knowledge and deprecating, what he and his sycophants term, the “intellectual elite.”
He has devalued the opinions of the world’s greatest scientists and climatologists, degraded scholarship and learning, castigated the “intellectual elite”, and has put every citizen of our country at great risk, by reason of his ignorance and abysmal lack of “fahrschtandt” (in- depth understanding) of domestic and international matters. This, again, in stark contrast with the international world’s current passion for the restoration of the ancient Alexandrian Library, the proud symbol of man’s intellectual prowess and accomplishments.
It is remarkable that our president-elect has developed the perverse talent to convince and virtually mesmerize, the low-information, “flat earth people” to a willingness to ingest the belief that all of their troubles are caused by the acts of an “intellectual elite” (when in reality, brilliant individuals have been responsible for civilizations’ advancement and the ongoing enhancement of human existence) and that he, alone, has the formula for a better life and a great America. It must be conceded to him that he has such sufficient demagogic capability as can persuade such people, who often are among those of our population, most in need of government assistance and services, to vote against it (remember the Weimar Republic) and, further, to support a tax policy which undertakes to lower taxes on the billionaire class (which has in fact, virtually, all the money) and to raise the taxes on the working poor (who don’t). If it were not so evilly perverse, it might in some quarters, be denominated as true “chutzpah,” but it more aptly merits the term, fascistic fantasy. The contrast between good (light) and evil (dark), here, is no less than Zoroastrian.
For us, conceivably, the most devastating development, accompanying this perverse President-Elect is the demagogic exaltation of importance of the declaratory statement above the ethical stricture of mandatory factual basis. This practice, especially effective among the low information population, is no less than an act of criminal fraud, particularly (perhaps, predictably) emanating from this “reality show” Barnam. This reprehensible disease, in addition to its unhealthy introduction by our newly elected chief, has fully metastasized to the level of the new phenomenon of “false news” (where is Lewis Carroll, when you need him?).
No ship of State can be successfully navigated without a capable captain, with requisite nautical experience, a good crew, maps, depth charts and above all, a dependable compass. Foreign heads of states which are friendly to the United States have been understandably confused and worried; those whose interests are opposed to ours have already begun strategizing and maneuvering to advantage themselves (i.e., comrade Putin).
Impulsively, prior to his taking office, and during a period remaining of President Obama’s term as President, this “sorcerer’s apprentice” has disastrously made informal telephone calls to heads of State (ex, Taiwan), completely oblivious of their perceived symbolic significance, and in total ignorance of relevant protocol, applicable treaties, and decades of diplomatic and tactical precedent.
Predictably, and pathetically, his low information, “flat earth” constituency will soon, disastrously, discover the price to be exacted for a Pied Piper whose attractive music enchanted them sufficiently to vote against their own vital interests and basic needs.
To misquote Charles Darwin, the civilized world will be faced for some time with a new publication, this one entitled. “Origin of The Specious.”
-p. * with due apology, for the above title, to Mr. Wm. Faulkner, renowned author of “A Light in August.”
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