July 28. Titled Cautionary Stories.
As words line up to join this sentence, the imp on my left shoulder jumps up and down shouting, “No! No! Another old fogey story about the good old days. As if that made any difference.” The imp on my right shoulder advises, “Caution. At least listen!” I’m right-handed.
The story covers the four cautionary tales that once colored our young lives before we were old enough to join the telling to the youngsters just below. Four corners from those early teaching myths: Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln.
I met one young man who never forgave his parents for telling lies, as he termed it, but I loved these stories while not believing them in the same way that I believed in snow days or the smell of newly cut grass.
Even the youngest child must stretch credulity for Santa Claus, but it is a good stretch. We need reasons to be good, to be kind, and to recognize why. Later, we know that goodness is its own reward. A child knows that love feels good, knows a little extra encouragement sometimes helps. Keeping Santa in mind helps even if there is no Santa. It is not a lie as much as it is the voice of combined wisdom gently encouraging good behavior.
The Easter Bunny taps into the same communal belief and wisdom from the past. Hunting for colorful eggs hidden who knows where, playing in early spring days, the searching, the reward, the laughter. A child learns that the search is more important than the find. The Easter Bunny is not a lie: it is an important lesson.
Now called Presidents’ Day, Lincoln and Washington shared a birth month with me. Year after year I stared at the two in their heavy gilded frames. Never real flesh-and-blood people, they stared back at me, a reminder of their importance.
Lincoln seemed more possible: not handsome, hard-working, honest. One year’s math work centered on the multiplication tables and counting correct change: I believed the story of his mile walk to bring the correct change to a farmer. I could visualize doing that and being honest.
George Washington, so different in style and wealth, did not leave much room for empathy. I could not quite believe the cherry tree story—a good story that taught a good lesson, but I could not for the life of me imagine any kid saying, “I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree.” However, that made me extra cautious about staying close to the truth since that, too, had a place amid the collective mythology of a young country’s “We the people.”
Question. How could we move from a first president who “could not” tell a lie to a forty-seventh president who cannot tell anything except lies? We are in the present and Trump is the 47th president. However, I think his regime started the years he participated in a television program where he became an image – not a character but an image of a tough corporate boss.
From there to elections, he has never stopped projecting “the boss” making quick movements as if they were thought out decisions. He became “the president” whose image can do anything he wants. Mean spirited, nasty, insulting, uninformed, self-centered, he has never grown into a full-fledged president, only the nasty image of one.
We are aware of the need to “grow into” a job and have either seen or done it. The youngster, new to a job, works, listens, tries every day: one day that person fits the job beautifully.
Some presidents have done that – Ronald Reagan, for example, or John Kennedy. They were elected as their image – a movie star, a rich and handsome young man. Once elected, they started to grow into “President.” Within months they were presidential with ideas, plans, policies.
Trump has not done this, cannot. The image of a cult leader waiting for his cult, he fits the BITE role described by Steve Hassan (for years a true Moonie who escaped, became a mental health counselor specializing in cults) and has not changed.
B: behavior control: the leader demands absolute control, followers are afraid
I: information control: twisted news, lies, only one truth, the leader’s
T: thought control, black-white thought, no criticism.
E: emotional control, terrible consequences if person thinks differently or dares to try
The leader is the control. The followers are afraid, unwilling or unable to fight back. If the leader changes, the followers are lost.
Imagine Trump’s clothes closet. Endless blue suits, white shirts, red ties. He cannot change nor can he allow his followers to change. Slogans, insults, conspiracy theories, name calling, lies, power and money grabbing. The unreal becomes real. Facts, history, are less important than inventing statements which can be made to seem true. He is image, control.
Why did people vote for him? The cult mentality dictates that followers believe, follow, vote – and maintain the BITE imbalance. He, or an agency, created an image for the television screen. Since then, endless repetition. The reflection in the mirror is no more real than the reflected image.
[Left shoulder imp: “You wear me out! His closet?” Right shoulder imp: “Well, if the Florsheim fits…”]