The last Trump

Dear all,

During the transition between last and this year - between the Obama administration and the new one - between a world that seems, in retrospect, to have been predictable and weirdly light, my grandfather died. I know, another important piece of information for the world wide web - the echo chamber of self-centeredness. It's not so much that he died that is worth writing about, it's that he was the last of his bataillon - of the French Free Forces. The last to have survived battles such as Bir-Hakeim, El Alamein, etc. The traces of the 2nd world war were real, embodied through him, and others, and he left a mark on many. With him disappears another member of this generation who fought and saw so much destruction at such young age. Of course, the level of unpredictability and the multiple alarming factors in our current world make the comparison with 1938 very easy. Yet, we must also think about how it's going to be different, you know, technology - or evolution, so...yeah. So I won't dwell on the generalities. 

Anyway, while, like so many of you, I was infused with the background noise of worry that is currently unravelling and becoming normal, I was also strolling in an English-speaking bookshop in Paris, and came across this book by Denis de Rougemont:

 

Needless to say, that with such a title (in French it was published in 1946 as the Lettres sur la bombe atomique), I felt like I had to read it. The book is a succession of letters written right after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, at this very specific point of time where the slaughter had ceased, and the world was forever (?) changed by the realization that human beings could from now on destroy themselves completely. Many relevant things are said, about the fact that nations create wars, that a world government should emerge and be the only one to have the bomb, and that national, army leaders are unable to represent anything else than local interests. But one of the main things, and the thing that makes our current situation different from 1938, is indeed the existence of this specific weapon - and the fact that many states have it, which are currently led by people who might accept to make use of it. 

The main argument that de Rougemont makes is made at the end:

One last word, and to think that I was going to forget it! The Bomb is not dangerous at all. It is only a Thing. What is horribly dangerous is man. It is he has who made the bomb and is getting ready to use it. The control of the bomb is an absurdity. [...] What is essential is a control of man. 

Of course one can wonder whether more control really is the answer. He argues before that actually:

Sometimes, it seems to me that the madness of the peoples, gouvernements, militarists, and of the irresponsible men who lead us reflects a mystic common sense. That it leads us towards death is clear. But it is also perhaps also because it has understood that the sum of human suffering has grown so great with progress that there are many more people on earth who wish to have done with life than those who wish it would last longer. As if humanity, in a very secret poll, had voted to call a halt to the outlay, and all these madmen were, after all, only carrying out to the common will...

I really do believe that this is the starting point of any reflection on current world affairs. Investment in weapons are increasing, white and non-white old men brag about their incompetence and/or violence, and so many old, authoritarian, totalitarian even racist and intolerant dudes are being elected to power in countries where the last remaining natural reserves - the last vital remaining natural reserves are still somehow existing. I mean come on clearly the majority of mankind wants everyone to die in long, cruel, and dire conditions.

Sure, in the meantime, there are still other things happening, an increased sense of well-being amongst some people. Things that were nowhere to be heard are now part of common discourse. Maybe even one day the unprecedented ascent of world plutocracy (the fact the wealth is now being self creating at unprecedented rates, and the the new feudalism is taking shape, with a very small amount of individuals literally owning more than half of everything that came into the monetary realm > basically owning your fate, and your children's fate) will be discussed as "how things went to quite shitty to unforeseen in scale and diarrhetic texture". Maybe. Actually, it seems to me that the abundance of information, the feeling of scarcity due to endless comparison, pursuit of the ersatz of what is really missed, the reappraisal of a weird pride of national, racial belonging is the well-too-common mask of suffering. Because of my current situation, I am always amazed to see the incredible amount of suffering, if not pain, that people go through in life. Privileged and not, by the way. Between those who are so anxious that they wake up screaming in their sleep and need to medicate themselves on a regular basis, those who feel that life is a giant bundle of pain from which there is no escape but to eat and treat oneself with the sweetness and richness that social interactions, living with others no longer provides, and those who just wish they could breathe and feel free and not be dying in this shelter... Oh god I shouldn't have started. Weirdly, it seems that everyone knows what everyone hides, wears those masks to show everything they want to hide. Trump and his companions are such transparent embodiments of this - look at Bannon's bloated face, Trump's loneliness, Miller's awkwardness, Conway's out-of-touch servility. Who in their right mind would believe that what they say emanates from anything but minds ready to devour themselves? Even though everything they say is dumb, repulsive, but also sly and effective, it's not even about that. Those people are sick to the core. The main chicken has come to lead the battery chicken to their grave. So long, 19th century Americans, who could still believe in their ingenuity and resourcefulness. Welcome, 21st century diabetes-ridden consumers. Here's what the world looks like when we force be. 

What strikes me with Trump is that there seems to be a conceptual difficulty in many media outlets that I read. They want to argue reasonably with this administration. No, there was no Bowling Green massacre, no, Sweden is fine, no, CNN is not constantly lying. No sir, your numbers are wrong. By doing so, they seem, again, to completely miss the point of what's currently happening. Remember when you were in pain. Let's say when you were a teenager, or when you broke up with somebody you really loved. Found something? Well, try to remember how reasonable arguments affected you. Do you?

They most likely did not, right? Or remember when you were addicted. It's not about knowing that cigarette kills. It's about understanding the deepest need hidden behind the compulsory action. There's an unmet need, actually, it's met, but with the exactly wrong product. For instance, I've noticed that whenever I feel trapped and deprived of freedom, cigarettes seem appealing to me. Sugar is unavoidable whenever I'm trying to control my weight and emotions, and when I actually feel that I can't show myself to those around. I mean ok it might get a bit more complex than that, but really. Those people, those sick humans, are nothing but the consequence of decades of frustration and deprival. Everyone has a role to play in that. It's not about blaming. It's about understanding that no matter how much outrage you express, all of this is real. There's no point in hopping that this will get better. It won't. I know I'm regularly doubting it, but maybe, and also, and that, but all of that is irreversible. Once the deep Amazonian forest is cut, there's no way back. Once you've let billions of people move out of the land, out of their country, because of rising sea levels, ground erosion, the numbness, the hurt, the racism and gang mentality that will arise will make those local restorative initiatives even harder to map, to hear.

No one remembers the Wallace ticket in 1944, and what could have happened. There have been so many opportunities to turn this around, and they always seem to end up in blood. As if in an imaginary rendition of the world, so much could be different. Henri Laborit, a French writer, stated it boldly. There's no point in revolt, one should runaway, He's right. Runaway, in a way that reminds me of Socrates' Lachès dialogue, where running away sometimes is the only courageous thing to do. Strip of the unnecessary, and live, (play)fully even, amongst the vastness of mistaken perceptions that seem to enclose mankind's destiny in a painful abyss of self-destruction.

It was not the point I wanted to make. I thought, actually, that it could no longer be avoided, this pit of self-destruction - because those who where the ancient trees in Europe, those who survived the last bout of totalitarian frenzy, died, with my grandfather. Once no one actually is here to say no, to embody it, to be something else than just a story we tell ourselves, then it seems like no one is serious enough and respected enough to avoid another massacre. So, and that's not the conclusion I wanted to come to either, value your ancesters.


*** sorry tbc ***