had a real chance at moving beyond the social and economic position of their parents to realize for themselves such opportunity, whereas since the 1980s the percentage has dropped to below fifty percent.6 So much for the American dream of upward mobility, and the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats. Might not such diminished expectations be the cause of so much anger today, why so many people no longer believe in our collective cause or the institutions which support such?
And yet, thus goes the arc of history. What starts out as a dream of boundless opportunity that allows the empire to rise, ends first in its decline and then its fall – all brought about by ever-increasing opportunities for corruption, the abuse of power, and disregard for the less fortunate. No one embodies this more than this tyrant, who has capitalized on such a program to sit at the pinnacle of power and through such placement is able to pick winners and losers, each of whom must pay penance if they wish to survive not to mention succeed. Again, all is there if only you are willing to see what needs to be seen.
III
The Character of a Tyrant
What needs to be seen at this moment is that the character and the role of the tyrant has evolved, making this tyrant uniquely suited to this time and place. Whether chieftain or king, communist or fascist, dictator or state authoritarian, all at one time or another believed some external force legitimated their position and drove their action – whether that was blood or ideology, religion or alliances. In doing so, each recognized something beyond themselves. Today, that is no longer true. Today’s tyrant embraces and acts upon only that which he sees, desires, and believes.
There is the admiration and embrace of other strongmen. It does not matter what religion they might practice, what ideology they might support, whether they are benevolent rulers or known murderers: it is the absolute power they possess that allows them to do what they will which the tyrant admires. And it is the expression of wealth and position, mostly brought about through the corruption that accompanies power, that is also admired: wealth and position that comes to be expressed in personal good fortune, large palaces and ballrooms within which to celebrate good fortune and impress others, people of wealth and intelligence willing to bend knee, armies and arms marched in mass before them as he wished it would be for him.
And so, the tyrant, a man without skill or talent, mimics those he admires. Not being skilled in the art of business as multiple bankruptcies evidence, he has since learned from others how to make money through questionable schemes that bilk unsophisticated investors not to mention extort others who need his support. Not being knowledgeable in history or science, he closes those institutions that don’t support his world view, while he places his name on cultural institutions that he believes will accord him cultural legitimacy and validate his claim of being culturally sophisticated.
Not having any aesthetic sense despite claiming to have the finest of taste, he proposes creating the Arc de America to mimic the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and tears down the peoples' house to build something that mimics the massive golden interiors of Versailles and the Kremlin. Not having any real sense of or experience knowing what it is like to serve in the armed forces, having found multiple deferments that exempted him from service, he forcibly orders honorable men and women of the armed forces to march before him in the same manner as would tin-horned dictators and centralized state authoritarians. Like a petulant child he threatens to invade other countries because he no longer thinks ‘purely of peace,’ a consequence of being denied the Nobel prize, and then turns to accept the Nobel Peace Prize medal of a true winner without a hint of shame, who in gifting him her prize appeals to his ego in hope of receiving an endorsement to lead her own country, the very same country in which the tyrant engaged our military to topple its sovereign leader.
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