We live in a highly fragile state of planetary peace. The new American "shock-jock" President Donald Trump not only caught most of the world off-guard with his presidential win, but in a whirlwind of signing controversial executive orders within the first weeks of his presidency, has managed to incite what amounts to mass hysteria on a global level. Elected officials in governments around the world have started sounding the alarms about Trump's presidency. No one has a clear understanding of how he intends to diminish the NATO Alliance or rearrange global politics by slamming Chinese trade and cozying up to Russia. Everyone is universally confused and bewildered. There have been protest marches around the world, not just in America and not just by Democrats, against his new policies.
One of Trump's most recent edicts, an order abruptly halting all immigration of refugees from seven predominantly Muslim Middle Eastern countries, has caused chaos in the airports and immigration departments. It also led to Trump firing the Acting Attorney General Sally Yates immediately after she publicly stated her belief that the executive order was unconstitutional and should not be defended by her Department of Justice lawyers in court. And the hits keep coming. Trump may have decided to ditch his own recently-selected national security advisor, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, in favor of promoting Breitbart conservative news media mogul and White House strategist, Steve Bannon, to a spot on the National Security Council. It seems Trump's television persona on the show "The Apprentice" ("You're fired!") is surfacing as his true real life persona.
I am not generally inclined to get fired up by politics. I tend to stay out of it, since my childhood days of living in the ultra-liberal Democratic city of Boston during the Vietnam War protests (remember the famous bumper stickers: "Don't Blame Me I'm From Massachusetts") in one of the only Republican families, probably made me gun shy.
The problem, as I see it, is related not only to Trump's policies, but primarily to his style. His personal style is abrasive, bombastic, confrontational and autocratic. From his years of being able to run his own companies according to his personal whims and wishes, firing and hiring at will, litigating anyone who dares to dispute him, he had developed an "in your face" style of leadership. I believe Trump's leadership style was actually very appealing to many American voters - particularly in contrast to what was often called the "feckless" and "ineffectual" leadership of Obama - because it seemed like finally we found a leader with some real testosterone. Testosterone translated into security and protection for us, as well as giving the average Joe a fighting chance to challenge Washington's inept, bickering and corrupt political system.
Trump has an ability, by making blustering outrageous statements and then to "double down" on them no matter how shocking, to push people into extremist positions. They feel they have no choice. Even mild-mannered, apolitical, middle-of-the-road folks are suddenly feeling compelled to react and take political sides. People who are normally polite and respectful, now feeling bullied and disrespected by Trump, are getting powered up and feel the need to fight back. In other words, Trump's style of delivery (forget about the actual policies) are eliciting mass hysteria. He does not evidence any intention to listen, be conversational, engage in dialogue with those who disagree with him, or - heaven forbid - change his mind after listening to the facts. This is not only his biggest problem, but it will create global chaos and - I am deeply concerned now - war... domestic and international.
This past week I have received information from several sources and psychic colleagues, none of whom know each other, suggesting we are at what is perhaps the crossroads of a very imminent global catastrophe. The psychic visions of the future of our planet are truly horrifying. I have felt and seen them intuitively myself. I imagine most people feel it also. I have spent months trying to calm my clients, friends, colleagues and social media friends. It is terrifying and I am generally not a person to feel panicked.
What can we do to defuse this future scenario? My suggestion is that we all: 1) calm each other down, 2) understand that style is different from content, 3) realize we don't need to react emotionally, and 4) give Trump's policies a chance.
What Trump fails to realize is that there is nothing more dangerous in the entire world than frightened people - and he is frightening masses of people around the globe and destabilizing our collective relationships. The most dangerous beast in the jungle is not the most powerful animal - it is the one who is most frightened. A frightened animal will kill everything around it for no reason at all.
Thank you. I agree as well. It was heartening to hear you on this subject as you are well
ReplyDeleteknown for being neutral.