"Most Peculiar" [View all]

[H2O Man]

Let's start with a few lines from William Shakespeare's famous play, “King Lear.”


"Meantime we shall express our darker purpose." – Act 1, Scene 1

"O! let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; / Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!" – Act 1, Scene 5

"I fear I am not in my perfect mind." – Act 4, Scene 7

"Is this the promised end? – Act 5, Scene 3


George Bernard Shaw said that “no man will ever write a greater tragedy than Lear.” I like that Shakespeare's “King Lear” is based upon the Celtic king Leir of Britain, who probably lived somewhere around the 8th century AD. And the fate of Leir – like the character King Lear” – is tragic, indeed.

Leir/ Lear cannot be mistaken for Trump. The king questioned the wisdom of important decisions he made previously. He had a sense of foreboding as his mental decline approached. Trump is unaware of the fact that he owns his errors, that blaming others won't resolve the problems he created, and that he will be held accountable.

Still, those lines quoted above seem an apt description of the past couple of weeks. And it is clear that a nation's population can experience a great tragedy from a mad king.

Two of Trump's recent actions indicate that the pressure of the pending impeachment are taking a toll on the old boy. Both have to be viewed within the context of his awareness that he has done something wrong. His consciousness of guilt is visible by the administration's failure to comply with congressional committee's requests, with their changing of reasons for the phone call with the president of Ukraine, and with his attempt to throw Rick Perry under the bus. A person does not attempt to blame another for his actions if he is not fully aware that they were wrong, and will lead to negative consequences.

Now for the two activities that display the growing pressure he is under. The first is the rash decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, which Trump made at night without consulting anyone in his administration. It was, of course, a reflexive return to a decision he had made last December, before the strong republican opposition resulted in his reversing course. This week's spur-of-the-moment decision was not only an attempt to distract attention from his looming impeachment, it was a desperate attempt to win approval from his base. So what if a few thousand Kurds had to be sacrificed?

The second, closely related thing was the curious tweet in which Trump attempts to describe himself in pseudo-biblical terms as having “great and unmatched wisdom.” Even Lindsey Graham cannot explain this as a joke by Trump. Keep in mind that not only has Graham proven himself more than willing to humiliate himself by publicly kissing Trump's fat fleshy ass – but Lindsey hasn't had to be instructed on which cheek to target. He has repeatedly gone directly to the sphincter.

In the past, I have noted in essays here that sociopaths under pressure sometimes experience relatively brief episodes of psychosis. Thus, their already disturbed thinking becomes detached from the realities confronting them. In these instances, while we can generally identify their goal – to escape from the cause of their inner-tension and discomfort – the tactics they may take are less easily identified. So while we knew Trump would attempt to shift the focus from his role with Ukraine by blaming others or attempting to define himself as a significant international statesman, we couldn't be sure of exactly how he would do this.

I would not have placed Rick Perry, for example, on my “top ten” suspects for his scapgoat. It's hard for me to picture Perry as a mastermind of any plot. I think more of Perry's infamous maple syrup moment:

Likewise, I assumed that on the international front, Trump would call for a military strike on Iran. I did not even consider the possibility of removing troops from Syria. That thought never entered my mind.

Last week, I noted that I thought Trump would become the most dangerous between Thanksgiving and the New Year. In light of what is happening now, that's a scary thought. Hopefully, people in Washington will castrate him before that happens.

“Strange days, indeed! Most peculiar,” as John Lennon sang.
H2O Man