Intellectual Slavery
When A Leader's Ideas Are Bad
Can an individual become a slave to an idea? Can a nation become enslaved by an idea or a series of similar ideas?
I think the answer to both questions is ‘yes.’
Slavery is on display in the United States every day – from the center of federal power in Washington, D.C. to the state, county, and town you live in.
When a nation becomes enslaved to a set of ideas (there is always a core idea around which the others revolve. It’s the principle of ‘like attracts like’), then the leaders of said nation willingly follow suit. Indeed, they may be powerless to do otherwise.
That’s the thing about ideas; they are really beliefs dressed up in intellectual clothing.
And so, currently, we have a state of affairs with the president of the United States acting on a set of ideas and half the nation following in agreement while the other half looks on in horror.
Keeping in mind that an idea is a belief wrapped in convincing language, let’s dig a little deeper. Take Trump’s executive order this week to allow white Afrikaners from South Africa a fast track to refugee status and eventually citizenship.
He is convinced that white South African farmers are being persecuted for no other reason than that they are white. In his world, it is not okay to oppress a white man (gender is important here because he has never cared about women, no matter what colour their skin).
That’s one idea he holds to be true. Why? Because of a deeper, underlying belief that he has embraced as true and which he likely learned in childhood: white is better than black, brown, yellow, native. White is right. White holds the power and the wealth. White dominates.
The problems here are self-evident; yes, they’re racist views but he holds them because of his core belief that white should always rule. And when you hold such a narrow view (of anything – it doesn’t matter what), you close off your mind to any other possibility or option.
At the same time, he creates separation between himself as a white man and everyone else who isn’t white or who may be white but doesn’t hold to his views. That reinforces the idea of separation: me, white; you, different. Or, me, white male; you, just a woman.
All his friends – and his definition of a friend embodies the same transactionalism that he displays in his so-called deal making – are white, wealthy males. Birds of a feather…
When one accepts without examination the idea that one is superior to others around him or her, one is blind to possibilities, such as “perhaps I am wrong in thinking I am always right.”
Trump has never done any sort of self-examination apart from fully embracing the superficial belief that he is just about perfect. That’s why he truly believes he has been chosen by God to run, own, lord over, and rule the United States along with the sovereign nation of Canada, the island of Greenland, and the Panama Canal.
He picks and chooses the parts of history that match up with his 19th century world view, considering no other option.
Among the finest qualities of true leadership is this: the ability and willingness to consider all viewpoints before reaching a decision. As we know, that means listening to presidential advisors, weighing their arguments, discussing with them their reasons and then making a decision.
Trump does none of this. For decades, he has held to the same positions: tariffs work, the United States has been taken advantage of for years (while, somehow and at the same time, being the strongest and greatest nation on the globe!), the white male is under threat, and “it’s up to me, Donald Trump, to straighten this whole mess out.”
Combine this rigidity with a powerful streak of personal vengeance and, hey presto, America is upside down.
On another, different note, his expansionist views regarding annexing Canada (we, the great usurpers of America’s power) are summed up brilliantly, I think, in this clip from the 1995 film, Canadian Bacon, directed by Michael Moore. Enjoy!