MAKICHUK: President Trump and 'The Imp of the Perverse'
Today's Oval Office draws comparisons to one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest novel creations
“Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them forgive yourself. Pray you now, forget and forgive.”
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, no matter what you achieve, there is always someone who will come out of the woodwork and say, it’s not enough.
And you will look at yourself, and if you’re like me, you will slam dunk yourself — that is, blame yourself, because you just didn’t get it done, did you.
Perhaps also, like me, you were a perennial second fiddle. And a second fiddle, is a second fiddle.
You might feel like Holly Martins, at the end of The Third Man.
Despite doing the right thing, and turning on your best friend, because it was the right thing to do.
You still didn’t win the girl.
She walks right by you at the end of the film, amid the stark scenery of wartorn Vienna. It is still one of the greatest scenes in cinema.
It’s all because, we are human. We are not perfect.
As much as we think we are, we’re not.
We screw up, we make mistakes. And happiness, remains ever elusive.
In saying that, we try. We try to do the right thing. Because that’s the way we were raised, for the most part.
And then along comes a man like Donald Trump, who intentionally and purposely does the wrong thing with intent to injure.
Throwing our morals into a chasm so deep, that, like a black hole, not even light escapes.
We scramble to understand, trying to seek meaning in these actions.
But there is no meaning. No rhyme or reason. No justification.
I harken back to my University of Windsor English literature class, conducted by the great Joyce Carol Oates.
I was in awe of her, and her fame.
Oates is described as an American writer, who, since publishing her first book in 1963, has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction.
As such having her as a professor was quite intriguing, sometimes fascinating. Especially when she would go off-tangent to the class lesson.
One such lesson, was the so-called “Imp of the Perverse.”
The latter is a concept popularized by author Edgar Allan Poe, referring to the human tendency to act against one's self-interest or to do things simply because they are forbidden or undesirable.
It's the feeling of wanting to jump off a cliff, even when you know it's dangerous, or the urge to confess a crime you haven't committed.
This idea explores the darker, irrational side of human nature and the allure of the forbidden.
As such, it describes the actions of President Trump, to a “T.”
Trump lives on the dark side, presents himself on the dark side, and takes pride in doing so.
Creating for himself, an alternate reality, where just about anything can be justified.
The most base of human emotions vs. human logic.
Extending deep into the hart of the MAGA world, where everything is accepted without question. Without proof.
A clear extension, of “The Imp of the Perverse.”
Unknowing, but there nonetheless.
This calls to mind the strategic warning given by the great astrophysicist, Dr. Carl Sagan in the 1990s.
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
“And when the dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites now down to 10 seconds or less, lowest-common-denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
This inevitable slide foretells the coming of President Trump. He of the lowest common denominator.
And yet, the only argument posed by MAGA types, is the invention of TDS, or Trump Derangement Syndrome.
A reverse logic, that is used to describe negative reactions to President Trump that are perceived to be irrational and to have little regard for Trump's actual policy positions.
In other words, a stark denial of reality.
Yet MAGA types continue to hold stock in it, to the bitter end. Blind to anyone or anything that stands in its way.
Not realizing that the “Imp” stands front and centre, like Maxwell’s famous demon, separating truth from reality in a vacuum.
This morning, Trump has threatened Canada with an across the board, 35% tariff — no doubt, meant to speed up and bend negotiations in America’s favour.
A mean-spirited, vindictive action against the United States’ greatest ally.
Actions that will hurt not only Canada, but the US itself — which today stands at the precipice, like Poe’s infamous creation.