DECEPTION AND DEAL MAKING

Author's note. Trill is a fictional female acquaintance who makes it possible to write in a style that is comfortable for me.


My Dear Trill,

You write that you are despondent, confused by a churning world that has escaped your understanding. You are  not alone.
Commercial interests, a universal drive to encourage  people to consume and acquire possessions, is the engine of what is called progress. Rather than being guided, it operates by pushing boundaries as far as they can be pushed without breaking. You see this in television, which has largely become a medium for huckstering, even making a game of it, for example, and its adoption of the disgraceful role as the nation's greatest drug pusher (“see your doctor”).
Then there is the matter of utter falsehoods being foisted upon an entire population. Sad and troubling  is the election of a professional huckster to lead the country; a man with the reputation as a “deal maker” with a background in casinos, steaks delivered to your door, wine, golf courses, real estate, a failed  “university” (  a practiced liar, as if it isn’t commonly known that this is a necessaary attribute for deal making), and no governing experience at all: a man empty of empathy. We have elected a president who is skilled, howver, in pushing the boundaries, The worry now is that a mis-step could easily  take the nation into war. It appears that he has already given up the role as leader of the free world to Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Germany.
The marginal quality of our new President is common  knowledge, and draws much   critical commentary, a sample of which is illustrated by Richard Cohen’s recent opinion piece in the New York Times. Quote:
“If a budget can be a portrait of a soul, then this president’s is arid and shriveled. It is filled with contempt for the needy. Here is a man dismissive of the arts, the environment, the humanities, diplomacy, peacekeeping, science, public education and civilian national service — in short, civilization itself. If he could defund goodness he would. Charity is also ripe for the ax. Creativity needs skewering. Giving is weakness. All that counts are acquisitive instinct, walls and bans (of the kind that keep mother and son apart), displays of power, and the frisson of selective cruelty that lay behind his successful TV show. Everyone is now Donald Trump’s apprentice, at least as he sees it.”
How far this intrusion on Democracy, behaving more like a kleptocracy, will be allowed to go on is a matter of conjecture. My guess is that by mid-year the President will show signs of tiring of a job he doesn’t really understand, which is not meant to be styled to be run by deception and deal making, and the people will be really tired of him.