Category Archives: Social Commentary

The Answer to “Who said it?”

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All the quotations in “Who said it?” (yesterday’s post) are from Adolf Hitler. According to Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, Trump kept a collection of Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet by his bedside.

The quotes we cited in “Who said it?” also could have come from the likes of Italian strong man Benito Mussolini:

  • “I want to make my own life a masterpiece.”
  • “I don’t like the look of him.” (referring to his ally, Hitler)
  • “Better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”
  • “We do not argue with those who disagree with us, we destroy them.”

Or the quotes could have come from Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and second in command in the German Third Reich, who later declared in a “60-Minutes” interview with Lesley Stahl,

“I still lack to a considerable degree that naturally superior kind of manner that I would dearly like to possess.”

 

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, August 2, 2016.

 

Who said it?

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These statements come the same source. Name that person.

“Money glitters, beauty sparkles, and intelligence shines.”

“To be a leader means to be able to move masses.”

“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.”

“A single blow must destroy the enemy… without regard of losses… a gigantic all-destroying blow.”

“I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator”

“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”

“I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.”

“Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future.

“The doom of a nation can be averted only by a storm of flowing passion, but only those who are passionate themselves can arouse passion in others.”

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”

“The art of leadership. . . consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a single adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention. . . .”

“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”

“The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category.”

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.”

“The greater the lie, the greater the chance that it will be believed.”

“There must be no majority decisions, but only responsible persons, and the word ‘council’ must be restored to its original meaning. Surely every man will have advisers by his side, but the decision will be made by one man.”

“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”

“I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature.”

Use the Comment feature to make your guess and say why you chose that source. The answer will be posted in the next two days.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, August 1, 2016

 

Reviving the heart of our democracy

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William Barber said last night what I’ve waited to hear. He said it at the Democratic National Convention. Amen!

The turtle on the fence post: the rise of Donald Trump

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“If you see a turtle up on a fence post, you can be pretty sure it didn’t get up there by itself.” Someone(s) put it there. This VOX video explains the rise of Donald Trump related to the rise of authoritarianism in an unsettling time. “If you see a turtle….”

 

 

Verse – NRC

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I fear for her life
haters speak their hate
Handgun rifle knife
Semi-automatic fate

Nothing could be worse
Her Chief Commander
USA will fail
To the blacks she’ll pander

Supreme Court she’ll stack
Liberal lawyers pack
Constitution lack
All have empty gun rack

Use them while we can
Vitriol drives our plan
Sneers give us our cue
We know what to do

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 21, 2016

When Trump becomes an adjective

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Trump is getting Trumpier is the headline of David Brooks’s NYT editorial. Its reference to psychological discussion of the sources of Narcissism and examples of the candidate’s speeches increasingly spiraling out of control are worth the read . . . and cause for prayer.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, July 19, 2016

Trump: a conversation in France

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Donald trump hand

The proprietor of a small shop in a small medieval town in France engages the American visitor in friendly conversation. He asks what’s happening in the U.S. He wants to know whether Donald Trump really could be elected president.

He explains that he has a brother who’s a narcissist. “Every time I see that finger pointing on TV, I see my brother,” he says with a cringe. I share his cringe.

I later ask a psychotherapist about the hand – the strangely pointed finger with the circle made by the thumb and ring finger. Notice, he said, that the circle is closed. There’s no room for disagreement. The finger sends the same message.

Lesley Stahl’s “60 Minutes” interview in Mr. Trump’s apartment in Trump Tower last night was worth its weight in gold. One couldn’t help noticing that the chairs on which Lesley, Mr. Trump, and Mr. Pence sat were gold-plated.

Gordon C. Stewart, non-partisan observer, author of Presidential Disorders – A Voter’s Guide 😇, Chaska, MN, July 18.

 

Presidential Disorders – a Voter’s Guide

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The American Psychiatric Association and the Mayo Clinic provide useful descriptions of personality disorders that may help as we watch and listen to candidates for president @ the Republican and Democrat conventions in the next few weeks.

NARICISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) offers a number of symptom of narcissistic personality disorder:

  1. Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
  2. Expecting to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
  3. Exaggerating your achievements and talents
  4. Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
  5. Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people
  6. Requiring constant admiration
  7. Having a sense of entitlement
  8. Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
    Taking advantage of others to get what you want
  9. Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
  10. Being envious of others and believing others envy you
  11. Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner

“Although some features of narcissistic personality disorder may seem like having confidence, it’s not the same. Narcissistic personality disorder crosses the border of healthy confidence into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a pedestal and value yourself more than you value others.”

A 2013 article published by HealthResearchFunding.org (HRF) provides a video on Narcissistic Personality Disorder and lists three famous examples:

  • Adolph Hitler
  • Joseph Stalin, and
  • Joseph Mengele

ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER

The Mayo Clinic provides the following signs and symptoms that may indicate Antisocial Personality Disorder:

  1. Disregard for right and wrong
  2. Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others
  3. Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others
  4. Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or personal pleasure
  5. Arrogance, a sense of superiority and being extremely opinionated
  6. Recurring problems with the law, including criminal behavior
  7. Repeatedly violating the rights of others through intimidation and dishonesty
  8. Impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead
  9. Hostility, significant irritability, agitation, aggression or violence
  10. Lack of empathy for others and lack of remorse about harming others
  11. Unnecessary risk-taking or dangerous behavior with no regard for the safety of self or others
  12. Poor or abusive relationships
  13. Failure to consider the negative consequences of behavior or learn from them
  14. Being consistently irresponsible and repeatedly failing to fulfill work or financial obligations.

A 2013 article posted by HRF lists the following notorious examples of Antisocial Personality Disorder:

  • Garry David
  • Kenneth Lee Lay
  • Jeffrey Dahmer, and
  • Charles Manson

I’ll be watching and listening carefully and spending the mornings in prayer that wisdom prevail.

Thanks for dropping Views from the Edge.

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, July 17, 2016

May God thy gold refine

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Views from the Edge reader Carolyn responded to yesterday’s re-blog of Hold to the Good’s Fourth of July article on the difference between patriotism and nationalism by John Buchanan. Carolyn wrote the following:

True patriot, Senator Carl Schurz of Missouri, in a debate said:

‘The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming ‘My country, right or wrong.’ In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right. Feb. 29, 1872.

Schurz expanded on this theme in a speech delivered at the Anti-Imperialistic Conference, Chicago, Illinois, October 17, 1899: “I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: ‘Our country—when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.’”—Schurz, “The Policy of Imperialism,” Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. 6, pp. 119–20 (1913).

+++++

I also like to bear in mind some phrases from verses 2 and 3 of the wonderful patriotic song “America the Beautiful”.

“America! America! / God mend thine every flaw / Confirm thy soul in self-control, / Thy liberty in law!”

“America! America! / May God thy gold refine / Till [‘Til] all success be nobleness / And every gain divine!

Amen

Make Britain Great Again?

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The Brexit referendum results are in and the earthquake in Britain is sending out global shockwaves.

From this observer’s perspective, Brexit happened in no small part because of the sentiment that could elect an unfit American candidate to the office of President here at home: Nationalism. Tribalism. National idolatry: “We are British!” We are Americans!”

The immediate result for Britain is the loss of more than a few Pounds. Watch the tremors in  world markets, hold on to your wallet, and remember that sometimes the people get what they ask for. A lesson in advance for the November election here in the States.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN 55318