Trump: Whom God wishes to destroy, He first makes Mad
A Reflection by Giorgio Agamben
Here is a reflection by Giorgio Agamben on the ongoing disaster from his site, “Quodlibet.” It is poignant and deep, and asks the right question: “What radical spiritual and moral decline, even before a political one, could have led [the West] to such an extreme consequence?” Indeed, there is more about Trump than an elderly person whose brain is rapidly degrading. He is the reflection of a whole system that’s rapidly degrading. We need to understand what’s causing this collective dementia running through the whole Western society. But that requires a deep reflection that I’ll see to propose in future posts. In the meantime, we can only hope that Donald Trump still has a chance to see the light — maybe with the help of the Goddess Gaia (Italian version below)
By Giorgio Agamben
Whom God wishes to destroy, He first makes mad
It is worth reflecting on a fact so incredible that people try at all costs to suppress it: namely, that the state which claims to be the most powerful in the world has for years been ruled by men who are, technically speaking, insane. This is not about taking a political judgment to an extreme: that Trump—like Biden before him, certainly—should be considered insane in the pathological sense of the term is a view now shared by many psychiatrists and one that anyone observing his manner of expression cannot help but agree with. It goes without saying that what interests us here is not the clinical case of the individuals named Trump and Biden; rather, the question we cannot help but ask is: what is the historical significance of the fact that a country like the United States—which is, in a sense, at the helm of the entire West—is governed by a mentally ill person? What radical spiritual and moral decline, even before a political one, could have led to such an extreme consequence? That the West’s fate was marked by nihilism is something Nietzsche had already diagnosed more than a century ago, alongside the death of God, but that nihilism would take the form of insanity was not a foregone conclusion. Is it perhaps, in some way, out of compassion and pity that God, who wishes to lose the West, leads it to its end not in awareness and responsibility, but in unconsciousness and madness?
Quem Deus vult perdere dementat
È bene riflettere a un fatto che è talmente incredibile che si cerca a ogni costo di rimuoverlo, e cioè che lo stato che si dichiara il più potente del mondo è retto da anni da uomini che sono tecnicamente dei dementi. Non si tratta di dare in questo modo una forma estrema a un giudizio politico: che Trump – come certamente Biden prima di lui – debba essere considerato demente nel senso patologico del termine è un’evidenza ormai condivisa da molti psichiatri e che chiunque osservi il suo modo di esprimersi non può non condividere. Va da sé che ciò che qui ci interessa non è il caso clinico degli individui di nome Trump e Biden; piuttosto la domanda che non possiamo non porci è: qual è il significato storico del fatto che un paese come gli Stati Uniti –che è in qualche modo alla guida di tutto l’Occidente – sia retto da un malato di mente? Quale radicale declino spirituale e morale prima ancora che politico può aver condotto a una simile estrema conseguenza? Che il destino dell’Occidente fosse segnato dal nichilismo è qualcosa che già Nietzsche aveva diagnosticato più di un secolo fa insieme alla morte di Dio: ma che il nichilismo dovesse prendere la forma della demenza non era scontato. È forse in qualche modo per compassione e pietà che il Dio, che vuole perdere l’Occidente, lo conduca alla sua fine non nella consapevolezza e nella responsabilità, ma nell’incoscienza e nella follia.





"He is the reflection of a whole system that’s rapidly degrading. We need to understand what’s causing this collective dementia running through the whole Western society."
This is a good insight but it is NOT new. In 1980, I started saying, "If YOU would have listened to US ten years ago WE wouldn't be in trouble NOW." Every five years I update it. Now I say, "If YOU would have listened to US fifty-five years ago WE wouldn't be in trouble NOW."
That looks very like the Goddess Flora, not Gaia. Perhaps Flora could help?