Member-only story
This Is Not About Trump
A common place man[boy] in an uncommon position.
Trump himself, the human individual, is insignificant. The name Donald John Trump points to a man hardly worth giving a passing thought to — time, after all, is finite and cannot be recovered.
The only thing that has made Trump unique is the fact that he inherited a tremendous surplus of resources that have allowed him to indulge his limitations, susceptibilities, inclinations, and tendencies without restraint. He’s lived a critically-narrow life of richly subsidized validation. This circumstantial fact aside, he is wholly unexceptional.
What is significant, what is worth giving our attentions to, is the fact that the most advanced (a subjective, but popularly accepted qualification) civilization in the history of humankind has constructed a system in which it is possible for ignominious individuals, as exemplified by Donald J. Trump, to rise to power and prominence.
Do not look at Trump, do not allow him or his demagoguery to capture one second more of your focus. To condemn him, to…
