Alluding to the return of Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that “the world” had “entered a period of turbulence”. Fasten your seat belts!
Our next-door neighbors will wander from confusion to disorder, led by a madman they have ma-jo-ri-cut-re-ment elected, even after having already suffered his dementia for 4 years.
More than 74 million Americans voted for him, despite his lies, his excesses, his inconsistencies, his cruelties, his antics and his antics, intentional or not. They will pay the price. Unfortunately, so do we.
How could a democratic process lead to the election of such a despicable and evil individual?
As I have already written, we must look for answers in studies of collective madness.
In his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), the Scottish journalist Charles Mackay documented cases where companies, bewitched by a charlatan, had set aside their good judgment. This is what has just happened in the United States. Trump is the product of collective madness.
Americans, particularly the less educated, have been captivated by Trump’s claims to bring them wealth and happiness and to restore the country to its former greatness. Make America Great Again. The good old days!
Trump, the beloved leader
In his Theory of mass madnessthe Austrian Jewish philosopher Hermann Broch describes the German collective madness whose horrors he suffered with Nazism.
Studying the causes and psychological dispositions which led the Germans to massively support the Hitler regime, he notes that the figure of the leader plays a determining role in this societal madness. It mobilizes the masses to face threats, real or imaginary, to ensure their prosperity and their future.
According to Broch, the demonic demagogue leader makes the masses lose their rationality by exciting their most primitive impulses. Driven by fear, hatred and jealousy, individuals gather around the leader who promises them better times. This is exactly what Donald Trump did to take – and regain – power.
The decline of the American empire
British historian Edward Gibbon, author ofHistory of the decline and fall of the Roman Empirenotes that if the mad emperors were saved from oblivion, they are indebted to the excess of their vices and to the grandeur of the theater on which they appeared. This applies perfectly to the United States in the era of Trump, in the grip of collective madness.
In his main work, Crowd psychologyGustave Le Bon, more than 100 years ago, had already described, with supporting examples, how crowds could be manipulated to bring about political and social changes. The principles he expounded there would form the basis of social psychology. The Quebec novelist Louise Penny also devoted one of her thrillers to the question, The madness of the crowds.
