By Michael Breen
For the last year, Donald J. Trump has been the most-talked-about person in the world.
From the dinner tables of Reykjavik to the student canteens in Auckland, we're all doing it. Every day, there is new fodder, provided by Trump's own tweets, by videos of him giving funny looks and by the main newspapers in America, which have lost their pretense of serving as neutral watchdogs and now function as the machinery of opposition.
I imagine ― because I don't know, really ― the conversations have run the gamut from "What has gotten into these American voters?" to "He's going to start World War Three and burn up the planet." And then someone will, in the interest of balance, say, "Well, maybe he will surprise us all."
What, exactly, is the cause of this and why does it obsess the planet to the extent it does?
Well, first, presidents obsess electorates because they have great power, like short-term monarchs, and America is the most powerful nation in the world, economically, militarily and culturally. So, the planet is always obsessed with American presidents. That fact is also backed up by the way international news works. Media in most countries subscribe to English-language news agencies and the feature services of American and British newspapers.
But with Trump, the world has reached new heights of obsession. It is as if humanity is collectively appalled. Why is this?
I see Trump in the context of three intersecting trends. One is the changing nature of American political discourse. Once polite, it now resembles a dogfight. The default conservative view of liberals is that they are possessed by Satan, compelled to implement his strategy to foil Jesus by taking away guns and putting everything under government control. Liberals, meanwhile, see a conservative as one who believes the Earth is 6,000 years old, caresses guns and looks upon homosexuals and people of other races and religions with the attitude of the concentration camp guard.
Such thinking is, to use an old Maoist term, "splittist." Conservatism and liberalism are the right and left legs of democracy and their advocates should respect one another. But instead they are persuaded by their respective cheerleaders to wage holy war.
The second trend is popular vulgarity. Initially liberating, because it did away with fake stuffiness and made normal speech and everyday foibles acceptable, the Western world has been on a downward slide in this regard for decades. We are now at a point where dysfunction and degeneracy serve to keep a celebrity in the news and top-of-mind.
Short of pedophilia, bestiality and stuff of that ilk, there's not much an artist can do wrong. Except that even a celebrity who comes out with the N-word is done for. That is because of the third trend ― political correctness. In contrast to the other trends, this one actually has a civilizing effect. If you take a look on YouTube at British comedy acts from the 1970s like Benny Hill, Frankie Howerd or Morecambe and Wise, it is shocking how crude they seem now. It was all tits, bums, holes, poofters and toilets in those days. You can only do toilets now. That's progress.
The trouble with political correctness, though, is that it limits respectful discourse to certain issues ― racism and sexism in particular. You can still insult religious believers (preferably Christians because they turn the other cheek), politicians and business leaders with impunity. And, for some reason, it is fine to lump all adult males from Tierra del Fuego to Vladivostok into the "white men" category and blame them for what's wrong with the world. This is another form of splittism masquerading as moral superiority.
So, consider Donald Trump in the context of these three trends. When other former celebrities like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger became politicians, they adopted the appropriate political manners. Trump hasn't. He is still talking like he did on his TV show "The Apprentice." Actually, he is not a degenerate. His worst offense, it would appear, is to wade into journalists and people like that, rather than suffer abuse. So, why, given the trend of vulgarity, is he not embraced for doing so?
That is because of the other two trends. Trump is being viewed through the lens of political correctness. As a celeb, he is allowed leeway. But as a politician, he is not. At the same time, given the low level of political discourse, the vicars of political correctness are allowed to behave with total vulgarity in expressing their opposition to him. Adults can get their tits out and shock the kids and wear vagina hats because that gets you on Facebook.
I'd like to say it can only get better from here. But let's wait and see what tomorrow's Twitter looks like.
Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans" and "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader."
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From the dinner tables of Reykjavik to the student canteens in Auckland, we're all doing it. Every day, there is new fodder, provided by Trump's own tweets, by videos of him giving funny looks and by the main newspapers in America, which have lost their pretense of serving as neutral watchdogs and now function as the machinery of opposition.
I imagine ― because I don't know, really ― the conversations have run the gamut from "What has gotten into these American voters?" to "He's going to start World War Three and burn up the planet." And then someone will, in the interest of balance, say, "Well, maybe he will surprise us all."
What, exactly, is the cause of this and why does it obsess the planet to the extent it does?
Well, first, presidents obsess electorates because they have great power, like short-term monarchs, and America is the most powerful nation in the world, economically, militarily and culturally. So, the planet is always obsessed with American presidents. That fact is also backed up by the way international news works. Media in most countries subscribe to English-language news agencies and the feature services of American and British newspapers.
But with Trump, the world has reached new heights of obsession. It is as if humanity is collectively appalled. Why is this?
I see Trump in the context of three intersecting trends. One is the changing nature of American political discourse. Once polite, it now resembles a dogfight. The default conservative view of liberals is that they are possessed by Satan, compelled to implement his strategy to foil Jesus by taking away guns and putting everything under government control. Liberals, meanwhile, see a conservative as one who believes the Earth is 6,000 years old, caresses guns and looks upon homosexuals and people of other races and religions with the attitude of the concentration camp guard.
Such thinking is, to use an old Maoist term, "splittist." Conservatism and liberalism are the right and left legs of democracy and their advocates should respect one another. But instead they are persuaded by their respective cheerleaders to wage holy war.
The second trend is popular vulgarity. Initially liberating, because it did away with fake stuffiness and made normal speech and everyday foibles acceptable, the Western world has been on a downward slide in this regard for decades. We are now at a point where dysfunction and degeneracy serve to keep a celebrity in the news and top-of-mind.
Short of pedophilia, bestiality and stuff of that ilk, there's not much an artist can do wrong. Except that even a celebrity who comes out with the N-word is done for. That is because of the third trend ― political correctness. In contrast to the other trends, this one actually has a civilizing effect. If you take a look on YouTube at British comedy acts from the 1970s like Benny Hill, Frankie Howerd or Morecambe and Wise, it is shocking how crude they seem now. It was all tits, bums, holes, poofters and toilets in those days. You can only do toilets now. That's progress.
The trouble with political correctness, though, is that it limits respectful discourse to certain issues ― racism and sexism in particular. You can still insult religious believers (preferably Christians because they turn the other cheek), politicians and business leaders with impunity. And, for some reason, it is fine to lump all adult males from Tierra del Fuego to Vladivostok into the "white men" category and blame them for what's wrong with the world. This is another form of splittism masquerading as moral superiority.
So, consider Donald Trump in the context of these three trends. When other former celebrities like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger became politicians, they adopted the appropriate political manners. Trump hasn't. He is still talking like he did on his TV show "The Apprentice." Actually, he is not a degenerate. His worst offense, it would appear, is to wade into journalists and people like that, rather than suffer abuse. So, why, given the trend of vulgarity, is he not embraced for doing so?
That is because of the other two trends. Trump is being viewed through the lens of political correctness. As a celeb, he is allowed leeway. But as a politician, he is not. At the same time, given the low level of political discourse, the vicars of political correctness are allowed to behave with total vulgarity in expressing their opposition to him. Adults can get their tits out and shock the kids and wear vagina hats because that gets you on Facebook.
I'd like to say it can only get better from here. But let's wait and see what tomorrow's Twitter looks like.
Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans" and "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader."
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