“Among Minbari, one individual leads, but we move as one.
We are at our best when we move together, and we are at our worst when we move together.
When our leader was killed by your people, we went mad together.
We stayed mad for a very long time, a madness that almost consumed your world, until finally, before it was too late, we woke up together.
But you, you are alone, you have no one to awaken you from your madness. For this, and nothing else, I feel pity for you.”
Delenn to Sniper in Babylon 5:”Ceremonies of Light and Dark”
One of my mates on Facebook started off an interesting and lively discussion on hatred toward President Trump and I wanted to expand on that post so that people could see the context of where I was coming from. Here’s the original response as it was written…
Hate would imply that I actually care about him as a person.
If anything, what I feel toward him is far worse than hate…it’s pity for the abject shadow of a pathetic creature that he’s become who is easily manipulated by far more intelligent and diabolical people to use him for their evil purposes.
For all of the derision he’s leveled through the years at President Biden and others about their intelligence, he’s shown a consistent and shocking lack of intellectual calibre and even the basic curiosity and capacity for learning that a first-year acolyte would show as evidenced by his consistent parroting of Fox News and/or Russian talking points without even the slightest indication of the awareness of the palpable irony.
His lack of mental acuity and inability to do the job as President of the United States was noticeable in the first term but it’s gotten shockingly worse in his second. He has never been the most coherent thinker or speaker but the torrent of word salads and blinding flashes of the obvious devoid of any rigourous critical scrutiny shows that dementia due to age has already taken firm root and can only get worse as he gets older.
He’s a pathetic old man who has been desperate all of his life for the validation of being in the exclusive club of rich people from New York that would never truly accept a nouveau riche schmuck from Queens amongst their ranks. He had thought that becoming President might well grant him entre but he never reckoned on the generational old money who would gladly fleece him as much as they could get away with for their pet causes but would never consider him worthy of inclusion in their club much less that he’d be their social equal.
I don’t hate Donald Trump and never have.
I’ve always been of the opinion that most of his success seems to be more a matter of the people that he surrounded himself with who are far more clever and capable (or alternatively with his political supporters, more gullible and/or willing to use him to accomplish their nefarious plans) than he’d ever be. Given his penchant for bankrupting businesses that should be printing money such as his casinos in Atlantic City, I think the argument can be fairly made that his long-time lieutenants George and Carolyn were far more responsible for the success of the Trump Organisation than he ever was. Where he seemed to excel in the business world was stiffing vendors, finding ways to exploit loopholes in business laws and regulations in mostly legal and/or non-prosecutable ways (especially the bankruptcy statutes), and availing himself of lawsuits of dubious legality at the drop of a hat.
I can’t find it in me to hate the one who is barely of the intellectual calibre of Winnie-the-Pooh (every now and then) who thinks much more highly of himself and his accomplishments than reality allows.
OTOH, I have no problem having an endless reservoir of hatred toward those who have and continue to use him to effectuate an agenda of abject racism, xenophobia, and economic terrorism against the interests of the American people.
Sinister and diabolically evil people like Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, the Brawndo Brigade of sycophants and stooges he’s stuffed his Cabinet with, and world leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un come immediately to mind… 🙁
“Ceremonies of Light and Dark” is set in the immediate aftermath of Babylon 5 declaring independence from the Earth Alliance with the help of the Minbari fleet with Delenn leading the way in command of the White Star arriving in the nick of time to send the Earthforce cruisers packing with probably one of the most memorable lines in a series that’s chock full of them:
“This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw, .. or be destroyed.”
“Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.”
“Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.”
Delenn and Captain Drake in Babylon 5:”Severed Dreams”
The episode is split between Delenn and Lennier preparing for a Minbari rebirth ceremony which involves “reflection, meditation upon what has gone before, what is now, and what is to come” along with telling someone a secret you have never shared before and giving away something of great value and the reaction of various characters to the ceremony and a B plot involving a plot to deprive Captain Sheridan of his Minbari support which is done by kidnapping Ambassador Delenn and the captain of the Minbari war cruiser that with her.
The bad guys figure that holding them for ransom would be enough for the Minbari to leave and Earthforce to come back and put down Sheridan’s rebellion.
The cold and psychotic sniper describes killing a Minbari prisoner over the course of several days in such a way that you can’t help but think that he enjoyed every last minute of it and felt that gave him some sort of power he could use to terrorise others.
Delenn shows exactly how much respect one should show such a bully and psychopath but she wisely doesn’t use hatred as the vehicle.
She chooses a weapon that is far, far worse.
Pity.
Hatred is easily dismissed and ignored by those who are hated.
Pity, on the other hand, is a sword that cuts to the deepest parts of the soul in the place where even the most mad and delusional person cannot ignore the truth that is before them. There really is no effective defence against it other than possibly sinking further into delusion and madness and thus sealing their fate because there’s no one left to wake up with them.
I look at President Trump in the Oval Office sitting in an opulent if not garishly decorated space full of gold with more money than almost anyone could ever imagine having in ten lifetimes and I’m not entirely sure if I’m looking at King Midas or King Lear or some sad amalgam of both but certain that for all of his wealth, his is a life that is empty and devoid of anything approaching the richness of experiences and relationships that those of us who are much poorer cherish so dearly.
Those who live in the service of their fellow citizens who may not have the fame or notoriety or the bank accounts of their much wealthier “leaders” (or as George Carlin aptly put it…”owners”) but being able to effect positive outcomes for the people they serve even if it is something small and seemingly insignificant but is enough to bring a smile to the other person is often worth far more than all of the money in the Two Worlds.
He occupies an office of immense power and influence and whether his policies are his own thoughts or more likely the sinister machinations of those who are content to rule his actions from the shadows, it’s hard to look at the totality of what has gone on in this second term and come to the conclusion that the only people who have been well-served are the ultra wealthy just like him and those who fear with every fibre of their being that others should be allowed the liberty and happiness to live their lives as they see fit (providing they’re harming no one else in the process).
It is such a tremendous waste of an opportunity to truly make America great for *ALL* Americans, not just the chosen few who fear their own shadows as much as other people and the ultra-wealthy who care naught for anything other than enriching themselves even further.
What I truly pity is the empty existence he’s had through the years and has only gotten worse to a self-imposed purgatory that seems far worse than even the lowest depths of Dante’s infernal regions. He has sold all that is right about this country and his name for the sake of grabbing a few more chains of stinking cash and the illusion of power that all such people think is their entitlement but disappears even quicker than it comes to them.
He’s allowed himself to be manipulated by those whose designs are capable of as much evil if not more so and seems unable to break free of the chains of bondage to their whims which are clearly anti-democratic and abandoned any pretense of the values Americans have traditionally held dear.
So no, I don’t hate Donald Trump.
What I feel toward him and his ilk is far, far worse and it is something for which they have no defence.
If there was one thing I’d change about the original response that was written on-the-fly, it would be the bit about “having an endless reservoir of hatred toward those who have and continue to use him” at the end.
Hating them would be to acknowledge and give them power over me and I’m of the mind that I refuse to do so. I refuse to allow them to coerce me into throwing away what I feel are the most noble aspects of my country’s historical ideals for even when our country has put it’s foot wrong and done things that we have later regretted, I still believe that the United States has been far more a force for good than otherwise through the years.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
United States Constitution — Preamble
That is why the world has looked to us to show the way to the more perfect union the Constitution has expected us to bring into being and why that work will never truly be done.
And it’s up to us to preserve, protect and defend that sacred document against all enemies, foreign and now especially domestic with the current administration enacting more and more policies that outright defy the Constitution and oppose to our very last breath those who would use an old man clearly showing his age to do evil and acquire power in his name.
What pitiful creatures they are that they can’t find any more noble purpose than seeking power for it’s own sake and enriching themselves without consequence or accountability at our expense.
Like the President, they’re in a position where they could be of service and do the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people but they defile the oaths they supposedly took with every passing day.
They are just as much empty moral vacuums as the President.
The difference is that Trump’s intellectual deficiencies and advanced age at least argues that he may not necessarily be fully aware of what he does. That can’t be said for the much younger, much smarter, and much more evil and nefarious people “advising” him.
They are empty shadows of what a human being ought to be and are even more deserving of pity than the President, IMO.
They may well think they’re winning and carrying the day but even in the darkest night, the sun rises the next day with the light than banishes the darkness even if it’s just for the day but it gives us the hope and the strength we need to carry on the fight to build that more perfect union in spite of the many dark forces that currently oppose that goal.
“There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it – always.”
Mahatma Gandhi