When Decline Masquerades as Trumpism

“Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate.” - Edward Said

“The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.” - Baruch Spinoza

Trumpism... when a real estate salesman turned president, pitching a dying dream, Trump bragged before the UN about a "American Resurgence." His reference to a "golden age of America" was replete with the longing of empires that recognize their decline but never acknowledge it. As if economic statistics alone could conceal the decay eroding the social fabric, he cited the numbers: America's stock markets, defeated inflation with high tariffs against most nations, and stock market investment in just eight months. Reciting power like a magic spell, the man himself, The Donald, bragged of the “strongest military and borders in the history of Earth,” as if repetition could turn decay into enduring strength.

But beneath the spectacle was something more ancient, more primal: the empire hiding weakness in the costume of Trumpism. Such illusions,  a lie is confidently told, it changes the reality for those who are desperate to believe it. When Trump refers to the world as being in the "golden age," he is describing it as his audience wishes it were. The drug of illusion is preferred over the clarity of truth by a rational human mind, which is weakened by economic instability and civic decay. People want to think that walls can stop a world from going into chaos, that military might creates safety, and that the rise of the stock market is their rise and power over all other nations.