My Soul for 15 minutes of fame

Trump.

There is a good possibility this man will go to jail someday.  Conclusions will be written.  Judgments made.  Hearings, Commissions.  Who knows?  Perhaps even a witch hunt for his "enablers" will begin.  But we do know this:

Trump did not force anyone to join him.  He may have cajoled.  Told little white lies so many poorly educated Americans wanted to hear.  And can you blame them for listening?

What has "world trade" done for them?  Economists surely knew a long time ago that the "benefits" of such trade wouldn't mean a new Union Job.  Or not necessarily a raise. 

I make the same fucking pay I did ten years ago, business excluded.  But what if my pay had been "stuck" at say $18,000 or $30,000, rather than 100K+ like myself?  Wouldn't you be willing to give a big middle finger to American Society, too?

Trump has an innate talent, that really struck me as true while listening to a news clip of such recently;  Trump has the shameless ability to turn people willingly to their darker angels. People willingly sell their soul for Trump and his cause.   Perfectly intelligent people, Rhodes Scholars, West Point Valedictorians, all knowingly toss everything they've learned about Good and Evil to the wind.  To be a part of his orbit. To gain prominence and influence. To profit.

We knowingly  Self Censor our Rights and Ideals, pushing them below the surface. Right and Wrong "fade to black".  

Someday when Trump is gone, his family forever shamed and alienated to the extremes of American Society, his once fervent supporters will simply deny they ever knew the person.  Then brusquely close the door on any healing Introspection whatsoever. 

Which finally brings me to China.  And how is China different from Trump?  China's ability to work its seductive magic to "turn"others towards its cause is of course beyond comparison.  Millions of its minions (truly cogs within the Machine.  Welcome to the Machine!) work day and night, globally, ensuring China's message, its "branding", is out there.  

If Trump were a country he would be China.  And if China were a person it would be Trump.

Like Trump, China makes decisions without much thought to internal repercussion because it doesn't have to.   Like Trump, China doesn't give a damn.  And like Trump, it feels no qualms about not giving evidence to support its story. 

Our "better angels" simply do not hang out in China.   But like Trump how many people has China co-opted for the cause?  How many people within the West have "enabled" China?  There are a few folks on linkedin of course that are infamous in my view for being "Sunny Day Prognosticators" .   When one of them read my blog he responded by calling me a "Fake China Expert".  Told me no one reads my blog, and then deleted my account. Cool.

We in the West are shocked at how many people, even now, continue to linger in "Trump World".   We shake our heads in bewilderment, disgust, and true amazement.  

"Can't the People see"? We ask ourselves.

Doesn't the same apply to China?

We only ask because the stakes are so high.  It's different from enabling "Jack the Barber" or "little old Slovenia".   Why are we so willing to sell our soul to people or powers that violate our belief system on a daily basis?

So we are told anyway.

You see, the American Media has a rather exalted opinion of American Society.  That is, it believes that Americans will behave and act in sync with the Media itself.  That is, it believes Americans have just as much time, energy and patience as they do (people paid to watch TV of course), to understand what is truly  wrong and right according to their moral standard.

That we are all college educated with a decent job and time to read the NYT.    Instead, they are staggered beyond comprehension to see Trump actually received around 60 million votes only a few years ago.  They cannot fully explain it.   Many still have their face in their hands.  

Let that sink in.  Sixty million people voted for this man.  Were they really that desperate for a change, and thought the more he sinned the more like them he was?  Or did they simply hate Hillary?

My point is we can all justify sleeping with the enemy, as long as its only for one night and no one ever finds out. 

Trump has the ability to take ones soul and use it for the benefit of his agenda.

China is no different.  Both are masters at controlling the agenda.  Obfuscation.  Denial.  What makes Trump's efforts all the more impressive is he must deal with the Freedom of the Press.  And be heartily humiliated on a daily basis.  Every reporter in town is in a race to gain everlasting fame at Trump's expense.  

And Trump doesn't care.  Just imagine how easy this must be for China?

China offers access.  The Western transfer of industrial might from your country and mine, has funded the Rise of the Chinese Military Machine.   What did many of us get in return?  A cheaper sourced product, an easy pickup at a bar and a smile at the overpriced hotel buffet?

We are collectively guilty if individually innocent of what has transpired over the course of a generation.   Nearly none of the people I deal with in China don't even know what a recession looks like.  They don't understand a city without subways, a nation without prestige.  These are good things, and it is these things I focus on.  

Did I sell my soul to China?  Quite possibly.  Did people benefit. Yeah. 

Trump and China show us who we really are.  Our ugly reflections, fake and plastic, there for all to indignantly gaze over.   Won over perhaps not by our newly found ability to persuade those in power,  as much by the self-belief we are important and useful to Some Cause, that others quite frankly are not capable of comprehending.   

I find this oh so convincing.  We are hypocrites.  Morally repugnant to others simply because they themselves lack the  access to Power that we may have.  It will truly be interesting when Trump is gone how his enablers twist in the wind,  forever defending their actions, long after Trump is dead(or in prison, with  no access to Twitter),  his sexy daughter and semi incompetent son in law long having forgotten about their followers' contribution to The Myth.   Forced to continue forever defending themselves in books no one will read (like this blog?).

Will it be that way for those that sold their soul for China too?  For 15 minutes of fame?