Why the world needs a Trump

The last decade has seen a veritable explosion of new superhero movies. One of the most recognizable and also popular heroes is Thor. Son of Odin, the god of thunder and a member of the iconic Avengers team. 

In one movie, Thor must face Hela, the goddess of death. At the very end of this particular movie, Thor’s homeworld Asgard gets destroyed by the demon Surtur.

The Edda, which forms the basis of the Viking mythological world, serves as an approximate blueprint for this particular destruction of Asgard. It is called Ragnarök and that’s how they also called it in the movie flick. Never mind that the Marvel version of Ragnarök takes very significant liberties from the original works. But it’s the grand scheme that matters to us right now. 

Because one particular aspect of Ragnarök was well understood at the end of the movie. The idea of a neverending cycle of rejuvenation. A cycle that feeds into the idea that everything gets created. Then it lives out its existence until its too corrupted for laboring on any further which is when it all gets destroyed for a fresh start.

Old Norse religion is not alone with this idea of a cycle. 

In Hinduism, the Trimurti unites the 3 cosmic functions of creation, preservation, and destruction. Each of them is represented by one of the 3 major Hindu gods. Brahma as the Creator, Vishnu as the Preserver, and finally Shiva as the Destroyer. The Trimurti symbolizes the source of all divine manifestation as a unit. The three functions complete each other and also depend on each other.

In Western culture, Shiva the destroyer is often understood as evil or even equated with we understand to be the devil. That is not only incorrect, but it’s also flat out misleading. Hindus understand Shiva as a positive force in their lives. The destroyer destroys everything, even evil and bad karma.

So, Hindus live in a universe thats independent of outside influences. Their whole existence is a neverending circle. Creation, Preservation, and Destruction are equally important forces. If one of the 3 does not perform its primary function, the world is out of balance. 

We may understand this circle as an eternal wheel of rejuvenation and development. Each time we have a chance to get better. But this circle only works when all 3 forces do their job. If one of them does not, the world grows out of whack successively. 

In our developed world, we have acquired a distaste for the destruction part. Once something is created, we think it must be preserved and built upon forever. This preservation process has become a process of accretion.

And that becomes a mental prison – in time at least. Because all accretion processes necessarily reach a moment when adding to what is does not only “not improve” our condition. It worsens it. 

When the human mind does not work on real problems, it invents useless stuff to keep us busy. And the accumulated structures from the past cast all this in irons.

Sure – starting anything from a blank slate is intimidating to most people. But its also a liberating experience.

Our developed societies have built up a lot of structures and procedures and codes. Every time we do anything we necessarily drag a huge tail of obligations, commitments, and traditions behind us. Fast and decisive action is made impossible by a thick layer of consultations and political correctness.

At a certain point in this process, this becomes so unwieldy and crushing that any change becomes impossible. 

When I lived in France, I loved to watch a television series in which ridiculous and superfluous public administration got exposed. We saw a man responsible for opening and closing the city gates in a city that had no walls and hence no gates for more than a century. A paid position nevertheless. Nobody thought of abolishing it.

There was an office for reconstruction after WW2. That was literally its name. 70 years after the end of WW2 there was a public body equipped with a couple of millions of Euro budget, a pompous office in a castle, and copious staff doing – nothing. Those people – of course – invented plenty of reasons why they are still relevant and nobody changed that.

Almost a decade ago I looked into the possibility of an LNG distribution project in the Caribbean. The islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique were promising targets as they burned expensive diesel fuel for electricity. So I talked to a friend in EDF. He told me in private that EDF is not interested as they don’t want to lose a very juicy subsidy from the French state if electricity production was to be made more efficient. 

But France is not the only country with such structures. I just happen to know France very well. This insanity exists in all countries. 

Every business is exposed to this. Every person is exposed to this.

The business world itself is exposed to Schumpeter’s creative destruction. But the political and administrative world is not. Layers and layers of process, structures, and greed accumulate like worms, mussels, and muck at the bottom of a ship. From time to time, it needs to be scraped off.

Who scrapes off the administrative muck?

People are used to what they have. Insiders and those who benefit from this muck feel safe in it. They will fight like hell to preserve and even expand it. Like parasites that kill their hosts, they don’t care if the underlying organism – which is the community – slowly dies off as a result. They want their piece of the pie and they want it now. Politics is always complicit as they are the first beneficiaries.

I have given this many names but the one I like most is the “Compliance Industrial Complex” or CIC. Read more on that in the last week’s post.

So, we need rejuvenation but the CIC is doing everything to prevent that. This concrete needs to be crushed. And if I look at how thick it has become, it takes the biggest and meanest sledgehammer to stand any chance.

No insider politician will do this. Not because they are at the receiving end of the benefits this system throws out. And not because it takes guts, stamina, and a certain invulnerability to attack.

Because the CIC will throw in everything including the kitchen sink to bring this person down. There won’t be limits.

Make no mistake. Tact, manners and finely tuned speeches will not be the outstanding qualities of the one destroying for the sake of rejuvenation. 

• This person needs to have the balls to say what needs to be said. 
• This person needs to be willing to suffer unlimited amounts of abuse. 
• This person needs to face down politicians with decades of training in deception and lies. 
• This person will need to withstand relentless and sometimes disgusting attacks by media and the hugs-and-kisses high society. 
• This person will be spit and dumped on.

It’s the hardest job I can imagine. It takes the capability to go through the equivalent of a vat with toxic waste and come out energized on the other side. 

We need Trump because he is one of the very few who can take such an ordeal without breaking. He is not a shining hero in a comic storyline that saves the world with gallantry and heroism. 

He is the one we need to complete the hardest job on the planet. He is the demon Surtur without which no new beginning can happen. 

When I was a kid I always looked at America as the Land of boundless opportunity. We need America to lead again and for that, it needs to smash some of the lithified muck that has accreted in its system. 

I know it will hurt but I also know that he is the best chance the world has. 

If you want, see Trump as a necessary evil. But I don’t see anyone else daring to destroy what needs to be rejuvenated.