Trump and social change in the USA

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III.a. The Leader and His Followers.

The similarity between Trump’s movement and ISIS ideology brings us to the

 main question that I intend to address in the next and last part of this posting:

Does psychoanalysis have something to say about those observations?

For now, I will just make some preparatory remarks on the link between the leader and people.

In usual historical events when people choose their leaders on the basis of deliberate political agreement on some objectives to be reached. The agreement is always under consideration, meaning no permeant or binding commitment, and its continuity is conditional on success or failure of the objectives. History in this case keeps following in its natural course toward change and better conditions. We usually depict History in our designs or caricatures as an old man carrying a large Volume and sometimes a lamp. History in our minds is old and a product of the past. Far from truth and fact. History is people who are in constant states of evolution and change. History is the child of the present and the future. If there is no future (change) there would be no past.

But sometimes we witness a different kind of link between leaders and people, where leaders and society seem to be like mirror images and no difference exists between them. Yet, there is a difference between people\leader who share the opinion of going forward and change, and a unity on wanting to stop progress or even going back. Despite the unavoidability of progress we sometimes find societies or groups in a society resisting change and even prefer going back (progress backward) to the past. Thus, we should make a distinction between leader\people who share the aspiration of evolving and another that call for going back. The difference as will see is very dramatic. When a leader\duo is founded to regress or arrest progress the results are very destructive, Hitler’s search for people who share his xenophobic convictions moved from Austria to Germany and found them. They created that explosive historical event of WWII. They did not accept the end of dynastic rule of Europe and move to democracy. On the other hand, when the leader\people duo is based on a desire to progress and reach the future quicker the results are equally impressive. Chinese people awakening in the late twenties (last century) to the need to topple the Qing dynasty coincided with Maw Zedng’s joining the Chinese communist party and joining the awakened China. The result was creating one of the most positive historical events in history. In both cases a question remains unanswered: is the similarity between leader and society created or maintained by the leader or does the society pressures the leader to not deviate from the desired regress? We should look at past events to help us to an answer.

Islam: Seventh Century.

Islam appeared in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula or Hejaz in the middle of the seventh century. The two main empires around that part of the world (the Sassanian in Persia and the Eastern Roman in Egypt and to an extent in Palestine were at the end of their time). A great historical change was in the making. At the same time, Hejaz which was not part of that interplay was also going through major changes. It was an area getting more rich from trade between north and south. Makkah, the political and religious center of the area was getting organized and tribal rivalries were finally subdued peacefully. Bani Hashem (the rabbinical family of el Kaabah) were well established in Makkah. Yet, people were looking for something more than a “temple” and Rabbis. They wanted a wholly book like the Christians and the Jews have. A wholly book is ‘a constitution’ and demanding one was sig that the Bedouins of the Arab peninsula ar ready to form a nation. Mohamad, the grandson of the chief rabbi of Makkah was preaching new ideas of a more advanced religious dogma and started to get followers. He also claimed that he gets his thought from the one and only God, thus he was quietly creating that revered wholly book. His grandfather and his tribe wanted him out of Makkah, while a neighboring city (Yathreb or the Madina) was looking for a leader. It was also a city in the midst of political turmoil with aspirations of its own.. Mohamad moved there to become ordained as their leader. There were two Jewish tribes in the Medina who were eventually neutralized. Mohamad found his people as his people found him. The field was ready for new farmer to seed it with a new crop. The new Arab Moslem nation was ready to move and fill the cultural vacuum in the area. However, all that does not explain how Islam became the second most popular religion on earth. Islam came with three very advanced things: a more sophisticated language and named it the language of the Koran so people had to learn it to practice religion. The second, Islam’s sectorial division (Sunna and Shee’a) happened very early and was geographically determined, so each of the two sects evolved separately and expanded without conflict or serious material confrontations (as what happened in Europe with Christianity). A third thing Islam came up with is a wholly book that comprise a great deal of detailed directives for daily dealings and conduct, However, it has many contradictions regarding religious matters so it was flexible enough to be accepted by all.

In nut shell changing people of Arabia created and used well the historical circumstances to advance by finding the right leader and leadership. They also carried the ball and kept evolving the meaning of their wholly book to meet the new circumstances. In the Koran there is an AYA that quotes God saying: From amongst you shose those who rule you.

The Chinese Revival:

It looks like there is no beginning for the history of China so we will start from the end of the last dynasty of Qing. Sun Yat-sen’s sixteenth telegram to the Empress of the Qing dynasty (not sure of the number) declaring ‘just’ the last failure to depose her made Maw Zedong to say to him enough this nonsense. He was a son of a rich farmer but had his own views of great china. He joined the Chinees Communist Party and got some Marxist indoctrination in addition to being surrounded by some well learned Marxists he started to build the “people army”. With little Marxist ideologies about workers’ rights and political and tactical genius he moved with his budding army to the countryside. Then he decided to take a trek with the army of 10,000 k to North west of china. During that trek Maw met all kind of Chinese in hamlets, villages, towns, farms, factories. He learned from them what they are and taught them few things about organizing themselves. The great March was exemplary of the duo of leader\ people: Maw and his party learned about the diverse country they were to rule, and the country learned how to get organized to be ruled differently. And Voila: Modern China. One side note: Maw’s limited knowledge of the Marxist ideology he adopted was about to cause a total collapse of his endeavor in the seventies (the cultural revolution).

Cause or Effect or Neither:

The question paused above about who causes what to the other in the duo of leader \people has an answer: People (history) changes as a natural unavoidable process. Change creates two reactions in the population of the society: one wants to carry on and hasten the change and another wants to halt and delay change by many means. Each will be looking for the proper leader. many times the wrong leader becomes available and historical events take a bad turn: When the mood is to progress and there is no progressive leaders (the middle east now) the result is social disintegration.  When the mood is regression and there is no leader for that political disintegration occur (Somalia, Haiti). When regressive forces find its leader the Trump kind of society emerges.