The Strange Love of Donald Trump

"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers "is a picture about a privileged ĺittle girl and her two friends. One is the son of her tutor, and the other is a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. The little girl pushes her rich grandmother, whom she despises, down the stairs. The boy from the wrong side of the tracks is blamed for the death. 

The point of "Ivers "is that the boy from the wrong side of the tracks goes to reform school, but ends up living an ordinary lower class life. The granddaughter and the tutor's son end up rich, powerful, married and evil. 

The fact that the couple are evil results from the repeated moral compromises they committed to protect their position in life. 

The ideas in "Ivers "are quite Aristotelian. What originally reminded Estase of "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers?"Those who have followed this blog have seen how Trumpism separated Estase from most of the right. January 6,2021 was where I felt like my former fellows had transformed into the sort of snarling, evil sociopaths played by Barbara Stanwyck and Kirk Douglas in the film. 

Thrasymachus in Plato's Republic represents the ideas of power-worship and cynicism that mark MAGA/NTC.

Socrates:And would you call justice vice?

Thrasymachus:No,I would rather say sublime simplicity. 

Socrates:Then would you call injustice malignity?

Thrasymachus:No,I would rather say discretion. 

Socrates:And do the unjust appear to you to be wise and good?

Thrasymachus:Yes, he said;at any rate Those of them who are able to be perfectly unjust, and who have the power of subduing States and nations;but perhaps you imagine me to be talking of cut purses. Even this profession, if undetected, has advantages, though they are not to be compared with those of which I was just now speaking

Socrates:You are very kind, I said;and would you have the goodness also to inform me, whether you think that in a state, or an army, or a band of robbers and thieves, or any other gang of evildoers could act at all if they injured one another?

Thrasymachus:No,indeed, he said, they could not. 

Socrates:But if they abstained from injuring one another, then they might act together better?

Thrasymachus:Yes. 

Socrates:And this is because injustice creates divisions and hatreds and fighting, and justice imparts harmony and friendship;is that not true, Thrasymachus?

       Refusing to accept personal morals in a leader seems to have led members of MAGA/NTC to lose their own ethical guide posts. 

"Therefore the bad man does not seem to be amicably disposed even to himself, because there is nothing in him to love;so that if to be thus is the height of wretchedness, we should strain every nerve to avoid wickedness and should endeavor to be good;for so and only so can one be either friendly to oneself or a friend to another. "

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (1166:25-29)

       MAGA/NTC created men who rebelled against the legal norms they had pretended to champion. 

       Aristotle said that ethical behavior is habitual.  Part of this is wrapped up in his natural law theory, in which virtue is necessary for the formation of practical reason (phronesis).People accustomed to wickedness will have difficulty making moral decisions. 

"Now if the mark be noble, the cleverness is laudable, but if the mark be bad, the cleverness is mere smartness;hence we call even men of practical wisdom clever or smart. Practical wisdom is not the faculty, but it does not exist without this faculty [ed.-virtue].And this eye of the soul acquires its formed state not without the aid of virtue, as has been said and is plain;for the syllogisms which deal with acts to be done are things which involve a starting-point, viz. 'since the end, i.e. what is best, is of such and such a nature';whatever it may be (let it for the sake of argument be what we please);and this is not evident except to the good man;for wickedness perverts us and causes us to be deceived about the starting points of action. Therefore it is evident that it is impossible to be practically wise without being good. "

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (1144:25-35)

         Those who reject MAGA/NTC will end up doing what Van Heflin's character does at the end of the film--watching as the exponents of evil show their inability for friendship and destroy one another. 

Don't Just Do Something, Sit There!

"In one of the villages he entered during his journey, a woman named Martha entertained him in her house. She had a sister called Mary;  and Mary took her place at the Lord's feet,and listened to his words.  Martha was distracted by waiting on many needs, so she came to his side, and asked, Lord art thou content that my sister should leave me to do the serving alone?  Come, bid her to help me.   Jesus answered her,  Martha, Martha how many cares and troubles thou hast!  But only one thing is necessary;  and Mary has chosen for herself the best part of all,  that which shall never be taken away from her. "  Luke (10:38-42)

      Estase has written before about the ancient Greek categories of Excellence (meaning moral behavior),and Effectiveness (meaning personal accomplishment).  Rarely do Excellence and Effectiveness exist together in the same person.  The story of Mary and Martha would seem to echo the Excellence/Effectiveness dichotomy. 

       Society's obsession with doing has educational consequences.   Liberal arts educations are disdained because they aren't profitable.   The fact that they aren't profitable makes it seem that they aren't practical.   Of course,  knowing about government,  philosophy and history serve to make it possible for one to see through bad arguments and political illusions.  So, although they are not necessarily profitable, they are types of knowledge that are practical in a selfless way. 

     Unfortunately,  the public school system makes no attempt to prepare students to study Greek and Latin, showing its dismissal of Classical learning.   Today's colleges of liberal arts and sciences can be extremely political,  showing that even a selfless education can be turned to selfish ends.   Learning for learning's sake is something whose value the university doubts. 

    But just as how secular people see profit as all-important, some religious people think Christians are preferably people who accomplish greatly.  Obviously we need people to perform practical tasks (like feeding the hungry), but the contemplative life and the pursuit of virtue are all too easy to discount.   The Marthas of the world wish to be social workers,  or,  even worse,  political activists.  A nun that spends her time contemplating the Almighty is more important than a Nun on the Bus because the world already has plenty of political agitators. 

     At the end of this meditation on Excellence and Effectiveness, Estase can offer only the twelve-step suggestion,  "Don't just do something, sit there!"