So? when will his followers finally admitit?
Image via SFGate
In Hans Christian Andersen?s famous tale about the emperor with ?invisible? clothing, everyone is afraid to admit the truth they see with their very own eyes. It takes the innocent honesty of a small child to point out that their ruler is indeed naked.
?The Emperor?s New Clothes? has never quite seemed so fitting as it does today, in an America where Donald Trump is the president. We are talking about a whining, pompous, and utterly self-indulgent man-child with less emotional resiliency than a three year old long overdue for a nap.
Sometimes, as the absurd Trumpian Tweets keep rolling in, I just want to shake this emperor?s followers and ask, ?who hurt you?? Because honestly, who on earth can watch Trump parade and peacock himself for this long without finally admitting the naked foolishness he?s clothed himself inallalong?
I suppose the answer is both very sad and crystal clear.
The people supporting our so-called president are the same so-called grownups from a children?s cautionary tale published in 1837. Nearly two centuries later, people still flock to a vapid and infantile ruler purely out of fear. That?s the only way I can explain it.
We?ve got people afraid of immigrants stealing their jobs–including the jobs they don?t even want to do!
Parents afraid of someone else supposedly cutting in line for whatever they believe belongs to them and their family alone. Things like good health and security. The basics.
We?ve got people with privilege afraid to lose their previously unchallenged status.
Then there are folks out there who are desperately afraid to be held accountableforanythingand everythingtheydo.
And still others who fear any little–even perceived–loss of power.
From where I stand, we are living in an age of fear. Fear is what got us to this place, what holds us here, and fear is just what might take us out.
I find myself so frustrated with the inability for peaceful and reasonable discourse these days that for the first time in my life, I need to learn how to fight fear. Not just avoid it or pretend it isn?t there.
But no one ever taught us how to do that before, not really. We claim to know our history. So we?ve already watched fear and nationalism tear the world apart before, yet we?ve never honestly talked about how we could have stopped itfromhappening.
How do we stop itnow? Asking for a friend. Asking for a lot of them,infact.
And trying very hard not to let the fear grow.
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